Fall is already here

 How did fall arrive so early this year? Today, September 22, is officially the first day of autumn,         though every year, the seasons seem to come around faster and faster. 

          My son and I recently visited this state park, located just outside of Berkeley Springs, West                     Virginia, where the leaves are already turning golden, but daytime temperatures remain mild. 

   My great-grandson De'Andre, now a high-school senior in Florida, just took his date to a dance party. 

       Here I was 3 years ago with De'Andre, when he and his mother visited me in Washington, DC. 

                   Halloween is coming up next month and kids are already choosing costumes. 

               Pachuca, in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico, is a very colorful town that would be fun to visit. 

Today, on September 22, the Peace Corps celebrated 64 years since John F. Kennedy first established the organization. I now join in celebrating that anniversary and my own Peace Corps experience, which not only gave me a late-life career, helping me suvive the terrible loss of my young son and foster son, but also forged an unbreakable bond between me and Honduras, my Peace Corps country. 

The Washington Post

‘An eye for an eye’? Erika Kirk just did the remarkable.

She publicly forgave her husband's killer.

Here is a statement from a member of Communitas, a left-leaning lay Catholic organization:

Communitas, Here’s why we who suspect that Charlie Kirk was not quite the sterling

character his friends in high places claim should nevertheless regret his
passing, and the manner thereof. For one thing, we are deprived of the
chance to say to, or of, him concerning more than a few of his
pronouncements on such matters as guns, Gay people, and religion and public
life, “Charlie, what a shameful, (or irresponsible or, etc.) thing to
say!” The muddled young man who did him in has also given Trump and his
acolytes a “Reichstag Fire” opportunity, a reference to a pretext the Nazis
seized upon to attack the German Left in 1933. The appalling Stephen
Miller has made clear that Our Felon-In-Chief and his unholy crew intend to
exploit the chance to act similarly toward today’s “Lunatic Left”
opposition. Parallels have also been drawn between the assassination of
Kirk and the killing of Horst Wessel, a prominent Nazi, in 1930. Wessel
was raised up as a martyr to the Nazi cause. A song he wrote was the
stirring anthem of the Nazi Party from 1930 until 1945. Starting this
afternoon in a Phoenix football stadium, we are likely to hear much of the
elevation in clouds of glory of the similarly Sainted Charlie.
 
Kirk’s demise is no cause for celebration–certainly not by those of us who
hold his Christian Nationalism in deserved contempt.

Yes, Mr. Trump and other Republicans have now elevated Charlie to sainthoood within their party.

Wash. Post, Low-income Americans slash spending, a worrying sign for the economy

The U.S. economy faces challenges as consumer spending weakens, with lower-income Americans hit hardest by rising prices and economic pressures.

Rural health clinics are starting to close, raising the political risks of Trump’s  One Big Beautiful Bill’ | CNN Politics

Wash. Post, Teachers are losing jobs as conservatives target lessons, speech they dislike

Opinions and mores are now in a state of flux. And with Trump at the helm, there is a culture clash between the old guard and a new consensus already emerging. Even without ever having achieved majority voter support and now facing shrinking voter approval, Mr. Trump and his aides are still going full speed ahead with enacting a slew of changes strongly opposed by a majority of Americans.

 Man is arrested and charged in New Hampshire country club shooting

What about the "right to bear arms"? 

  Do Americans still need guns for self-protecttion or to kill wild animals for food? 

  I would definitely say "no" on both counts.
 It's time to get rid these historic practices and to stop supporting the gun industry. Guns in the hands 

 of ordinary citizens just end up killing too many Americans, perhaps by accident or mistake or in a 

 sudden moment of passion, often immediately regretted thereafter. Time to now join the ranks of 

 civilized nations where guns are kept out of the hands the populace, reserved only for police or military

 use, except perhaps at shooting galleries, where gun enthusiasts can keep pulling the trigger over and

over to their hearts' content. 

Wash. Post, Trump’s changes to skilled worker visas spark confusion. Here’s what to know.

