If I Had A Third Daughter, She'd Look Like

So yesterday was a quiet one at Villa Wifey...I put in treadmill time and a post sunset walk in my continuing efforts to keep the cardiologist at bay.  My sister of another mister Mirta called -- could she come over and drop off my late birthday gift?  She could -- Wifey and I and Mirta ended up talking for hours, and she kept me in high Middleton -- the premium Irish whiskey I always like to keep in supply for special toasts and other occasions.  It was a lovely day -- except for the news.  A confederacy of dunces met in Charlottesville, Va, ostensibly to protest the removal of a Civil War statue.  The local police were clownish in their handling of the protests, and counter protests, and a tragedy resulted -- a young nazi from Ohio gunned his car into a crowd of normal people -- hurting many and killing one.  Mirta, Wifey, and I watched the news.  This am they announced the murder victim -- a white, 32 year old paralegal who was protesting the racists.  Her name is Heather Heyer.

Of course, regardless of her identity, her death would be sickening -- the product of absurd hate from the ultra right.  But her photo showed something closer to me -- she looks like she could have been friends with the Ds -- same general appearance of the many girls I have had the privilege to know over the Ds' lifetimes.  And Heather was out protesting the hate in her city -- when her life was cut short, at 32.

I read a lot about the Mississippi murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner when I was in high school.  The latter two were NY Jews, like I was, and they were down South trying to end the segregationist laws that crippled our nation.  I was proud of them.  Years later, their deaths proved to be largely in vain -- huge swaths of the black nation turned against US Jews -- allying instead with Nation of Islam types instead.  Now, Black Lives Matter seems to have the loudest voice -- and their buddies are Palestinian terrorists -- Jews as fighters of black rights have become turned into Zionist bullies, in the minds of many.

Still -- I know little about Heather, except that she is a paralegal from Virginia.  And she was killed by an "alt right" terrorist.

I still can't take our president seriously.  To me, he'll always be a cartoon character -- at most a successful reality TV star.  But it sickens me that a large minority of our nation voted him in.

Mirta told us last night that Norma, my old secretary, and her balsero husband Raul, remain firmly in support of Trump.  And these two received more government aid than anyone I know!  They're immigrants who are now fiercely anti immigrant.  It embarrases me to remember I married these two.

Last month, I had dinner with my friend Kenny -- the smartest guy from my high school.  Kenny is also even more liberal politically than I .  He told me he's at the point now where he can't remain friends with Trump supporters.  He feels too much like Germans must have felt in the early years of Hitler -- plenty of people who knew better simply bit their lips and watched him gain power.  Kenny and his wife happen to be good friends with a member of Trump's cabinet -- Alex Acosta, Secretary of Labor.  I've met him many times -- brilliant young Cuban American lawyer - rose from Harvard Law to be US Attorney and then Dean of FIU Law, before Trump tapped him to be the token hispanic on his staff.  But is he now more, Kenny wonders, that the "good German" now?

All I know is, I've always had the naive notion that our nation evolves, positively.  We go from slavery to equal rights.  Hey -- we elected a half black man, right?  But yesterday reminded me, awfully, that there are plenty of morons here -- and hate filled morons, at that.

I hope the Big Man brings peace to Heather Heyer's family and friends.  I hope she is seen as a true hero -- like Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.  I really hope our nation transcends its current awful state -- minimizes the "base" that the fraud president used to get elected, and moves toward becoming that true city on the hill...