Entering uncharted territory with Trump

 

Time to post this blog now before Donald Trump takes office again, a watershed in our nation's history. No more Mr. Nice Guy, Trump has vowed to reduce taxes, to "slash" the federal budget and workforce, and to deport millions.

Now that Mr. Trump has promised wholesale deportations beginning on "Day One" of his new adminstration [so much scheduled for that day!], he might want to keep in mind that his 

own wife is an immigrant. We will soon see how it all actually plays out.

As an "arctic blast" is anticipated starting tomorrow, I am safely hunkered down at home.

                                                       January flowers on my back porch

On Sunday, January 19, the day before MLKing Day and the anticipated arctic blast, nextdoor neighbor Norma came over and quickly opened 2 juice bottles whose tops I was unable to twist. She is 20 years younger than me (I'm 86) and her hands are not arthritic. But if she lives to my age, how supple will her hands be then? 

Now in my 80s, my goal is no longer to acquire new skills, but to retain those I already have. This blog is one tool, allowing me to refresh my memories by looking back in time. 

I had a retired a friend in his late 60s who used to take me to the airport to go to Honduras. He never married and had no kids, but had an active social life and enjoyed hiking and travel. After experiencing no apparent health problems, one day he simply dropped dead, a great shock to all of us, his friends, but perhaps not so bad for him. We should all go so easily.

MLKing Day transports me back to a day in August many years ago when my late ex-husband and I heard (just barely, while standing at the edge of the crowd) a speech that Martin Luther King himself delivered.

What might we expect in terms of mail delivery in the coming days? 

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" is a postal creed to be put to the test by the anticipated arctic blast.

Where will it snow in the US? See where the polar vortex is set to make an icy impact

Six inches were predicted for rhe DC region. We all were braced for it.

Arctic blast about to invade US

A "poler vortex," a blast of cold air coming from the north pole, was predicted to start assaulting much of Canada and the US starting on the day of the Trump inauguration. 

However, it was unlikely to reach California, where fires have continued.  

Oxnard fire

Fire victim who reunited with his dog after Palisades Fire shares his story with KCAL

Kilauea volcano has erupted once again on the Big Island in Hawaii. I have witnessed several prior eruptions and lava flows there, something really quite scary and spectacular.

Good new from Israel where 3 female hostages have been freed. 

CNN, 11 Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay transferred to Oman

This has finally happened, just in the nick of time before Trump takes office.

I've often heard recordings of Pope Francis speaking his native language, Spanish, in which I am fluent. While the traditonal language of the Catholic Church is Latin, that's not a practical option for present-day conversations. Francis must also speak Italian, which I can understand but not speak. I understand Romanian as well. Romance languages all have common roots.

Friends have asked about the logistics of my donations to the Honduran Red Cross, which I've always made by simply handing over actual US cash dollars (the most direct way) on every visit, including last June when I appeared in a photo then with Luis Knight of the Honduran Red Cross, headquartered in the capital, Tegucigalpa. While there, I just gave him an envelope of mostly in $100 bills. Since I don't plan on going back to Honduras, I'll have find another safe way to make donations there, (I am not very trusting of Honduran financial systems but will have to give them a try.) 

I'd like to see thee film The Brutalist as I come from a family of architects: Dad, Mom, brother, nephew, maybe even maternal grandmother, an interior designer, the only such avenue open to women in her day. 

According a maxim I learned while working at the occupational therapy association, both humans and many animals seek purposeful activity by engaging in activities to achieve certain goals  Thus, in zoos, primates and someimes other creatures are tasked with trying to remove etables from cones or other hidden places just to help keep them occupied. 

If most of basic human needs can be satisfied by the work of machines and if only a few actual jobs remain available (a matter playing out now regarding the unloading of ships), other activities considered useful need to be invented. 

2025, A new year with new challenges and rewards

Just before the surprise snowfall here in DC on Jan. 6, after it was 65 F just days before, I came back from visting my son in W Va. for the holidays. I don't plan on going back there any time soon, so I said goodby to the mysertious castle with the green gargoyle wearing an orange scarf flapping in the breeze, as well as to all the Confederate flags although W Va. was never part of the Confederacy, and to the many houses with a veneer of fake brick or stone over wooden siding, something quite popular there. 

