At 1:39 this afternoon, after a nearly 40-minute delay and an unexplained commotion right outside the doors, the President of the United States finally made his way into the East Room of the White House. As he walked toward the podium, invited guests held their phones up high to record the moment. Even after the long wait, there were still screams of “Thank you, Mr. President” and loud cheering.
For the next 58 minutes, Donald Trump seemed to forget what the event was even supposed to be about, and at one point, he even forgot that he was the president when he started an explanation with, “If I ran any country.” He made a racist joke that only Hispanics can survive long falls and then said he shouldn’t talk about how beautiful women are, but then said exactly that about two sisters. This was supposed to be an event celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, but it was really an hour in the life of a very self-absorbed man.
The older I get, and I'm officially old, the faster time flies. Less that 5 weeks, it seems like forever. I can only imagine what it feels like on the ground there. I hope, as fervently as if I lived there, for a peaceful election.
Thank you for this insightful piece. Yes, even when we are afraid, or angry, or depressed, we must still do what we know to be morally right.
A few nights ago, I attended an author "in conversation" event at an independent bookstore in London where I am staying for a few weeks. The book being discussed, The Bookshop of Forbidden Books, which deals with banning books. Soon the author, Marc Levy, and the British audience were talking about the banning of books in various US states and school districts. The British ladies shook their heads, expressed sadness and horror at "such stupidity," and asked the author how this made any sense. I sat in a front row feeling uncomfortable and distressed that the accusations about my country were true. I wanted to stand up and interject that it wasn't happening in every state, that in my state, California, book banning was not prevalent. But I kept silent. I felt their disbelief and rage was justified and the Us deserved to be called to task by book lovers around the world. Thankfully, toward the end of the hour, Mr. Levy, a US citizen, clarified that the massive book banning isn't happening everywhere. "Only in the Republican states," he said.
There are so many things happening in the US these days that need addressing with fervent opposition to our current government. Book banning is one of the many that is on my mind today.
As a young child starting at the age of five in the early 1960’s every summer would have two weeks with my grandparents who lived in Washington DC. We would go to all the sights that tourists would go to. What was special was that my grandfather was a public servant in the Pentagon and my uncle who also lived in DC was in the State Department. So access to other places in DC that wasn’t necessarily available for the general public was afforded me and was always aware how fortunate, grateful and amazing this was. Loved to see art, oil paintings, sculptures just everything from all the masters and not so famous artists that were in all the galleries of the Smithsonian Institution and the out of the way places that are in DC. My grandparents were school teacher’s who met in the 1930’s and married and they always believed in education. That no matter what in life the only thing you take with you is learning. Learning about as much as possible, whether it was poetry, art, music, everything and especially about people. That through many spectrums from relationships, business and expressed by the arts shows so much about people. Their nightmares, fears, to their loves and their humanity.
Yesterday while Heather was observing Trump which am grateful for, because there are many a day can no longer stomach that thing. While on a flight home watched the display from Pete Hegseth in which he delivered a “State of the Force” address at Marine Corps Base Quantico. He announced he had transformed the military by enforcing the idea of “[n]o fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors.”
“The ideological clowns are out,” he said. “The patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top.”
While watching this presentation from Hegseth was reminded of the year 1966. Know the year because that was the first year that ever attended a protest with my grandmother against the Vietnam war. Granddad may have been at the Pentagon however grandma knew who she was. Also a piece of art work that hurled my mind back to that same year, with both my grandparents that we saw. It’s a painting that has left a long lasting memory. This artwork is called “The Apotheosis of War” painted by Russian war artist Vasily Vereshchagin. This painting depicts a pile of human skulls set on the barren earth. There’s a flock of birds still in flight and some picking over the pile of human skulls. The ground is an earthly color that the human skulls make an impression with that ivory color of bleached bones with the black orifices created by empty jaws and eye-sockets. The scale of the deathly pile of human remains from war. On the art work's frame, Vereshchagin inscribed that he dedicated the painting "to all great conquerors, past, present and to come". It’s also a memorable time because it was the first time I saw my grandfather weep. My grandfather had served in WWII and was one of the soldiers who liberated Ohrdruf, a Nazi labor camp and a subcamp of the Buchenwald system. Did not know that then, found out later in life but has stayed with me.
Find that those who never served or had family that has, just can’t ever find “the right battlefield at the right time." Really can’t recall to many politicians who did serve in the military that called out that war was really ever a good thing. It’s grotesque when you think about it when politicians who used numerous deferments to skip service just decide that war is their only option, that this “warrior ethos” will overtake the world. Maybe they "have no right to send our kids off to war.”
Everyday awake these last twenty months as to what “fresh hell awaits us all from these creatures..” and see so many people in this nation fighting back. From protesting, to contacting their representatives in DC, their states and even locally. That there is something that is unexplainable in so many people fighting back about what this nation was intended to become that has gone way off course by this regime. Have witnessed people who would have never considered picking up a sign and protest, and have witnessed some people who did vote for him and have regretted that decision. While am glad to see that these individuals now regret their decision for whatever their reasons, that they chose in their past, will not forget that and that’s the process of learning about people. No matter your age, always keep learning.
Have two grandchildren in the military and in the best of ways that most in the military view an oxygen thief is the current testosterone pusher.
We are at day 33 until November 3rd. In person early voting starts in the first few weeks of October, today is the 1st. Make your plan, execute your plan. — Vote
Yes, thank you for this powerful essay. Especially your recollection of your junior high school teacher's advice, that clearly affected you and has stayed with you, to our benefit as well: "...how sometimes when you feel strongly about something, or have a responsibility to others, that is exactly when you have to push through the fear and follow your conscience."
