Hässlich

 I was thinking about how hateful the world has become.  How anger and violence have become the norm in my country.  It has somehow become acceptable to scream invectives, to name-call, to belittle in order to get your way.

It's like Biff from Back to the Future is in charge of things.

It's funny, I have been trying to remember my German, after forty plus years of being away from any formal schooling in the language.  MY father and I spoke it with each other- he had learned  a bit in his teens working in a place in upstate New York at a place called the Dutch Mill.  The owner was German, but Germans were not acceptable after World War One, so they all became "Dutch" ( the Amish were Pennsylvania  Dutch for instance)  I thought of the word for "ugly" this morning for no particular reason except for its literal translation.  Hässlich means hate-like  To be considered ugly , you must have hate in your heart.

Peaceful protests are being taken over by those whose agenda is contrary to the mission of the protest and what begins in a lawful assembly can de-evolve to a riot in the blink of an eye.  The problem is exacerbated when the President cheers on those who are creating mayhem and branding those people who are protesting for a change in policy as somehow being fascists ( look up "fascist" to see the irony of that statement)  Antifa is literally anyone who is anti FASCIST, so all your World War II dads and grand dads are now on the WRONG side of Trump-ism.

Back to my original thought.  Hate makes you ugly.  Hate grows around your heart and makes you a bitter person.  We need to get back to where we can listen thoughtfully to all sides of an argument and move forward as one.