I know, my millionth entry, but:

In a letter to Melanie, Ashley writes about Rhett causing an uproar by saying that the North has more cannons and better guns than the south, and "it's hard winning a war with words." Ashley says, we "should have listened to cynics like Butler who knew, instead of statesmen who felt and talked."
Someone, actually Garrett, got mad at me when I suggested some kind of dishonest doings in the Democratic party, but I never said absolutely it's true, maybe it's not, but it is not "a waste of time" to think these things. By bringing them up and discussing them, right or wrong, that's how you begin to understand things, that's how you solve problems.
It really is painful though, as often when I throw ideas out people sometimes do react in a knee jerk way, in this kind of intense anger. There are reasons I live alone: I need to regain my health at times.