Seeing George Bush and Barrack Obama speak out last week made me think of 9/11 and November 4, 2008.
       When 9/11 happened my heart was nearly broken because of the suffering of so many and because it shook my feeling of security to the very core.
I watched it on TV over and over again as a deep depression set in. Many people reacted the same way.
As the weeks passed and in the aftermath my heat was cracking still further as I said to myself - No war,
no do not go to war, no, no, do not retaliate. Not another war ... didn't Vietnam teach you guys anything?
And then my heart broke clear though as George Bush 43 took our boys to war yet again....

      Joe Barr joined the Marines and went to Vietnam very early in the war. There were no barracks for the men. They lived
 in pup tents. There were hardly any landing fields for the planes. The Marines were building them.
Joe saw four of his fire-team mates killed by friendly fire from a Naval gun ship firing in on them from off the coast.
Soon thereafter, he received an honorable discharge and he left Vietnam for home. He had done his duty
and managed to stay alive. He was one of the lucky ones. 
Joe loved being a Marine but he hated war.
He came back from Vietnam a lean, mean fighting machine and quickly set out to
join those on campus who were burning their draft-cards, protesting the war, sitting in and marching.
So in 2001 when George Bush 43 took our boys to war, Joe took to the streets again and stood with
 the protesters who showed up on corners all across America. They were the Vets who remembered their
losses so many decades ago. Standing in solidarity, carrying signs and quietly chanting as
the local "patriots who had never been to war" drove by gunning their noisy engines, jeering at them and giving them the finger. The pro war youngsters who drove past yelling derisive comments, didn't know that "protester" Joe, never missed a Memorial Day Parade and year after year, proudly carried the flag as he marched along side his brother Vets.

   Then came November 4, 2008.
My heart healed as I thought with pride about my country: "We just elected the first African American President.
I am proud to be an American again." I cried tears of healing and thought of what it meant for all the
students who sat in at the lunch counters - the women who did not give up their seats on buses - the men and women
shot down by fire hoses  ... and more. I felt a sisterhood with the young African American girl who served me at the eyeglass counter and she felt it toward me. "Yes, we did it together". We both knew it. My heart was whole again.

 But alas, eight years pass quickly and now we have the retaliation. It has been fierce and swift.
My heart has broken again. But there is so much more than a broken heart:  My mind is numb. My stomach is sick.
Is this my country? George Bush 43 and Barrack Obama spoke out last week. They broke the unspoken code of former Presidents to never criticize a sitting President. But their criticism was so welcome. Their words so telling and soothing.
Yes, some people in this country are still decent.
We must survive until  
Tuesday, November 3, 2020!
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 IF YOUR STATE IS ENGAGED IN VOTER SUPPRESSION - AND MANY Battleground States ARE -
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Do it now so you are ready -
 AND Tuesday,

 November 3, 2020 VOTE! VOTE! PLEASE VOTE!