Hope Lives

Just saw a post that 49% of persons polled believed "America's" best days are in the past.  Really?  So the best days were during the civil war, or during the Great Depression?

Rogers cousins, circa 1929.  My dad is back left and Aunt Sissy in front of him.

How about WWI and WWII?  Better days?

My uncles on leave from WWII for their brother's funeral.

Post card sent by one of my uncles to my Granny.

Young men from the small farming community where I lived as a small child were killed in Korea.  The Vietnam war and the protests at Kent State that resulted in the death of 4 students and 9 wounded, one with permanent paralysis.  That took only 13 seconds on May 4, 1970.

John Filo's iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Mary Ann Vecchio, a fourteen-year-old runaway, kneeling in anguish over the body of Jeffrey Miller minutes after he was shot by the Ohio National Guard

That was happening while this dear friend(below) was standing in a bunker in Vietnam fighting for America's freedoms.  People in both pictures were the same age.  And I was the same age, too.  Only difference is I was a young home owner and had just left working for a company supplying the radios used in Vietnam.  Sure, good for me, but not for those in the trenches.

Picture carried by dear friend in his billfold since his days in Vietnam.  Lest we never forget.

Yes, that is me standing in what would be the kitchen of our  home.

I am one of the 36% that chooses to believe in people and an America that exceeds the past.  Just as an uneducated observer, I note that when we speak of a better America it usually involves families and communities that shared and cared.

Here is a litany of pictures of the why of my belief.  

Gene and his dad.  See the love

Our son being held by Gene.  More love.

Our son and his three sons.

Help
Other
People
Enjoy

Living!

And love to all who need, not all who deserve.

Here are the loves of my life.  And see the love in Oldest Grandson's eyes.