All It Takes Is A Little Love

My father spent his high school years living in Corpus Christi, Texas. It was there that he met his two best friends, Bob and Lloyd. The trio would all go to Texas A&M together and remain so close that they might have been brothers. 

I have always felt that my father would have liked to find work in Corpus Christi so that he might live there. I know that he tried numerous times but nothing ever came of his applications. The last time that he attempted to find a way to be a permanent citizen of that city was only months away from the day when he died at the age of thirty three. 

My father loved the idea of living near Corpus Christi Bay and spending time along the Gulf of Mexico. He was at his happiest when he was there fishing, not so much to win a prize or for food but just to feel the ocean breezes blowing on his face. I remember that while he was job hunting there he kept his fishing pole and gear in the trunk of our car so that he might head for the ocean on a whim. My eight year old job was to sit quietly next to him marveling at his patience in waiting for a fish to bite. 

My father was a Mechanical Engineer and he loved to talk about the potential of the future that was to be found in engineering. He liked the idea of building things and marveled at the possibility that the world might one day learn how to desalinate the waters of the ocean in ways so economically sound that nobody would ever have to worry about having enough of the liquid that we all need to survive. Back in the mid-nineteen fifties that idea was still a bit of an engineering dream much like traveling to the moon. 

If my father had lived he would have seen mankind’s ability to move beyond the limitations of our earthly atmosphere. While desalination of water has grown in the Middle East, it still provides only one percent of the water that humans use on this earth. Of late it is finding more and more favor in Florida and California but much still needs to be done before desalination provides humans with a constant source of water from the oceans on a large scale.

I’ve been thinking of my father’s excitement over the idea of bringing water to the people of the world from the vast supply in the oceans. In recent times with global warming there are troubling trends threatening different locales in the United States where the water supply is in danger of drying up. There are already places in Arizona where lovely neighborhoods once stood that have been abandoned because the sources of water became dry.

Now my father’s old home of Corpus Christi is facing a dire situation. Without rain and with the increasing use of water as the city and its industries have grown the water supply is threatened with some believing that there will be none to be had in some areas before the end of this year. Already residents are under strict rationing rules that become more and more draconian as no signs of relief drain the existing water supply. 

The double edged sword for the citizens of Corpus Christi is that they must have the businesses and industries that create jobs but those entities are using a disproportionate amount of the existing water. To use a cliche, they are damned if the do and damned if they don’t limit the water needed to run the refineries and plants that provide the funding that keeps the lights on in the town. Ironically there is water water everywhere in the bay and ocean around them but not a drop that they can drink.

There has been talk of building a desalination plant in Corpus Christi for years but the cost of doing so has always seemed prohibitive. Suddenly the idea is catching hold again but time is fleeting and even if the funding became available today the work would not be done before many residents may find themselves turning on a tap that runs dry. 

Corpus Christi is not the only place in Texas that is being threatened with a shortage of water. Much of the beautiful Texas Hill Country has been so dry that spring and summer wildfires are common. Many of the loveliest neighborhoods are banned from watering grass or plants for more than a few minutes each week. The land is dry and parched which also lends itself to flash flooding when it does finally rain. In spite of the warning signs more and more people are moving into the area and building new homes 

The scientists and engineers are fully aware of the problems but the brokers of real estate just keep ignoring the threats in so many parts of the United States. We take that moisture that fills our lakes and our wells for granted without considering the consequences of what will happen if a dry spell lingers too long. 

There are answers to the problems that we face but they will take inventive souls and the will of the people to expend the funds to reassure the growing population that their homes will not become ruins when and if the water that feeds them is gone. We have to begin thinking ahead of environmental tragedies rather than only reacting to them once they have already happened. The days of putting our heads in the sand are going to create tragedies if we fail to pay attention and to make the sacrifices that are needed. I hate to think of Corpus Christi or any other place on this lovely planet becoming uninhabitable because we were not stewards of the land. I hear my father’s voice growing excited over the possibilities of solving such problems. Perhaps it’s long past time to bring the engineers together on a new project as exciting as going to the moon. Insuring sources of water for humans is indeed a very noble project. 

