Days of drama

            How was Friday the 13^th for everyone? I have the feeling this day will be much more momentous in history than we realize now. We are watching a great drama unfold before us. Today was perhaps the fourth act, with building tension.

Trying to think back to Watergate and remember if we sensed at the time the history that was playing out in front of us. I have a great deal of faith that justice and our democracy will triumph again, as they did then. That’s something perhaps neither Putin nor Trump recognized or anticipated. I don’t think Nixon did either, until the last minute when he saw impeachment staring him in the face. One thing I think about today is that this will mark a turning point. Some Republican Congress members were beginning to turn away from Trump already, and yesterday’s interrogation of Peter Strzok disgusted more of them. Perhaps after these two dramatic days in a row, more will grow a spine. Trump’s bumbling about Europe didn’t help his cause. It will be interesting to see what happens in Helsinki.

It’s amazing to me how successful Putin’s plan has been in—what? —two years if you count the campaign and election. Our country is more divided than it ever has been. Collegiality has gone out the window, replaced by vituperative hate. Racial incidents are dramatically up, because as some claim trump has given permission for well-hidden hate to rise to the surface and become public. Our environment is taking hit after hit—pollution of air and water as industry regulations are abandoned; public lands are sold off to mining industries. Our sitting (or should I say squatting) president has alienated most of our allies, chummed up with traditional antagonists, and drawn us out of carefully crafted treaties and alliances. And we’ve separated who knows how many children from their parents, with no idea how to reunite them.  If Putin wanted to tear apart America, he’s doing damn good job—and we’re letting him do it.

It’s a good time for us to remember Michelle Obama’s words: when they go low, we go high. It’s what we must do to heal the corrosive division among us. We must temper anger with reason.

An old friend and I frequently spar on Facebook. Our opinions are diametrically opposed. But the other day, when someone told me to quit bitching about things I had no control over, my friend jumped to my defense, asking the offender to “stand down” and explaining that we are friends who respect each other’s differing opinions. I remain grateful to him, and I cite him as a model for all of us to follow, while I admit I haven’t always followed my own words. I’ve sometimes been impatient with him and others.

So, go do something nice for a neighbor, maybe that one that thinks your dog is pooping on his lawn or the one who mows his lawn at six a.m. on Saturday. Me? I’m going to sit on my patio and count my blessings.