One Year Later

       One year ago from yesterday, New Year's Eve 2016, I was in Los Angeles,

 ...as I am now.

     At that time I was among the many in this country who were still feeling numb, devastated and terrified,

...after the unthinkable happened.

     On the last day of 2016 many of us were still suffering from a widespread double-edged PTSD: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as we tried to cope with the shock, to somehow come to terms with the reality of what we believed couldn't happen here actually happening here, and Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder in the pervasive fear and gripping anxiety that a seemingly spoiled, capricious, impulsive, irresponsible, vengeful  bigot now had in his hands the power to unravel the threads of the  strength of this nation,

...our beautifully diverse social fabric,

...and under his twitchy thumbs the control of our nuclear arsenal.

        And yet, even in the most fearful of times hope springs eternal; and on New Year's Eve of last year I made a resolution to give Donald Trump a chance, take the coming year one day at a time, and in one year from then, on the last night of December, to look back over the events of 2017 and recall where  the world had been at the beginning of the year and to see where it was at the end.
     And so there I was, just before midnight on December 31, 2017, Pacific Time, reflecting that since he was sworn into office, Donald Trump has proven himself to be exactly what he appeared to be during his Presidential campaign: a foul, erratic, amoral, nasty-tempered, childishly narcissistic, dangerous,

...and lazy old man, more interested in pursuing his golf game,

than the welfare of our people.

     And the world, though greatly the worse for wear from a year ago, is still here. Donald Trump, though he's alienated our allies, engendered ill-will and eroded our standing in the world, though he continues to antagonize North Korea, threatening to start a nuclear war over who knows what, he hasn't pulled us into Armageddon.
      And though under Donald Trump our bad angels - ignorance, economic inequality, white supremacy, intolerance against minorities, immigrants and the LGBTQ community  are in their ascendancy - resistance to these national evils is alive,  

...political satirists thrive, giving us  laughter and hope,

...and, as Barack Obama reminded us in a comforting end-of-year-tweet, there is still much good and right in America and we can each one of us make a difference for the better.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/barack-obama-tweets-uplifting-local-183148536.html

     In the meantime the  national PTSD that gripped us a year ago has devolved into more of an ongoing state of anxiety-tinged general malaise and disgust as Donald Trump dominates the news daily with his divisive and dangerous antics.  We're on edge, but the edge has been dulled from over-use.
     The headlines on December 31 read that United States and North Korea,

...read that Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump, locked in a middle-school mine-is-bigger-than-yours feud,

...are now closer than ever to nulcear war.
     Does anybody know over what?
     Still, here we are, and there's life there's hope.
     So last night, during final hours of 2016, I once again made the same resolution as last year to  take the coming year one day at a time, and on the last night of December one year from now to look back over the events of 2018 and recall where  the world was at the beginning of the year and see where it is at the end, and in the meantime to do what I can, in my own little way, to make it a better place.
    Happy New Year. May we all be fine.