I often sat by the fire at the entrance to CoolFont. near the front desk of the hotel in Berkeley Springs, W Va. where my son works. 

Below, there I was in B.Springs last summer.

Here above is the scene at dawn as my son and I were leaving W Va. for my return to DC. 

Below, friends Joan and Chip dropped by from Bethesda, braving the cold to visit me. 

A friend whose daughter lives in Southern California sent this message: Hi Barbara, my daughter and her boyfriend are under a fire evacuation order. They were only able to leave with the dog and a go- bag of important documents. As of last night their apt. building had not burnt down but whether it will remain depends on the strength and direction of the winds. They are staying with a friend. She says the air pollution is horrific and lots of people untouched by the fires have lost power and had to evacuate as well. Seems like bad news just keeps piling on.

Wash. Post, As more snow arrives, D.C. region still cleaning up from earlier storm

Yes, I looked out on Sat.morning. Jan.11, and saw more snow on the steps that Derek the Plumber had cleared after the first snowstorm earlier this week. Derek has left the bathroom sink with hot and cold faucets reversed but I can live with that.

Speech writers don't always use correct grammar. I turned on the radio to hear the late Senator Mondale's son say "for Joan and I." Would he ever say "for I"? 

A few days after I came home from W Va., due to a series of miscommunications, I found myself outside in the snow only lightly clad, waiting for a ride that never came. Then when I tried to go back inside, only got as far as the entryway, as the inner main door was inexblicably locked. Some hours later, after I felt frozen like an icicle, Alex, a sometime handyman, was located and managed to open the inner door with some effort, then placed a swatch of blue tape over a problmatic part of the lock mechanism. 

Meanwhile, former President Jimmy Carter has died at age 100.

                        Here was my family with President Carter in 1977, soon after his election. 

Here again, I'm shown (lower left) with Carter in 1990 in a photo appearing in my Confessions book. 

(Other photos on those pages are of me congratulating Costa Rican President Oscar Arias after he inauguarated a brand new pool by swimming the entire length underwater, of Nicarguan President Violeta Chamorro after her election victory, and of a supporter of Haitian President Aristide hailing his 1990 election with a live rooster.)

I've known Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter for decades. One memory especially stands out. In 1990, when several of us election observers and supporters had gathered at the home of Violeta Chamorro to celebrate her presidential election victory, Jimmy Carter strode in. Speaking Spanish with a Georgia twange, he advised Violeta, as she was popularly referred to, about delaying the announcemnt of her election victory until the next morning to allow the Sandinistas and their supporters time to adjust to her win.

The contrast between 2 US presidents, Carter and Trump, could not be more stark and yet a small majority of American voters have now chosen Trump, who appears to be a very petty vindictive sort of guy.  

Donald Trump fumes over flag flying at half-staff to honor Jimmy Carter during inauguration

Jimmy Carter’s death must not mean flags are at half-mast for my inauguration, says Trump

Donald Trump was heard publicly fuming, as usual, about something inconsequential. In my own opinion,
Carter was a much better president and a better man than petty, small-minded Trump will ever
 be. But voters have now expressed their preference, so we all must live with the consequences
 of 4 more years of a Trump presidency.  

Promises, promises. Mr. Trump has promised to tackle 59 issues on "Day One" of his next term, including deporting "11 million illegals." However, deporting 11 million people in a single day would be impossible and even deporting that many over a 4-year presidency is hardly feasible either. Any efforts to actually try would create havoc and major economic and social distruption. Those workers are here because our country needs them. 

NY Times editorial: America Needs More People

NY Times, 

Honduras Threatens to Expel U.S. Military if Trump Orders Mass Deportations

Here's what an American friend now retired to Honduras just told me: "Not sure if you heard but the Honduran president has stopped extradition to the USA. So now drug dealers will pretty much go free. Her brother-in-law left for Nicaragua when a video showed him meeting with drug dealers. Crazy! Now she is threatening to take back Palmerola, the US military base if Trump deports undocumented Hondurans from the US.

