I recewntly woke to an email from a neighbor who visits Ireland at this time of year. This is what he wrote: “People we meet in Ireland are mystified and a bit worried by what’s happening in the U.S. I can’t really answer them. What is Elon Musk’s vision for America? Why do so many people minimize or dismiss Trump’s call for attacking the enemy within? Why did The New York Times call for Biden to step down but has not seemed upset by Trump’s increasingly erratic behavior?”

There are responses to the incredulity of his Irish friends. Maybe the hold the Catholic Church had on them in the past is one avenue to understanding. It would take many pub sessions to name the ingredients that make up the state we find ourselves in before we count the votes here. Will the result be a step along the path toward an all-powerful, unrestrained presidency? I find myself astonished and shocked to remember that I was an 8-year-old boy living in a world when a nation of unique accomplishment across many measures of advanced civilization was murdering millions of Jewish neighbors and others.

Now I wonder if after this election that I might have I rock thrown through my window for the signs in my yard? Have I gone loony? 

Ronald Cheney

Francestown