Sometimes I wonder if my take on the world of today is filtered through the lens of my age and the number of losses that I have endured. At the age of seventy seven I have to admit that in spite of the many ups and downs mine has been a good life, but of late the daily news is more often than not disturbing. I find myself longing for calm and peace rather than stories about wars, shootings, chaotic upheavals of the economy and other bad news. After the Covid pandemic I had hoped that the world would settle down into a long appreciation of surviving with all of us humans quietly focusing on the most important aspects of life. I did not expect the ensuing chaos that feeds the daily headlines and creates continued uncertainty across the globe. This is not how I imagined my last years on this earth to be, but I suppose the pattern is in keeping with the flow of history. 

Somehow we humans have a very difficult time getting along with one another. While it seems easy enough to me if we just work together and allow people to be themselves, that is quite a pipe dream when set against reality. The truth is that we have a finite amount of resources and opportunities that fuel the problems that we keep having with each other. The story of our beginnings as told in the Bible tells us that the first man and woman lived in the kind of paradise that most of us would truly enjoy but even back then they were tempted to take more than they had been given. Their original sin follows the rest of us for all time. 

Even if this is only a metaphorical story created to warn us about the flaws of our human emotions it is still a powerful explanation of our tendencies to never be satisfied with equality for all. The same jealousies that pushed Cain to kill Abel are present in the wars that we humans have inflicted on one another throughout history. While our natures have the capacity to be kind and loving we always seem to have someone or some groups among us who lie and cheat and steal and want to dominate rather than just living in peace. Mankind’s inhumanity to each other creates problems after problems over and over again.

Sometimes those problems manifest themselves in very personal ways. Humans sometimes hurt those closest to them in emotional and physical ways. In an almost cyclical repetition wars seem to spring up over and over again when we grow wearing of trying to understand each other or when greed for resources overpowers our will to compromise with groups and nations that see the world very differently than the way we do. 

I am admittedly the kind of person who prefers detente. I am more than willing to share and listen to ideas and philosophies that are very different from my own. I have been fortunate to live in the United States of America, a nation rich in both material and human resources. I view our country as a delightful salad of many colors and beliefs. My way of thinking is mostly to live and let live, but of course there are times when evil has to be curbed but doing so should not impose limits on how the majority of good people choose to be from day to day. 

We boast that we have freedom to speak our minds and to protest things that we believe are unfair but then we engage in culture wars that demean those whose thoughts about how to live are different from our own. This is especially egregious when the limitations on our basic liberties are legislated by those who govern us. There are very good reasons why the founders of our nation created the Bill of Rights. We should all want to protect our liberties even when we have disagreements. When I participate in a “No Kings” protest I am not being unpatriotic. In fact, I am celebrating my right to express my concerns. Nor am I being hateful when I critique the president and his overreach in unilaterally creating tariffs or declaring war. I am using my rights as a citizen when I point out the problems with ICE. I am not being anti religion when I worry that Christian Nationalism is moving into classrooms and being used as a cover for threatening people whose beliefs do not jibe with theirs. 

I have many friends and relatives whom I dearly love and would fight or even die for whose political stances are the polar opposite of mine. I want to be able to explain to them why I have developed my own feelings about how our government should work rather than being accused of being unpatriotic and even sometimes being tossed aside. I am sickened by the group speak of those whose politics worry me. When I hear the same sentences being echoed over and over again I worry that too many are being propagandized rather than treated with honesty and a willingness to have adult conversations about what we need in this world to grow and prosper rather than eternally feuding. 

