Sunday Drive: Have You Ever Seen the Rain?

Dear Canadian friends - chers amis canadiens - queridos amigos mexicanos:

I apologize with a heavy heart for what is being done to you by America's self-proclaimed dictator.  Not in my name!  

As I type these lines, I weep - actually, I am sobbing - to see what is happening to my country, and soon to happen, I expect, to many other nations.  My father fought against the Nazi tyranny in World War II, when America and the Allied nations fought a titanic struggle to rid the world of that evil.  The democracies in that day were the sane middle way between communism and fascism; but where is the via media today?

In my old-fashioned mind, America despite all its flaws and sometimes egregious mistakes is still the torchbearer for liberty, justice, democracy, and human decency.  Why else do all the world's refugees want to come here, or to Canada or one of the other Western democracies?  Nobody's breaking down the gates to get into Putin's Russia or the other dictatorships, are they?

Say what you will about our politics and politicians, the fact is undeniable that America in many ways, many times, and many places has led, fed, and healed the world:  a magnificent record of good deeds to counterbalance the bad. But now it seems the long golden afternoon of postwar peace and America's benign dominance of the free world has come to an end.  It may be that a long dark night will follow.  I hope not.

There is no need for me to repeat the news reports out of Washington, but I will say this:  You do not deserve to be mistreated, bullied, or perhaps bludgeoned into submission to the tyrant's whims.  Nor do most of us American people.  Please remember that a little more than half of us voted against the dictator.  But now all of us must live with the terrible consequences.

Click to enlarge.  From Wikipedia.

Of course, you all must do what you have to do to protect yourselves.  But there is no good reason for our peoples to hate one other after many long years of peace and friendship, north and south.  One day, the sun will rise again, the clouds will part, and the upward path of civilization will begin anew - sooner rather than later, I pray.  Whether this old man will live to see it, who knows.

But do not be deceived;  the only thing a bully respects is strength, and a punch in the nose.  Appeasement only feeds the appetite for conquest.  And no doubt there will be quislings in your own countries, ready and willing to sell you into slavery.  Do not submit without a fight for your freedom and dignity, though the price be steep. God bless you, friends and neighbors, and God help us all.

This song fits my mood today - more the vibe than the vague lyrics - perhaps it will speak to you, too.

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