SUNNY DAY

     One of the most heartwarming scenes one can observe and actually partake of is the happy voices and smiling faces on both adults, old and young, and children, as they sing Sunny Day. The next minutes are taken up with the old and treasured songs like C is for Cookie, L is for Lollipop, Rubber Ducky,  and even Mr. Rogers and his neigborhood.
      What is the magic behind these songs, these memories? Simple. The biggest unknowns here were why Mr. Rogers always lifted up his shoes and which one of four pictures was different, not like  the others.
      It seemed as if the whole country was able to unite and love these programs. There are great celebrations and memories being planned for Sesame's 50th and a movie with Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers. The kids loved the colors and characters, the letters and numbers of Sesame and were mesmerized by the calm and slow voice of Mr. Rogers. The King, the people from the purple planet, Bob, Marie, Mr. Hooper - both older and younger adults speak of these names and memories with fondness and warmth and kids continue to get the message of Sesame - we are different yet the same. Would that we had a Sesame adult version.
    But it seems as if sunny days are no more. It is not sunny when the days are filled with anger and despair. It is not sunny when loyalty to a man is prized above loyalty to one's country. It is not sunny when words of hate spew forth from all sides and when the evil that was supposed to have been buried, virulent prejudice, racial, ethnic and religious hatred, break through once again and there is death following.
     Yesterday, Timothy Egan wrote his piece in the Times and voiced a matching opinion of mine which simply points out the depth of despair we are in. He wrote of Trump as a creepy crawly person and vindicated my opinion that voting for anyone or anything other than Trump is the way to go. He states that he would vote for a tree stump rather than Trump!!! I agree and so, hopefully, will enough of the voters in 2020.
     What is indeed cloudy these days, are the clouds that arise from the absolute loss of morality on the part of the GOP. There is no more defense based on good, on the denial of evil. Nope, for now it is using the excuse that the evil, the wrongness of it all, is actually not so bad, not so wrong. So foreign interference? Eh! Financial fraud? Blah! Miserable personal traits and misogynistic tendencies and behavior? So what!! Truth being trampled underfoot, its voice calling for help growing weaker and weaker as the slime of lies rises over it? Oh, grow up!!!
     Haters speakof dual loyalties in order to attack others. Well, I too speak of dual loyalties. Either we are loyal to the United States of America or we are loyal to a man who puts forth and represents all that is anathema to that country. I watched Midway on Friday afternoon and  remarked that it was the country I would love to pledge to again, the one where individuals spoke to and for the whole of the country. Where all was not perfect and idiots were still having their roles, but at least there were efforts to overcome, to better ourselves.
     I, and many others, long so deeply for more sunny days.  No, we are not idiots dreaming of a utopian world, though that would be nice if we could ever figure that out, but why must we live in an increasingly dystopian world, a world of hate, a world of guns, a world of death, a world where it is okay, even commendable, to lock children up in freezing cages, where women are abused by captors in private detention facilities, where men are chased for trying to help their families, where we forget and trample over our obligations to our allies, our role in the world.
    Is it naive to look back so that we could look forward again? I truly do not know, but what I do know is this: if we do not change, if we do not admit that wrong is wrong, that it is disgraceful for a President and his lawyers to state that yes, a President could legally get away with all crimes, including murder, then I, and many others, lose hope. We feel the despair creeping ever upwards and we wonder what the hell is going on when people talk of his nastiness, his lies, his bizarre behavior yet say they would vote for him because of his accomplishments. Huh? What are they? The trade balance or imbalance has grown and not in our favor.The national debt has grown horrendously and will continue to do so under the new unfair tax rules. Companies and factories are rewarding their top levels but there is no investment. Wages are pathetic. There are jobs yet it can take months to find a job. More people than ever are going hungry, food insecure, no pillows for aching heads, no blankets to wrap the children up for warmth. And foreign policy - forget it!
     We have lost our way. Lost most of our ways. I and many others, hope the fading echoes of sunny days, where getting that cookie is the biggest problem, where wrongs are acknowledged and apologies given and accepted, when differences are celebrated even as similarities are emphasized, where the culture of others is recognized and cherished just as we cherish our own, will return. Some day. Soon? Please. It could be a beautiful day in the neighborhood, could it not?