It's a stand-off, that I do not think will deal well with her.

Miss you Barbara."

The Hill, Trump tells GOP  he wants to write 100 executive orders

After more than half a century of dictatorship, Syrians are now celebrating.

NY Times

IIn Damascus, Syrians Reclaim Freedoms Off Limits Under Bashar al-Assad

   Residents of Syria’s capital are picnicking on a once-forbidden mountaintop and trading dollars and iiimported Nescafe. They say the city seems theirs again.  

    NY Times, Israel’s Military Pounds Gaza as Pressure Mounts for   

  Cease-fire 

 

        Tomiko 

I

tooka of Japan, World’s Oldest Person, Dies at 116

Adios to 2024

ch, ll, 

                                                                            

                                                        And also, 

Although this posting is rather short, it's going up now before I get more caught up in holiday activities, so here goes. See you again in 2025.

On Friday, just hours before midnight, Congress approved a budget deal to avert a government shutdown, at least until March. Members of Congress apparently would still get paid duirng shutdwn, but not their staff members. 

My 16-year-old great grandson livig in Florida near his grandmother (my older daughter) was driving her car when he had accident. Teenage boys in the US do have a disportionate share of accidents. 

I really miss doing Spanish interpreting in hospitals and schools, which I did for over a decade. See a recent request below, to which I did not respond. For many years, I'd provided a vital link between speakers of English and Spanish, allowing me to witness many human dramas in jails, courts, hospitals, and schools. Every assignment provided surprises. It was a part-time career started only after my return from the Peace Corps at age 65. Previously, I'd worked in social work, juvenile probation, and occupational therapy, and had ghosted journal articles for a psychiatrist who then published them in his own name. Then, at the start of the pandemic, I gave up working altoghether. Now. at age 86 and after recovering from Covid--but still with occasional bouts of vertigo-- I can no loner to travel on public transportation to interpretation sites. (Taking an uber would not be financially feasible.) 

Thursday, December 19, 2024 Time 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM (EST) Language Pair Spanish to English Service Onsite Consecutive Interpretation Subject Matter Special Education Location Alexandria, Virginia, 22304

Humans have been committing suicide for eons, probaby since prehistric times. If someone is bent on ending their own life, should we even try to stop them? And what about assisted suicide, sometimes referred to as "assisted dying"?  If we know someone considering that option, we should certainly try to convince them otherwise, but it also depends on the circumstances. Sometimes an indivual simply reaches the point of calling it quits, especially now when so many are living daily in pain and with disability due to advanced ages rarely reached before in humsn history. 

Copycat murder-suicides seem to be continuing. Would it be better not to report them? At the same time, in order to prevent such tragedies, it helps if we all are aware of the signs. Of course, I also opposed the death penalty. 

I feel differently than do most fellow Democrats about abortion, many of whom consider aborting an unborn child to be a woman's "right." In a very early abortion, the unborn probably doesn't exprience pain, but may feel unpleasant sensations or then even actual pain in later development. As the ability to save premature infants keeps reaching ever earlier gestational stages, the line between the born and unborn becomes blurred. Once a live child emerges, then killing him or her is absolutley forbidden in our country or in most pleaces. I've never been an abortion supporter myself except in extreme circumstances, such as when the mother's life is at stake or if she faces serious health conequences.

BBC 

Somerset Bronze Age massacre victims likely cannibalised

 At least 37 people appear to have been butchered and likely eaten in a Bronze Age massacre in Somerset.

Wash. Post, Fani Willis disqualified from Trump election case by Georgia appellate court The decision, which Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) is likely to appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court, is a major victory for President-elect Donald Trump and his co-defendants and could doom the high-profile prosecution.

Politico, Trump: Making Canada the 51st state is a ‘great idea’

Wash. Post, Syria’s new leaders struggle to contain revenge killings after Assad

Luis, my good friend at the Honduran Red Cross, shown

 with me there in June, now tells me that with the money I'd donated, they've painted their whole building and have funds left over for other projects. 

