I am finding a certain solace in the historical research I’m doing at the moment. Our nation has seen dark times before. The Know-Nothings a forerunner to the Tea Party took control briefly and pushed and aggressively anti-immigrant policy targeting Jews, Italians, Germans and Irish. They did horrific things. Folks were appalled. They voted those clowns out of office.

It took some time. Lives were lost. And yet decency prevailed and so I have some hope for our future, though I am sick with worry about our present. My hope is that I will do what must be done, however painful, to bring about the more perfect union we are unsteadily lurching toward.