Looking Back

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This past week has been both terrifying and an awakening. We've been here before and if memory serves, we survived and thrived. We will do it again. It doesn't matter whether the tyrant is a mayor, like Richard J. Daley of Chicago, or a governor, like George Wallace of Alabama. In the 1960's, we watched on our little 12" television screens in horror, as the Selma marchers were beaten and sprayed. 

In the 1970's, I remember seeing the west side of Chicago in flames as angry, disenfranchised citizens burned down their neighborhoods. The yippies marched from Lincoln Park through the elite, near north side, smashing car windows and screaming vile epithets at the police. The Vietnam war finally ended in 1975, but left millions angry and adrift.  

I'll grant you, we've never had a felon as president before, but we will survive this travesty. Trump told us who he was and what he would do. Anyone who has been surprised by his actions hasn't paid attention.

Democracy is messy and in constant flux. Two steps forward, one step back or sideways or up. Erratic movement. Being in the thick of it is infuriating because we all want a predictable forward motion. We have no idea how this story will end. But if history serves, we will eventually be in a better place. 

The fight has always been about human rights and the freedom to live and love as we choose with respect and care for others. I like to think that in a hundred years, the United States will truly be the home of the free and the brave. 

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