I am weary of the fighting that is tearing the world apart and specifically turning individuals against each other and yet here we are. Just as Joseph Goebbels used his propaganda to turn ordinary Germans into believers of the fascist Nazi movement. I see much of the all present media using emotional tactics to influence our thinking rather than showing us facts that help us to identify and accurately assess problems. When people tell me that immigrants are raping and killing as though it is a given that large numbers of them are criminals I want to hear real statistics which they can never provide. They have been bombarded with generalizations that play on their fears and emotions. When I hear outrage over trans women hurting young girls in sports or bathrooms I realize that a tiny percent of the population is being used to stir up unnecessary trouble. Fear and want are fuels of propaganda.

The truth is that the vast majority of immigrants are hard working family members. The criminals are outliers, exceptions who can be arrested without creating chaos for those of good will. The truth is that few people have ever encountered a trans individual and the numbers of them who participate in sports is so small that they represent less than one percent of the athletes. It would be so much better if we were to attempt to understand that these souls are mostly kind and well intentioned rather than than pariahs who must be wiped out of our society. 

I know that we humans have the capacity to get along if we are willing to stop the quibbling and to select leaders who demonstrate a willingness to work together rather than to drive us apart. There will be blips in the process because in the grand scheme of things there will always be broken souls driven by hatred, greed and a lust for power. We would do well to avoid any group that survives by turning us against each other. We should shun them not our fellow citizens.

Somehow all of the examples of history that should have taught us to beware of any movement that takes aim at certain groups have yet to keep us from being manipulated by power seekers. When will we learn?

I have to admit that I have always been a worrier. I can’t exactly pinpoint to moment when I first feel prey to anxieties but I suspect that the origin or my concerns came when my favorite uncle died and I was suddenly sent to the first grade without so much as a warning. My memories before that time are of a happy go lucky soul with a kind of innocence that was unaware of the possibility of bad things happening to me or my family. For the first time in my life I began to consider negative possibilities that might rear their ugly heads to inflict pain and sorrow on my family. My innocence was somehow challenged in that fateful moment and the brave side of my personality was a bit more afraid than it had once been. 

With the help of a very loving family and lots of good friends I eventually got over the anxiety that followed my uncle’s death. He had been wise enough to warn me that he might not be able to overcome the cancer that kept returning to his body. He had done so in an honest and gentle way as though he understood how much I would need his reassurance that his fate was simply part of life. 

Just when things felt calm and reasonable again my father announced with hopeful glee that we were moving from our home in Texas to California. He was an adventurous soul who had lived in many different places when he was a child. He loved the idea of seeing new sights and accepting new challenges. I, on the other hand, was not so sure that I was ready to have my life upended once again. Nonetheless, as a child I had little say in the matter and so off we went to San Jose where I felt the same kind of unease that had enveloped me right after my uncle had died. Leaving the security of the school that I loved and the friends who meant so much to me was too much like suffering another grave loss. Still, I was determined to adjust to my new reality no matter how frightening it was for me. 

I was eight years old and the coming months would be some of the most tumultuous of my life. Not only was I miserable in San Jose but it seems that my father was as well. Before we even got settled he announced that he had quit his job and that we would head to Los Angeles where he had relatives that I had never met. They were going to help him find work in the bustling city where he believed there would be many opportunities. 

The very first day that we arrived at our temporary home the agent who had rented the place to my parents instructed us on what to do in the event of an earthquake. She was rather explicit about the dangers and so I had yet another thing to put in my bucket of worries. Ironically we ended up watching a movie that night with Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable that focused on the devastating disaster there early in the twentieth century. So I began to think deeply about what I would do if the earth began to shake beneath my feet.

School was better in Los Angeles and I found myself quickly making friends even though I was somewhat shy. We would visit the relatives who seemed to be delighted that we might put down roots and be near them for a long time, but they were older than my parents and certainly not as wonderful as my grandparents so I did not take to them the way I should have done. 

When my father was still unable to find work we were on the road again back to Texas where all of us would feel a bit more normal. Our first stop was in Corpus Christi where my father had gone to high school and became friends with my uncle who had died. Because my aunt lived nearby and we had visited her many times before. I was comforted by the move. School was great as well, but best of all my father would show me around the town that he so loved. Some afternoons he would take me and my brothers to the bay where he liked to fish. He talked about his enchantment with the ocean and would spin tales of his adventures with my uncle. I saw that he was happy again and it made me relax and enjoy those moments with him.

