If there is a Heaven...

Many years ago, I graduated from UT Austin and almost immediately flew off to Tegucigalpa, Honduras to teach first grade in the American School there.  We, Rosie and I, were met at the airport by the Superintendent of schools and the Principal who took us on a brief tour of the town and the school and then told us that since there was a strike of some sort, there would be no school for the rest of the week.  They then took us to the Principal's home where we would stay until we found a place to live.  My parents heard about the strike that night on the evening news....they worried.  Rosie and I travelled over much of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.  It was a wonderful experience for me.

A year and a half later, I began teaching in Trier Germany for the Department of Defense schools.  Again I travelled...to England, France, Austria, USSR (this was in 1968), West Berlin, Romania, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Spain...well you get the picture.  I spent all my holidays and weekends travelling.
Finally settled in Austin and after a few years, married and moved to Huntsville TX and eventually had a son.  We call him our "save the world child."  He has taught ESL in Venezuela (the year Chavez took control), served in the Peace Corps in Jamaica, and now lives in DC.  He has a job with a non profit that requires lots of travel to other parts of the world.  And I worry sometime (well a lot) when he is in an unsettled area politically.
 Today he is flying into DC...I hope just ahead of the super storm they are about to have....the buses and all government offices closed down at noon and the metro will close at midnight.  I hope the flight manages to land safely and he can get from the Metro station to his house with his luggage, etc. safely....

I am sure my parents are sitting in heaven torn between worrying with me and wishing they could remind me that I am just "Paying for my raising."

Just what is America?

I watched a reporter interviewing people waiting for a Trump rally in Vermont....several of the Trump supporters said that something to the effect that they wanted their "rights" back.  I wanted the reporter to ask just what rights had been taken away and by whom....

Others mentioned that Trump would make America "great" again.  Just what America are we referring to...the one that intentionally spread smallpox among the Native Americans, maybe the one that condoned slavery, the one that denied women and blacks the right to vote, maybe the government that put thousands of Japanese and German citizens in "internment" camps during WWII, the one that supported dictators in Central and South America and Cuba, or more recently the one that invaded Iraq on false pretenses?

The USA has more military weapons and a military budget bigger than any other nation.  What is our focus.  Just think what we could have spent that money for.  Health Care, Education, child welfare, infrastructure, etc.....