As sometimes happens when we older folks look back on our own long life, an unexpected memory can suddenly surface. I recently recalled a trip to California's Disneyland, probably in 1968, when my first son (since disceased) was still in a stroller. Suddenly, I spied the late actor Marlon Brando, quite heavy and wearing a flowing shirt, walking right past us with 2 of his children, one a girl (who later died). As I apporached to say "hello," he glared at me fiercely, thrusting out his hand to ward me off, so I immediaely backed away. But I never forgot our close encounter.

Feliz navidad

The national Christmas tree is alight again on the National Mall. Holiday celebrations keep up our spirits when it's cold outside and daylight hours diminish. 

Here I was with Santa at the CoolFont Hotel where my son works, visiting at Thanksgiving in Berkeley Springs, W Va. The Christmas tree there was already up. 

Like many hotels, CoolFont is more than just a place to get a good night's sleep. It is also a meet-up destination, a place to see and be seen. My son, often on front desk duty on weekend evenings, is in a prime position to greet all the ladies coming in. 

A neighbor has shared this image of her unconventional holiday tree. 

January 10 was Universal Human Rights Day, commemorating the day in 1948 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While in the Peace Corps in Honduras, on that day I always organized a human rights parade featuring young marchers carrying homemade signs. Local folks always lined the parade route, cheering us on. 

The shortest day of the year here in the northern hemisphere, was Dec. 21, so daylight now will start getting longer.

A friend living in Canada. where December days are shorter still, spends this season in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where she offers English lessons and from where she sent this photo.  

Alas, alack, my 17-year-old great-grandson, living in Florida with his mother and near his grandmother,

had an accident while driving his grandmother's car. 

As a former dog owner, I was interested in learning how and when humans and dogs first started bonding. 

Interesting Engineering,12,000 years of friendship: The origins of human-dog connections 

in the Americas

The regular diet of early canines included salmon, which they could not have caught 

regularly on their own, indicating that it was fed to them by their owners. 

[How do analysts even find out these things about matters so long ago?]

Like many young girls, I once studied ballet and have enjoyed watching dancers ever since.  

A great-niece via my late ex-husband, who once stayed with me while dancing here in DC, just sent the photo above of herself with her fellow dancers and below in a recent stage production. 

President Biden's speeches these days, as written out on his teleprompter, are logical and coherent, but his actual delivery becomes rather mushy and garbled. It's hard to judge how much his speeches may represent his own thinking when they are drafted by others. His delivery indicates a failing mental and speech trajectory. Even if he had been able to win reelection, it's doubtful that he could have fulfilled his presidential duties throughout a second term, perhaps not even surviving to that point. Age is more than just a number. 

Wash. Post, Biden commuting nearly 1,500 sentences, pardoning 39 in ‘largest single-day grant of clemency’The individuals whose sentences will be commuted were placed on home confinement during the pandemic and have “successfully reintegrated,” the White House said, and the 39 being pardoned had been convicted of nonviolent crimes.

 

President Biden's commutations and pardons represent a record for a single day. 

Capital B, Biden Appoints 40 Black Women as Federal Judges, Breaking Record

Another record for Biden

BBC, 

What we know about NYC killing of healthcare executive

 UnitedHealthcare boss Brian Thompson, 50, was fatally shot in the back on Wednesday morning last week outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown.

Yahoo News, UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting updates: NYPD says gun found on Luigi Mangione matches bullet casings at scene of Thompson killing Investigators were also able to match Mangione's fingerprints with those found on a water bottle and energy bar recovered from the scene, police said.

After such a high profile killing, copy-cat crimes are always a risk.

AP, A teenage student opened fire at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, 

Wisconsin, on Monday, killing a teacher and another teenage student in the final week before winter break. The shooter also died, police said.

School shootings are all too common here in the US. What was unusual was that this particular 

shooter was female. 

In September, 2024, before this recent female shooter had appeared, Wikipedia had reported:

"Since 1982, an astonishing 145 mass shootings have been carried out in the United States by male 

shooters. In contrast, only four mass shootings (defined by the source as a single attack in a public place in 

which four or more victims were killed) have been carried out by women."

Wash. Post, The teen is one of just nine female school shooters in the last 25 years, according to a database maintained by The Post. She is also among the younger recent shooters.