Even though I was only a child somehow I began to understand how much he too had been grieving over the loss of my uncle. The death of his best friend had haunted him and led him to a desire to delve into new adventures as a panacea. Realizing that my father was anxious too somehow calmed me down. I felt really good for the first time in a long time. 

Good luck was evasive for my father. He found no jobs in Corpus Christi but he was instead hired for a job back in Houston. At the very end of the school year we closed the circle of our adventure. Things were looking up and feeling normal once again. I was even seeing many of my old friends and enjoying Friday nights with my aunts and uncles and cousins. Then came the whammy that seemed to insure that I would always be a cautious worried soul. My father died in a car accident just as our family life was settling down into familiar patterns. 

I have learned how to tame my worries over time. Nonetheless there is always an element of anxiety lurking in the back of my mind. Experiences have taught me that challenges are an inevitable aspect of life. I tend to be ready for the next shoe to drop even as I sometimes grow wary when my world is going well. The history of my life has shown me that problems come along without warning and so I must always be ready to respond. 

My cautiousness has been both a positive and a negative in my life. I don’t allow my self to take too many chances but I also plan and double plan for the surprises that always seem to come. I have had to learn how to live in the happy moments without thinking too much about what might happen to change things. I suppose that like most humans I try to find balance as I walk on a tightrope with dangers lurking beneath my feet. All in all I have found ways to savor the joys of life with gusto but also be ready for anything. I tend to live one moment at a time because I have learned that changes come without warning. Rather that constantly worrying I focus on taking one step at a time in the journey of life. One thing that I know for certain is that I always find ways to adapt and friends to help me through any trials that come along. 

The little voice that warns me to be careful is mostly quiet but always there. I suppose that such is the fate of every person who has ever lived. I now know that my story has not defined me but has made me more aware of the need to embrace joy whenever it comes into my life. My fears have actually made me strong and so much more loving. Life does not determine who we are but it does have an impanct on how we react. What a gift my story has been!

I attended the No Kings protest on March 28, 2026. It was my fourth time to join others in such a rally to make our voices heard as we witness Donald Trump overlooking the rules that are clearly stated in the Constitution. I have been happy to be able to continue to assert my first amendment rights and to be with people who are willing to use those rights to make our concerns public. 

I went twice to downtown Houston, Texas and marched in the streets of the city. I was impressed with how peaceful and kind all of the people there were. Some came with coolers filled with water to share with anyone who became hot or dehydrated. Others brought flowers that they gave randomly to people in the crowd or to the police officers who were making sure that we were going to be safe and not become the victims of someone hoping to do us harm. I very much enjoyed the feeling that we were not that much different than some of my ancestors of long ago who decided to join the American Revolution of two hundred fifty years ago. 

Later I found out that there were also No Kings protests closer to my home. Given that my father-in-law’s health has been fading and my knees have been giving me lots of trouble I chose to see was it was like at the rally in Pearland, Texas on my third go around. Given that Pearland is a notoriously red town I did not expect to find the crowd of seven hundred kindred spirits who were there. It was uplifting to know that I was not alone in my anxieties about the present state of our union.

I had a total knee replacement only weeks ago. I am still in physical therapy and it will be many weeks before I will be totally healed. Even though I wanted to be part of the march in downtown Houston I knew that my artificial knee was not yet up to the task of walking many blocks on hard concrete in the midst of a crowd of thousands. So I decided to return to the lovely park where the folks in Pearland would be gathering. With a sturdy chair, a wide brimmed hat and plenty of water I set out with my husband to sit and listen to the local speakers who laid out their reasons for being there. 

It was a great experience. Once again everyone was polite and helpful and eager to voice their concerns about the present state of our government. Most of those who spoke were stunning and it made me feel great to be in their presence. I listened raptly for two hours and felt more and more certain that the American people are genuinely good individuals who want what is best for everyone, not just a select few.

