Tonight's News Headlines

"Several Injured After Vehicle Rams People Leaving London Mosque: Witnesses"
"U. S. Warplane Downs Syrian Army Jet In Raqqa Province"
"Gunmen Attack Resort Outside Mali's Capital, Two Dead"
"At Least 62 Killed In Forest Fire Still Raging In Portugal"
"U. S. Navy Confirms All Seven Missing Sailors From USS Fitzgerald Found Dead"
"Iran Fires Several Missiles At Syria Following Tehran Attacks"
"Trump Attorney Says President Not Under Investigation - Then Hedges"
"Six Top Experts Resigned From Donald Trump's HIV/AIDS Advisory Panel"
"EPA Acknowledges Delaying Methane Rule Might Make More Children Sick, But It Will Help the Oil and Gas Industry"
"North Korea  Accuses US Authorities Of  'Mugging' Its Diplomats At NY Airport"
"Turkish President Erdogan Condemns US Warrants Issued To His Security Over Washington Brawl"

What does this say about the state of our world tonight?  All evening, I have had the old song "Eve of Destruction" running through my head...  Barry McGuire released his version in 1965, followed by a quick cover of it by The Turtles; I also remember Paul Revere and the Raiders having it on an album in the early 1970s.  My Uncle fought in Korea in the 1950s; and I grew up with the Viet Nam War - we were usually eating supper and watching horrific news with Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather.  It was a nasty way to grow up, but my Dad, having been in the US Navy for 22 years, believed that my sister and I should see the world as it was/is - and not through rose-colored glasses.
   I have managed to sail into my sixty-first year with, I think, a pretty even look at the world.  I will be the first to admit that I have a "bleeding heart," and sad stories always make me cry.  baby animals make me "coo" like an idiot, and I mourn the death of everything, while I also realize that it's all a part of the cycle of birth,life and death.  I read constantly - histories of different areas of the world, archaeology, explorations of land and sea and space, and a lot of fiction for pleasure.  I have read the Bible, the Torah and the Koran.  I enjoy learning, and applying what I have learned to my everyday life.  I dislike conflict and will do my best to avoid it.  But I am very happy to listen to my friends, whether they are discussing troubles or joys, and, if asked for an opinion, I try to give a measured one - trying to see it from all perspectives.
    I am worried about my country, the United States of America.  There is a narcissistic nincompoop sitting in the Oval Office.  He is not a leader.  He is not a politician.  He is a real estate man who has multiple bankruptcies, who cannot and will not obey laws, who buys his way out of the troubles he causes himself.  He does not work or play well with others.  He has the mind and temperament of a child stuck in the "terrible twos."  He is poorly educated and does not read.  He does not know the history of his own country, let alone the entire world.  According to people inside the White House, he shouts back at the television when someone says something he doesn't like. Yet he is in charge of our nuclear codes.  He is the "Commander in Chief."
   I am truly frightened.