NY Times, Trump Says He’ll Begin Jan. 6 Pardons in ‘First Hour’ of Presidency

NBC, Trump will 'most likely' pardon Capitol rioters on Day 1 and says Jan. 6 committee

 members should be jailed

Mr. Trump has lots of plans for "Day 1", so it should be a rather busy day. 

Voter enthusiasm for Trump's next presidency already seems to be waning. Nostalgia may have 

been driving some voters' decisions, especially among men. 

Trump is not being deterred, He has already started suing people right and left

whom he feels have wronged him. He probably feels the investment is worth the effort. 

His adversaries may not dare to put up a fight now that he will become president.  He seems to have

already wiped out most of the claims against him. 

Among the perceived enemies Trump plans to punish and jail is former rival Liz Cheney. 

AP, Trump promises to end birthright citizenship: What is it and could he do it?

NBC, Trump aims to end birthright citizenship, says American citizens with family here illegally 

may be deported

salon, "Send them all back": Trump says U.S. citizens would be included in his mass deportation

plan

The President-elect has vowed to deport whole families, including US-born offspring, but to

where? Receiving countries apparently would not be consulted. 

(This is unlikely to actually happen.)

A neighbor has sent me an article about a man brought here from Mexico as an infant who never had 

become a US citizen  He does not speak Spanish and is now facing deportation under Trump. 

I don't know whether my readers can access the article. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/15/us/trump-immigrant-deportations-rome-georgia.html?

unlocked_article_code=1.hk4.vSUz.qKrwU2VoJj2S&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

As I told my neighbor, "Unlike the situation of my son adopted from Colombia, brought here as a baby, 

whom I made sure became a citizen before starting school, this man's family did not do this for him 

and his recent option to obtain citizenship was struck down by a (Trump-appointed) judge. Incidentally, 

my son, living now in W Va., like most of his neighbors, voted for Trump. 

Though I'd tried to teach him and my other kids Spanish, they refused to learn. So I am the only one in my 

family bilingual in Spanish."

Wash. Post, In Ohio, an immigrant community prepares for Trump’s crackdown

President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to carry out mass deportations could target places like Painesville, 

a small city in northeastern Ohio whose population has been transformed by immigration.

Elon Musk modestly brushes off taking any credit for Trump's election victory, though he spent really, really big. The president-elect has promised to slash regulations and taxes, and also to erect tariffs against foreign competitors, much to Musk's evident satisfaction. His considerable investment promises to pay off. 

CNN.

Musk spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to elect Trump, including funding a mysterious 

super PAC

AP, Tesla shares soar more than 14% as Trump win is seen boosting Elon Musk's electric vehicle 

company 

Wash. Post, Elon Musk’s worst suggestion so far: ‘Delete’ the IRS?

Fox Nation has given Donald Trump a "Patriot of the Year" award. So Trump is flying high right now, promising to immediately slash the federal budget and federal workforce. He doesn't want any nosey "feds" interfering with his plans. Republicans will hold a narrow majority in the House. But the promises made by Trump and Musk to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget while not touching social security seem like a pipe dream and not all Republican lawmakers are on actually board. 

If President-elect Trump tries once again to move agencies out of Washington, DC, it's going to be a rather messy and contentious 4 years. It could be even worse than last time, when such efforts failed to work out as planned. Furthermore, less than half of Americans voted for Trump this time and, even then, he was victorious by only a small margin, hardly the "landslide" he has since claimed.

According to a recent Washingtonian article, moving federal agencies out of DC during the last Trump presidency didn’t accomplish the stated objectives, or improve services. "The Agricultural Applied Economics Association released a report challenging the Trump administration’s claims that the government would save $300 million over 15 years by relocating ERS and NIFA; the findings, cited in this Congressional Research Service report, concluded that the move would actually cost the government between $83 million and $182 million." 

One analyst has warned that, "Our experience may have been a trial run for some of these agencies. It was a bad experience and net loss for American taxpayers. This was not efficient. This did not save money. This did not make the government more productive.” 

Is Donald Trump even listening? 