It was with a great deal of hopefulness that I posted photos of my No Kings adventure on Facebook. Over fifty of my friends many of whom had been colleagues and former students showed their support for what I had done, but one soul challenged me to explain why I felt the need to protest anything about our current president. He then listed all of the things that he believes make the president great, not someone to be criticized. 

I did not want to turn my joy into a debate that I already suspected would not change anyone’s mind, especially the man who disagreed with me. I have known him for a very long time and I understand his political views even though I disagree with most of them. I realized that if I had taken the bait it would not have made a difference and then some of my protective friends might have thrown themselves into the fray. I did not choose to ruin the happiness that I was feeling so I simply deleted his comment without response.

Now I am ready to defend my views which I have done many times with my blogs. The truth is that I don’t really know where or how to begin because I truly believe that Donald Trump is indeed the worst president that our nation has ever had. He is the nightmare of those among the Founding Fathers who tried so hard to set up a system of three separate branches of government that would keep any one group from operating alone. Sadly at the moment that system is not working the way it was meant to be. 

So here are the bullet points for why I was at a No Kings protest:

• First of all I believe that Donald Trump should have been impeached after January 6, 2021 when he lied to his supporters that the election was rigged and then goaded them to go to Congress to stop the transfer of power. 
• Then of course there are the many crimes of which Trump has been accused and sometimes even found guilty of perpetrating including sexually attacking women, unlawfully keeping documents and then impeding the process of reclaiming them, and being far too close to Jeffry Epstein to believe that he is totally innocent.
• The economy of the United States was the best in the world when Trump came back into office. Since then he has illegally placed outrageous tariffs on other countries that have resulted in higher prices on virtually everything we purchase and has negatively affected the worldwide economy.
• Trump’s overly aggressive immigration policies have not resulted in an effective process of finding and deporting illegals who have been engaged in criminal activities in spite of his boasting that he is making us less dangerous by taking such people off of the streets. In fact, President Obama has a much better track record of finding and deporting the most egregious illegals while Trump’s ICE goons are untrained and dangerous.
• The methods of ICE are uncalled for and have resulted in innocents being sent to detention centers and deaths that need not have happened. They operate like a secret police more than a force for law and order.
• Without consultation with CongressTrump has committed our country to war against Iran without thought of how to end the hostilities.
• Trump has insulted our allies and boasted that he is going to take Greenland and rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. He has undone decades of diplomacy and shown our allies that our country can no longer be trusted. At the same time he has cozied up to Putin and other authoritarian leaders.
• Trump has created a cabinet of nonsensical people who only know how to flatter him but are not up to the task of running the FBI, the Defense Department, the Department of Justice, the CIA, the Department of Health and Human Services or the Department of Homeland Security. 
• Presently Trump is doing everything possible to pass a law that would make it difficult for millions of people to vote just to insure that Republicans never again lose an election.
• Trump has done his best to turn us against immigrants, people of color, women, and members of the LGBTQ community, most especially the tiny number of trans people who exist in our nation. His cruelty is stunning.
• Trump pretends to be a religious man but shows no signs whatever that he is a man of faith in anyone but himself. 
• Trump lies as he breathes and seems only concerned about enriching himself and his family.
• Trump shows signs of an elderly man whose mind is dwindling and should not be charged with making important decisions. At the very least he is the most ignorant president we have ever had to endure.

I could go on and on and on but we all know that everything costs more than it did before Trump came into office. The effect of his policies have generally been to create so many problems that it will be decades before we will be able to restore our faith in the nation and our standing in the world. So, yes, I went to a protest and I will keep doing so because I love the United States and its people. I went because I want goodness and fairness for all Americans, not just those who are white and Christian. I went for all of the many people who have depended on the United States to be a safe and fair place. I will not remain silent hoping that all the damage just goes away. I do not believe that any of us should be complacent. So I will keep marching or sitting until there is positive change. 

