No one knows what the next second, minute, hour, day, or week has in store for us. We must live through those measures of time to truly find out what will happen next. Yet, we still plan, set goals, and pray for our desired manifestations to come to past. In most cases many outside forces are affecting the outcomes we pray to manifest in our lives, yet we focus on the parts of those outcomes that we can control. Or, at least that is how it normally has worked for me! But today I feel the nation has moved into some new unwelcomed realm.

For most of my life, and I am now 59 years old, I felt the world was mine to conquer. If I failed, I viewed the failure as my fault. But now I no longer feel that way. I feel as if my country, or at least 45%  or so of it, along with the leaders running the government are working to ensure all I have built is destroyed. I feel that my very life, liberty, and ability to pursue happiness can be ripped away from me in the blink of an eye. Most of my ancestors lived their entire lives under these constraints and citizens of many other countries fully understand living life under these dynamics. I now understand living under the pressures of these dynamics too.

As an African American living in the so-called land of the free I now understand all too well that for over 60 years a certain segment of the American population has been silently working hard to destroy my right to live freely in this country. Because of this hatred of my people, I really have no idea where I will be living in the next three years. I may be living in a foreign country waiting for the rebellion that surely will arise to put down the kleptocratic government in charge. Or, and I pray daily, that the good in humankind will peacefully see to the definitive neutralization of this evil regime in next year’s midterms.