How Did We Let This Happen?

 Global warming - a myth. That's why the year 2016 was the warmest in recorded history. We need to close off our borders. We need to build a wall. We need to start torturing people as a policy. Almost anyone can be made to confess to anything, whether they did it or not, if they are tortured enough.  

At this rate, there will be no country left for our children and grandchildren to inherit. Women, African Americans, gays, anyone who is not white skinned and does not speak English (American English at that) should be banned from the United States, or at least relegated to the bottom rung of society, and have no say in how this country is governed. They simply aren't good enough. This is the message the current administration is sending to the American people, and a lot of the population seems to agree.

Respect the office of the Presidency. That doesn't mean to not look at what the person holding that office is doing. Is he following the law? Is he keeping the promises he made? Or is he still lying  to us? is he respecting the office of the Presidency?

Take Mexico and "the wall." Mexico will pay for it, we were told. Funny how that has evolved into us, the U.S. citizens footing the bill. Now it is to be paid for by a consumer tax, which always hits the poorest people hardest. So you and I will be paying for this wall, although we have no say in whether or not it should be built. It should not. This wall is not creating opportunities for knowledge or friendship, but is increasing isolationism and the fear of the unknown., to say nothing of the cost of living.

Will there be a country left for my grandkids? Or yours? I'm beginning to doubt that. We are fouling the air and the water, making enemies of a great part of the globe, contributing to global warming, and ticking off most of the other people in the world.  This President terrifies me.

Mom and Me

Someone recently said to me that I was just like my mother, and the comment wasn't meant as a compliment. Thinking about that remark, I realize that the older I get, the less I really knew or understood my mother. I find myself becoming more closed in to myself, trying not to let anyone know what is going on inside my head, or even my heart. Some things are too painful to think about, much less talk about with someone else. Still, I do not consider myself a cold and uncaring person.

Do others see me the way I see myself? Probably not. Do they see me the way I would like to be seen? Probably not. I don't even know what that is, but I know it can change almost every day.

I am coming to have new respect for my mother, although I don't think I will ever forget some of the things she said that could have been said better. I, too, have a tendency to be too blunt in my conversation, not thinking how what I say will come across to someone else. I also have a tendency to not talk to friends often enough, thinking that if they want to talk to me, they will call. I can remember telling my mother, when she complained that I didn't call her very often, that the phone worked both ways. Now I have to remember that. The problem is that I am by nature a quiet person who usually doesn't have a lot to say that anyone else would be interested in. Was my mother that way, too?

Take this blog–why would anyone else want to read it? It amazes me when someone comments on what I have to say, or is even interested enough to read it. I know why I write it–because I have to. And I do let my FB friends know when I post a new one, even though it seems a bit presumptuous. Still, here's another one.

And I think I am more like my mother every day.