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it…always.”

Mahatma Gandhi

I had not been to my favorite nail salon for almost three months. I had to stop many weeks prior to having a total knee replacement and I was told not to do such things for even more weeks after the surgery. I missed the pampering that I receive when I am there and most of all the sweet manicurist who always makes me feel so special. She and I talk about family and dreams and the kind of things that women understand. So when It was finally okay for me to return I truly looked forward to spending time with a person that I greatly respect and have grown to think of as a friend. 

I have to admit that I was somewhat shocked to see that I was the only person present in the usually bustling business. My manicurist, Kim, greeted me with a big smile and began showering me with questions about how my surgery had been and how I was feeling. Once we had caught up on news about our respective family members the topic of the state of the nation quietly came to the forefront of our conversation. 

Kim pointed out the obvious lack of customers on a day that might otherwise have been busy. She felt that it was related to the rising costs of groceries and gasoline. After all luxuriating in a salon is something that can rather easily be written out of a budget when finances get stretched. As she mentioned that even people in other countries were feeling the economic pinch of these times I silently counted myself fortunate to be able to be a bit frivolous with the funds that I get from homeschooling and tutoring. I began to wonder how many people were not just struggling but anxious about the security of their jobs. I worried about Kim and what would happen to her and her family if the lack of customers caused the salon to close. I viscerally felt the backlash of our shaky economy in a way that had not occurred to me during my cloistered time related to my knee surgery. 

I began to occur to me that it was not my imagination that stores seemed to have fewer people inside of late. I wondered if this was also related to fears causing people to cut back on their purchases. With inflation caused by tariffs and higher prices caused by a surprise war with Iran there is an uncertainty hovering over the world unlike I have seen in so many years. 

I grew up in a single parent home. My mother always seemed to find ways to keep us housed and well fed but there were times when I wondered if she was privy to some kind of magic. I knew how small her income was and found it rather amazing that she was able to hold things together with so little. To this day I think that she should have written a book on how to manage a household with a bit of imagination. She knew how to keep us well fed with her culinary magic that took a pot roast through many iterations during the course of a week. 

Now my brothers and I live like royalty thanks to our mother’s ability to keep us safe while we navigated toward our life’s work. We were part of a fortunate generation that had so many opportunities that no longer exist for our young people today. We old folks like to brag about our humble beginnings but the truth is that we were able to purchase gasoline for twenty five cents a gallon or less. Our first cars cost a few thousand dollars. We were able to purchase homes for twenty thousand dollars and even though our salaries may have been proportionally small we had good health benefits and sometimes even pension plans that would sustain us in our old age. 

Sadly our president thinks that he has every right to decide whether or not to levy tariffs and when and where he can declare war. Instead of Congress rationally discussing such issues the majority Republicans seem to be content to do nothing to stop him and then to defeat any attempts by the Democrats to curb his enthusiasm for reshaping the world to his own desires. Thus prices are high and ordinary citizens are struggling and wondering what happened to the promises of better days with Trump at the helm. People are truly worried just as Kim pointed out and I continue to be concerned as well.

I plan to take part in the No Kings protest tomorrow. It will be my fourth time to do so since Trump became our president. With each passing week I have found more and more reasons to liken him to an authoritarian king who decorates his office with gold and remains ignorant of the suffering of so many of the people. I urge everyone to find a way to use their voices and their influence to let Trump and the Republican party know that his flaunting of the Constitution and our democratic principles is not sustainable. Make your concerns known. Your silence insures that nothing will be done to set things right. Find the issue that bothers you the most and then use the power that the First Amendment gave all American citizens. Use that freedom of speech. Join us as we peacefully let it be known that this is not the beloved country we have known. Let Republicans know that we expect them to assert themselves and stop bowing to the outrageous demands of a president overstepping his powers. The whole world needs us to help set things right. As Gandhi reminds us the tyranny will ultimately fail. It always does and we should all be on the right side of truth and freedom when it happens.