Cicero and the Death of the American Republic

Michael, yes, the Republic is dead, and like you, I loved the old Republic.

Like you, I feel no allegiance to the Empire that has replaced it. When I lived in Canada, I thought of it as Gaul and how they must have viewed events in Rome as I thought about America.

Yes, we torture ourselves when we wish change has not happened. This is a basic premise of Zen Buddhism. Change happens and we torture ourselves when we want to restore what was. Live, here now, with “as-is.” Forget the past. Live in the present as best we can, here, now, or there.

Once, I visited Rome, and I stood at the exact spot outside Rome on the Appian Way where Caesar’s gangsters killed Cicero, the champion of the dying Republic. I have no wish to expire as did Cicero.

It is funny how I happened to visit this spot. I was in Rome and met two seminarians from Milwaukee there! They invited me to visit with them outside Rome at the villa / seminary for North Americans. The drive to the villa intersected with the old Appian Way, and the bus left me off at the intersection, “ground zero” for Cicero and Caesar’s killers.

Thank you for the reality check, old friend. There is no need to suffer, die for what was and is now no longer. Take care. Paul