Harris is not letting her election loss keep her out of the spotlight: WWD, 

Kamala Harris Shines in Metallic Bodice Dress at 2024 Kennedy Center Honors With 

Doug Emhoff

Desperate Haitians Who Fled to the Dominican Republic Are Being 

Sent Back in Cages Relations between the neighboring countries have long been frosty. They are now complicated by up to 10,000 deportations a week. Massacre in Haiti’s Capital Leaves Nearly 200 Dead, U.N. Says The killings

       which appeared to target practitioners of Voodoo in a Port-au-Prince slum, were ordered 

by a gang leader, a human rights organiz

ation said.

In the past, I have served as a human rights monitor and election observer in Haiti.

I've also made several trips to Cuba on human rights missions, but not been back since being  arrested and expelled some years ago. Here below in present-day Havana, cars wait for gas, something I'd often witnessed there myself.  

Syria just experienced a rare bloodless revolution after the dictator whose family had ruled the country for more than half a century departed for Russia. Citizens have gathered out in the streets, wildly celebrating. Prisoners, including apparently at least one American, have suddenly walked free. But Syria's ongoing human rights situation still remains uncertain. Israel has apparently taken advantage of that uncertainty by trying to annex territory, vowing to keep its forces in seized Syrian territory "for now." 

Wash Post, Israeli government approves plan to expand settlements on occupied Golan

LA Times, Israel will close its Ireland embassy over Gaza tensions as Palestinian

death toll nears 45,000

                   So many Palestinian civilians are being killed daily by Israel in Gaza. 

As the streets of Syria fill with joyous crowds after the bloodless coup that just took place,

the country with its various ethnic groups still faces an uncertain future. But now everyone is out 

celebrating.  

CBS News speaks with man who says he's just been freed from Syrian prison A man identifying himself 

as an American from Missouri, Travis Timmerman, was found Thursday in Syria after he said he was freed from a prison 

earlier in the week, when longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad was forced from power by a shock rebel offensive.

American Travis Timmerman was found walking around barefoot after the jails were opened in Syria.

 Mr. Netanyahu has finally appeared in court in Israel. He faces numerous charges, but none for being the blatant war criminal that so many of us consider him to be. Israel continues daily to kill and injure Palestinian civilians without apparent constraints, while the US keeps on supporting and funding the Israeli government. Why? 

Former victims of abuses, out of feelings of grievance and an urge for retaliation, may then become victimizers, as seems to have happened among many Israelis after the Holocaust and after the October 2023 attack.  A widespread sentiment there now seems to be, "We will simply wipe you all and your offspring completely off the map to make sure that you can never attack us ever again." 

Not surprisingly, Amnesty International has now accused Israel of "genocide", which Israeli officials dismisses as outright "lies." More than 44,000 Palestinian, just ordinary civilians, have been killed, not only non-combatant older men, but also countless women and children. Israel justifies these many thousand civilian deaths as "collateral damage," while other observers call it simply "ethnic cleansing." 

Report: ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza https://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/You-Feel-Like-You-Are-Subhuman-Israels-Genocide-Against-Palestinians-in-Gaza.pdf

Then in South Korea, 

Wash. Post, President Yoon Suk Yeol impeached after martial law ploy Yoon must immediately hand over power to the prime minister, who will act as caretaker while the courts review the impeachment vote. The process could take months.

Moving now back home to Washington, DC, I've just heard from my friend Jose (who's dropped the accent on his first name).

Jose escaped from Cuba as a rafter, then spent a year at Guantanamo after being rescued by the US Coast Guard. His early months in Washington, DC, back in the late '90's, were spent in my own home where he proved to be a wonderful cook. He is also an artist and photographer whose work has been featured in local shows. More than 25 years after we first met, Jose, now in his late 50s and a US citizen, works at the Library of Congress. He did make a trip to Cuba in recent years, but has no desire to return, feeling hopeless about the future of his birth country. 

I am bilingual in Spanish, as most readers already know, and had been working part-time as an on-call interpreter until the pandemic. At age 86, I've now fully retired, finding that just taking care of myself is about all can manage now, especially since having never fully recovered from Covid earlier this year. 

