2018 Life Logs, Day 11—The Breaking Point
Date: Thursday, January 11, 2018
Weather: Another Sunny Day, High 50, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Tonight as I was listening to the news of the day, I found myself in tears. I usually get mad, not sad, over political issues. But our current President has finally brought me to the breaking point. The way Trump disparages all people of color is shameful. And it is absolutely anti-American. Of course I know there are immigrants, regardless of color or country of origin, who commit crimes, who promote drugs, who drag down our country. But it is not just immigrants who are doing this, and it is certainly not just people of color. But no matter, having a President who today used the word “shithole” to describe the countries where some of our immigrants come from was not just abhorrent, it was racist. And I truly never believed I would have to use the word racist to describe a President of the United States of America and I certainly never believed a President would opening use such language. Earlier this week I found myself in a conversation with people questioning why things have not moved forward more quickly in rebuilding Puerto Rico. Some immediately blamed the corrupt nature of the Puerto Rican government. And it is certainly true that there has been a history of corruption in Puerto Rico. But it is not corruption and it is not the difficulty of getting things delivered to remote areas that has impeded progress. From the day Maria hit Puerto Rico, our government response has been uncharacteristically slow or non-existent. The people of this country immediately went into action to do what we can to support our fellow Americans, but Washington didn’t follow. Our military could have been in Puerto Rico the day after the storm setting up an island-wide communications system so it wouldn’t have taken days for those of us with family there find out if they were alive. I am absolutely certain that if the entire power grid of Florida was totally wiped out by a hurricane, it would not take months to get to it restored. And Florida is ten times larger than Puerto Rico! We are going on four months now that the majority of the people of Puerto Rico have had no power, and many still have no running water. I believe this is because our President views Puerto Ricans as people of color, not as Americans. Since I have a son, a daughter-in-law, and two beautiful grandchildren who are Puerto Ricans, I am fully aware that I am more that a little emotionally involved in the Puerto Rican issue, but I mention this as just one more example of how our President has imposed his personal racist beliefs on US policy. All I can hope is that you, too, are at the breaking point. In my opinion, no American can any longer quietly stand-by and let our President make fully racist remarks and policy without speaking out. Deep breath.

I attended the January Newcomers meeting this morning and came home to winterize more windows and put the last of Christmas away. The Newcomers speaker was interesting, but not uplifting. The speaker was a lawyer telling the story of a historic case of a female serial killer at the turn at of the 20th Century. She was a nurse who killed patients and friends using drugs. Sure glad I wasn’t one of her ‘friends’! Mid-afternoon I picked Ollie up from school and decided to hang out at the Goldstones until Heather returned from Boston. She got home around 5 pm and I was able to visit a little while she cooked dinner. She leaves tomorrow for a personal weekend retreat at Kripalu in western Massachusetts. Jed has the boys all weekend and I have offered to help if needed.