Woe to the grandchildren…
It’s been a while, folks. I know.
Tempus fugit, you know.
There has been a clatter of demands on me which have kept me from putting fingers to the keyboard for this particular task. Busy getting the store ready for “the season,” a spot of computer trouble, toss in a storm of bookstore issues, mix it up with an allergic reaction to a new medication which had me overnight in the emergency room, pumped full of Benadryl, in whose haze I lingered for days. Well, it’s been a time.
So, here I am, crashing into the reality “the season” is actually beginning to wind down even though August, our biggest month, is about to unfold, only a few weeks until Labor Day, a summer which has zoomed by though not on Zoom. Lived in real life, real time. June seemed to last about a day.
There are those who say there have never been more people on island and those who say visitors are down, worried about the ticks, inflation, the economy, what new horror might come out of Washington.
Whatever the truth is, the bookstore, knock on wood, thank God, is doing okay.
The island has had a beautiful summer, causing “old timers” to remark it has been like it used to be, temperate, a place where air conditioning was not needed. There has been a plethora of sun kissed mornings, glorious sunsets, laughter in the streets, the sound of Vineyard Voices, an all-male acapella group, singing in the park next to the bookstore. Idyllic.
In the “real” world back on the mainland…
We have a president who said he’d bring down inflation but has only fueled it. He said he’d keep us out of foreign wars. Not happened.
Washington has decided to cut subsidies for Medicare drug coverage, raising prices for seniors.
It seems even die-hard Trump supporters are becoming disenchanted. Can you blame them?
I am Trumped out. He sucked the life out of the 250th anniversary of this county. The UFC bloodying the lawn at the White House, not far from the ruins of the East Wing? This celebrated America?
The Reflecting Pool repair was a complete disaster; American Flag Blue began to peel days after completion; the water turned algae green in days, the project a triumph of incompetence.
Since February, we’ve been locked in fighting Iran. There’s been no regime change. No complete destruction of Iran’s nuclear program. Now the Houthis are weighing in with a Saudi blockade of the Gulf of Aden. Saudi Arabia and the U.S. coordinated a strike against them, raising the stakes the war will widen. Ukraine blew up an Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea. War heat rising.
Bush started the endless wars that have consumed us since. Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran. We have flexed our muscle over and over to no avail. Twenty-five years of war and what do we really have to show for it? Not much. National treasure poured down the drain. Wars fought with muddied goals, lacking exit plans.
Trump has ordered military action in how many countries? 8?
Pete Hegseth slobbers misogyny and racism, blocking the advancement of men of color, of women, based on race and sex. He wraps himself in a Christian blanket. Is this all really Christian? Not to me.
Now he wants a testosterone test for soldiers over 30. Makes me suspect he’s doing testosterone himself, making him pretty angry, which he is, all the time.
Donald Trump spends his nights ranting on Truth Social, many posts incomprehensible, spewing invective, hate, lies. His grasp of facts is just that: a grasp. But then this is not a president whose ever has had a close relationship with truth.
We need to hold this administration to the hot irons of an age which had more respect for the laws of this land, for the expectations of the behavior of a president.
No president has created more wealth in his presidency as Trump.
Trump has grifted his way through life. “The Apprentice,” solidified his reputation as a canny business man while probably saving him from bankruptcy.
Estimates of his financial gain for his first year in office this time come in at about $2.2 billion. It seems to be grating to some of his constituency, those who voted for him, now finding themselves counting pennies, squeezed by inflation. It raises eyebrows. As it should.
We are tainted with the smell of corruption, seen as a capricious country, led by a capricious man who does not understand nor respect the underpinning of the institutions which have sustained this country.
If it can be done, it will take years to undo this mess. Or Trump may have tipped the balance, beginning the long slide of the American Empire. Woe to the grandchildren.
Letter from the Vineyard 