An America sighting

 A Hoosier rustic's letter home, June 15, 2025 ...

Dear Ma and Pa:

Went downtown to this big ol' No Kings rally yesterday, and, lordy, were there a gob-lot of people. It was gray but warm and tryin' hard not to rain -- just this little no-account mist, as if God was bein' stubborn about it -- and they handed me this little American flag, and I raised it high because I love my country and don't cotton to what all those crazy people in Washington are tryin' to turn it into.

Anyway, here's what I saw:

I saw America.

I saw men and women, young people and old, wavin' flags and signs and whoopin' it up on the courthouse green and for three or four blocks in either direction. Several thousand of 'em, from the look of it.

I saw gay people and straight people and white people and black people, including a couple of ministers in their preachin' robes.

I saw old men wearing Vietnam Veteran caps, and other old men wearing Army and Air Force veteran caps.

I saw a man wearing a foam taco on his head, on account of the chief crazy person in Washington hates it when you call him "taco." I hear that stands for "Trump Always Chickens Out," and I'm guessin' that drives our too-big-for-his-britches President right up a wall.

What else did I see?

I saw signs, Ma and Pa, and some of 'em were darn clever. "You Know It's Bad If The Introverts Are Here," one of 'em said. "No One Is Illegal On Stolen Lands," said another, which is darn hard to argue with considerin' we did steal America from the Indians. Guy in a many-colored shirt was walkin' around with a "Kindness Is Strength" sign; another guy was holdin' up a sign with a picture of a king eatin' a taco, which was pretty darn funny if you ask me.

Of course, there were also a lotta "No Kings" signs -- includin' one with a cross on it that said "Jesus Is My King." Which you had to appreciate the irony of, on account of our wanna-be king's always thumpin' the Bible even though the big phony's never read a line of it.

I saw other signs, too, and American flags and Mexican flags and Palestinian flags, which was OK by me because here in America we have Mexicans and Palestinians and Irish and Italians and every nationality under the sun. It's what makes America great, way I see it. It's what makes it America.

What also makes it America is what I saw up by the courthouse: Piles of bags and plastic bins filled to burstin' with food and household items that all those people linin' the streets had brought to donate to the less fortunate. Buncha generous folk, I have to say. We used to be known for that sort of thing, and it was good to see a lot of us still are.

Good to see, also, that those same lot of us don't like the meanness and outright bully-boyin' President Crazy and the rest of the crazy people have brought to our country. We used to be a welcomin' force for good in the world, and seems now we're just a buncha gangsters puttin' the arm on our allies and squeezin' 'em for every dime we can get. 

Guess that's why all those vets were downtown yesterday. 'Cause that sure ain't the America they fought and bled and in some cases died for.

Speakin' of which, there was a woman handin' out American flag stickers who had a faded picture of a serviceman next to a picture of President Crazy hobnobbin' with that Jeffrey Epstein fella. She said the serviceman was her brother, who went to Vietnam back in '68. Apparently it messed him up bad, because 20 years after he returned from 'Nam, the woman said, he killed himself.

"I've had enough of this," she said, referrin' to the current craziness.

Know what, Ma and Pa?

Lookin' around at all those people who showed up yesterday, it appears she ain't alone.