He announced a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas and said entry restrictions would apply as of Sunday. Tech companies could be hit particularly hard, even as the sector has tried to curry favor with the Trump administration.

Trump unveils $100K yearly fee on H-1B visas in clampdown on legal immigration.

CNN, ‘Tidal wave of problems’: 

With harvest time here now, Trump’s trade war pushes some US farmers to the brink

Wash. Post, National Park Service removes displays on slavery, Japanese internment and climate change

The changes come after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March seeking to remove “improper partisan ideology” from federal institutions.

Signs at Acadia National Park in Maine that make any reference to climate change are gone.

In Trump’s D.C. surge, helicopters hovered and surveilled day and night https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2025/trump-dc-surge-helicopters/

Wash. Post, Judge strikes down Trump’s $15 billion suit against the New York Times

                                    And now a new statue has appeared on the DC mall. 

     A giant 50-foot gold statue of Trump holding a bitcoin has been erected in Washington, DC. 

=

Mr. Trump is often seen covering a bruise on his right hand.

It could be senile purpura, a fairly usual sign of aging.

‘It’s a new world with Trump’: Inside Democrats’ shutdown gamble

Wash. Post,

Trump starves U.N. of funding, as global body faces cash crunch

Wash. Post, Trump administration to end protections for thousands of Syrian migrants

                                           A demonstrator in London carries a Palestinian flag. 

            In New York, citizens demonstrated against Israel's policy of trying to starve Gazans. 

AP, Palestinian death toll passes 65,000 as Israel steps up attacks on Gaza City

Isn't this actually already a genocide, or at least a deliberate attempt by Israel to launch a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza? 

Wash. Post, U.K., Canada, Australia recognize Palestinian state, breaking with U.S.

Britain’s prime minister said his government would recognize a state of Palestine, making good on a pledge to do so if Israel refused to implement a ceasefire and commit to work for a two-state solution. Canada and Australia also announced recognition of Palestine.

Wash. Post, Netanyahu vows retaliation ahead of more Palestine recognitions at U.N.

As France and Saudi Arabia convene a summit to renew the push for a two-state solution, the Israeli leader said, “A Palestinian state will not be established.”

Netanyahu still has Trump at his side, the only trump card he has left. It's now Trump and Netanyahu against the rest of the world. 

Wash. Post, Trump starves U.N. of funding, as global body faces cash crunch

On these pages, not so long ago, I recounted my own experiences in south Sudan. And now Sudan and the whole surrounding area is undergoing a famine, in both south and north Sudan, as well as in Gaza. Nonetheless, Mr. Trump has not paused any funds to Netanyahu, the mastermind of this cruel starvation tactic. Netanyahu wants everyone to leave Gaza (to go where?). So Gaza is now seeing a massive exodus, perhaps designed to leave the territority empty for an Israeli take-over and further border expansion. This is a wholesale "ethnic cleansing," forcing everyone else out to allow Israelis to move in. And now our US tax dollars are actually financing Israel's brutal onslaught, thanks again to Mr. Donald J. Trump. Even Israelis seem to be less than fully supportive of Trump and Netanyhau's current tactics, although the Israeli public's information is somewhat limited. But without US support, a war-crimes trial against Netanyahu is simply not going to happen. 

CNN, Recognition of Palestinian statehood

• In July 2025, President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would officially recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September. (The US will try to block that move. We are on the wrong side of history here. )

CNN, As of September 2025, France's position on the Israel-Palestine conflict is defined by its formal recognition of a Palestinian state and its leadership of a new international peace plan. This marks a significant shift from its historical stance and has drawn strong condemnation from Israel and the United States [c

////////////////////////////////////////////////

Three more years now before Trump is scheduled to leave office, so how many of us will live to see that happen? Will I even live to see that day?

This photo was just sent me from a Honduran medical brigade where I have often volunteered. Hondurans are waiting to be seen by American volunteer medics in a temporary clinic set up for that purpose. I wish I were back there right now, serving as a volunteer interpreter and helper, but I'm not sure now about ever going back. 

                            How do ballet dancers make their moves look so effortless?