Good Morning!

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Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers on Monday mornings. This is an Open Thread forum, so if you have an off-topic opinion burning a hole in your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.
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Proverb: 

He who sacrifices his conscience to ambition burns a picture to obtain the ashes.

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Today is Martin Luther King Day, but this year MLK falls on January 16, which every year is National Religious Freedom Day.

It seems to me that the freedom to use one’s own judgement, to follow the cricket-chirp of conscience instead of the dictates of a state religion, is often undervalued these days.

In the early years of American colonization, people were executed because they were accused of witchcraft, or cast out of their communities for disagreeing with the prevailing religious dogma.

So be thankful for the First Amendment the next time you find Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormon missionaries at your front door, but never take it for granted in these troubled times.

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