The older I get, and I'm officially old, the faster time flies. Less that 5 weeks, it seems like forever. I can only imagine what it feels like on the ground there. I hope, as fervently as if I lived there, for a peaceful election.
Thank you for this insightful piece. Yes, even when we are afraid, or angry, or depressed, we must still do what we know to be morally right.
A few nights ago, I attended an author "in conversation" event at an independent bookstore in London where I am staying for a few weeks. The book being discussed, The Bookshop of Forbidden Books, which deals with banning books. Soon the author, Marc Levy, and the British audience were talking about the banning of books in various US states and school districts. The British ladies shook their heads, expressed sadness and horror at "such stupidity," and asked the author how this made any sense. I sat in a front row feeling uncomfortable and distressed that the accusations about my country were true. I wanted to stand up and interject that it wasn't happening in every state, that in my state, California, book banning was not prevalent. But I kept silent. I felt their disbelief and rage was justified and the Us deserved to be called to task by book lovers around the world. Thankfully, toward the end of the hour, Mr. Levy, a US citizen, clarified that the massive book banning isn't happening everywhere. "Only in the Republican states," he said.
There are so many things happening in the US these days that need addressing with fervent opposition to our current government. Book banning is one of the many that is on my mind today.
We must have accountability but we must also rebuild, and that's the harder, less flashy job.
Keep up the good fight Heather! 🩷🇦🇺🙏
Thank you Heather a powerful piece of writing.
As a young child starting at the age of five in the early 1960’s every summer would have two weeks with my grandparents who lived in Washington DC. We would go to all the sights that tourists would go to. What was special was that my grandfather was a public servant in the Pentagon and my uncle who also lived in DC was in the State Department. So access to other places in DC that wasn’t necessarily available for the general public was afforded me and was always aware how fortunate, grateful and amazing this was. Loved to see art, oil paintings, sculptures just everything from all the masters and not so famous artists that were in all the galleries of the Smithsonian Institution and the out of the way places that are in DC. My grandparents were school teacher’s who met in the 1930’s and married and they always believed in education. That no matter what in life the only thing you take with you is learning. Learning about as much as possible, whether it was poetry, art, music, everything and especially about people. That through many spectrums from relationships, business and expressed by the arts shows so much about people. Their nightmares, fears, to their loves and their humanity.
Yesterday while Heather was observing Trump which am grateful for, because there are many a day can no longer stomach that thing. While on a flight home watched the display from Pete Hegseth in which he delivered a “State of the Force” address at Marine Corps Base Quantico. He announced he had transformed the military by enforcing the idea of “[n]o fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors.”
“The ideological clowns are out,” he said. “The patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top.”
While watching this presentation from Hegseth was reminded of the year 1966. Know the year because that was the first year that ever attended a protest with my grandmother against the Vietnam war. Granddad may have been at the Pentagon however grandma knew who she was. Also a piece of art work that hurled my mind back to that same year, with both my grandparents that we saw. It’s a painting that has left a long lasting memory. This artwork is called “The Apotheosis of War” painted by Russian war artist Vasily Vereshchagin. This painting depicts a pile of human skulls set on the barren earth. There’s a flock of birds still in flight and some picking over the pile of human skulls. The ground is an earthly color that the human skulls make an impression with that ivory color of bleached bones with the black orifices created by empty jaws and eye-sockets. The scale of the deathly pile of human remains from war. On the art work's frame, Vereshchagin inscribed that he dedicated the painting "to all great conquerors, past, present and to come". It’s also a memorable time because it was the first time I saw my grandfather weep. My grandfather had served in WWII and was one of the soldiers who liberated Ohrdruf, a Nazi labor camp and a subcamp of the Buchenwald system. Did not know that then, found out later in life but has stayed with me.
Find that those who never served or had family that has, just can’t ever find “the right battlefield at the right time." Really can’t recall to many politicians who did serve in the military that called out that war was really ever a good thing. It’s grotesque when you think about it when politicians who used numerous deferments to skip service just decide that war is their only option, that this “warrior ethos” will overtake the world. Maybe they "have no right to send our kids off to war.”
Everyday awake these last twenty months as to what “fresh hell awaits us all from these creatures..” and see so many people in this nation fighting back. From protesting, to contacting their representatives in DC, their states and even locally. That there is something that is unexplainable in so many people fighting back about what this nation was intended to become that has gone way off course by this regime. Have witnessed people who would have never considered picking up a sign and protest, and have witnessed some people who did vote for him and have regretted that decision. While am glad to see that these individuals now regret their decision for whatever their reasons, that they chose in their past, will not forget that and that’s the process of learning about people. No matter your age, always keep learning.
Have two grandchildren in the military and in the best of ways that most in the military view an oxygen thief is the current testosterone pusher.
We are at day 33 until November 3rd. In person early voting starts in the first few weeks of October, today is the 1st. Make your plan, execute your plan. — Vote
https://www.npr.org/2026/09/30/nx-s1-5986304/hegseth-troops-address
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mwr274cutq2l
Hispanics have caused a lot of pain to so many by voting f0r Trump!!!!
Yes, thank you for this powerful essay. Especially your recollection of your junior high school teacher's advice, that clearly affected you and has stayed with you, to our benefit as well: "...how sometimes when you feel strongly about something, or have a responsibility to others, that is exactly when you have to push through the fear and follow your conscience."