This is not a polished piece of writing, but rather some thoughts on my 71st birthday.


As I look back on major political events in my life, my very first memory is of saying “Nixon’s the one” as I walked down the street of the base my dad was assigned to. Clearly that was a reflection of my dad’s political opinion, the way children parrot their parents. Why that memory sticks with me, I have no idea.
A few years later, I was aware that something was wrong during the Cuban missile crisis but had no idea what. It is only as I later read about it that I came to understand why the adults were upset.
The next big one, of course, was the Kennedy assassination. I remember one 4th grade classmate breaking down in tears sobbing that the Russians were coming, but the strongest visual image is of arriving home, getting off the school bus, and seeing my mother quietly crying as she cleaned the house. That is an image that is burned into my memory. (this was also the era of nuclear attack drills where we hid under our desks).
The MLK assassination, DC riots, a small march right outside the school I attended–these all made me afraid, but not frightened. The fear didn’t permeate my days.

As a student at a Catholic elementary school, of course abortion became and issue. As I grew up, a brother drafted into Vietnam, a dear brother-in-law who served 3 tours in Vietnam. Again, these scared me but I did not live with them on an hourly basis.

In 1972 I voted for McGovern. The first in a long line of candidates that I voted for who were not elected. Nixon is impeached in 1973. 1976 was an anomaly. My candidate won. I’ve often said that Jimmy Carter was our last moral president. Getting out of Vietnam, the Middle East Catastrophes, all of these somehow felt one level removed.

In December 1979 the Soviets invade Afghanistan. My first child is born a month later and my perspective on the world changes. Not only am I concerned for myself I now have the future beyond me to look at. There’s talk of drafting women, the Hunt Brothers take the price of silver to new highs—all of these things I look at with a modified perspective. In 1991 I rejoice with the world at the fall of the Soviet Union. I have 2 small kids and the world seems a safer place.

I spent a lot of the next 20 years focusing on family and career, always staying informed, always having an opinion, but allowing the world to spin without active participation.

9/11 happens and I worry how Tim will get home from work in DC. What is going to happen? We really live at “ground zero” and the world becomes smaller and more intrusive.

Obama wins, and I hope for a change–but my travels across this country tell me otherwise. I see too many signs that there is an ingrained hatred blossoming in this country. To my horror and astonishment, Obama is succeeded by Trump, a man the true opposite of Jimmy Carter. And then COVID. I am forever grateful to the scientists who helped us survive, and horrified at the behavior of an administration that really does not understand science. 1,217,590 deaths I really begin to understand that truth itself is under attack.

Three years ago Ukraine. First Crimea–then the attack. Is this World War III, does no one remember the appeasement actions of people like Neville Chamberlain? How are we allowing this to happen in the modern world?

And so we come to today—with the avalanche of poorly aimed, ill thought out, selfish, incongruous attempts to shut our democracy down. It’s an avalanche designed to confuse and keep opponents off balance. Too many things to focus on so the end result is nothing gets opposed.

So then there’s today, my 71st birthday.

Never have I felt more afraid for the United States, her place in the world and her place within herself
Many of you know that I have significant health issues. At best I have a few more years. I need to see America become America again. A UNITED state where we care for each other, not for our stock market portfolios and the reign of the oligarchs. Where corporate responsibility is not only to shareholders but also to employees and consumers. A government that understands that its top priority is insuring that its citizens have access to good homes, good schools, good medicine. These are the priorities.
I need to see this resolve now.
The world we are having for is not the world I want to leave for future generations.