Beef is reportedly in short supply in the US, nothing of particular concern for me personally, as I have not eaten beef or the flesh of any animal with 4 legs for decades now, rarely even eaten those with only 2 legs, like chicken. I do eat fish and plant protein, which has sustained me well. 

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

Now US birth and fertility rates have dropped to an all time historic low of 1.67 births per childbearing woman, while 2.1 per woman would be needed for population replacement. Abortions are also up. The teenage birthrate has plunged and ages 30-34 have become peak childbearing years. Not surprisingly, college enrollments have dropped and the workforce has shrunk with fewer people of working age in the population. Immigration may be halted even further by Mr. Trump. Meanwhile, the number of retired old folks like me has grown to record levels. 

As pointed out before, those still touting their "child-free" status seem to forget that they were actually once children themselves, even fetuses, both being essential stages in human development. And the childless also rely on the offspring of others at various stages of their lives, including old age. While I side with Democrats on most issues, abortion is a major exception. I see a vital difference between avoiding or preventing a pregnancy and ending an individual life already underway via an abortion in the essential early stages of any human existence. All humans emerged from unseen embryos and fetuses. It's how we all started.

No one, even among the rich and famous, ever has a painless and easy life, and we all will die. Early deaths like those of my late son and Cuban foster son are especially hard for parents like me to bear, as we expect the next generation to carry on after we are gone. 

Apart from my boys' deaths, another difficult personal challenge I've faced, was the abrupt departure of my blind husband, whom I had helped propel to success over our 24-year marriage. He then immediately married his office assistant and stopped speaking with me. He also took over all our joint funds (evidently with the help of his new wife). I had to fight even to get child support. 

But after my late ex-husband's departure, I also felt free to revive my Latin American and Spanish-speaking side, including joining the Peace Corps in Honduras at age 62 where I've traveled annually ever since with my own special projects, including just now at age 86 in June of this year. 

I've had countless adventures in some 30 countries since my husband divorced me, mostly involving medical and human rights missions as well as election monitoring  Some years ago, after traveling around Europe on my own and confronting the wall around Eastern Germany, I crossed by underground train to the east side, then sat in a movie theater there with a West German friend, viewing a propaganda film featuring then-chancellor Walter Ulbricht. Loud hissing could be heard from the audience whenever his image appeared. 

An unwanted divorce ended up expanding and enriching my life in so many ways. Suddenly, after more than 2 decades of marriage, I'd been freed to make my own decisions and go my own way. 

Just now, I was delighted to hear from Luis at the Honduran Red Cross: "Con su donación el consejo de la Esperanza esta pintando nuevamente el edificio." He reports that the Honduran Red Cross was able to paint their headquarters building, using funds that all of you and I had donated back in June, with cash still left over to further their work. I am already missing Honduras. 

These days at age 86, facing 4 more years of a Trump presidency, I am seriously tempted to return to Honduras where my social security would go much farther and where I still have so many friends. 

A Capitol Hill neighbor just sent me a photo of her recent home remodel which includes a room featuring black furniture. Fashions do come and go. Black is now in vogue. Huckleberry is also a popular home furnishing color.  

I now note that with online orders, the outside of the package often touts the great "savings" being made, with no mention of any spending. 

At my age, I've recently gotten messages about former associates from my work or volunteering efforts now nearing death, including some who have already died with dementia in nursing homes. Better to be felled by a stroke than to undergo a lingering death. But do we have any control over that? Here is one recent message: 

"I want to let her friends and family know she is in hospice care.. She has dementia, and is mostly bedridden."

While we older humans may be in decline, there is a bird still going strong. 

Wash. Post, Wisdom the albatross, the world’s oldest bird, is still laying eggs at 74

Seeing my last blog posting, with font sizes and typefaces rather jumbled, some rendered in all-caps, I know that any correction efforts will only make matters worse. Posting here is free with no guidance being offered. Postings are all trial-and-error, requiring both me and my readers to simply put up with the quirks.  

Everything reported on this blog and on its predecessor has enhanced my memory, allowing me to always go back for a review, and also has simply proved interesting for me and, I trust, for my readers as well. I think we can agree that though I may look like an ordinary "little old lady," I've hardly lived a very conventional life.