Last Saturday, a beautiful warm but not hot day, we took a bike ride starting at the Herr’s potato chip factory. We were supposed to start at the parking lot of Nottingham Park but that was closed to set up for a fair sponsored by Herr’s.

Anyway, SH, oldest son and I made a 21-mile loop through the countryside of southern Pennsylvania and into northern Maryland. The roads went through rolling countryside with no steep hills (good for me) and lots of shade. As we biked down Sylmar Road, we passed this marker where State Road bisected Sylmar. Pretty incredible. I suddenly had visions of soldiers fighting around that marker more than 100 years ago over whether African-Americans should be free people.

Sadly, we are still fighting over who should have equal rights in this country and whether we will allow folks (let’s face it, with brown skin) into a country built by immigrants.

Right now, the country has lost its moral compass and direction. The dominant political party consists of an obscene alliance of the ignorant and/or misguided, ultra-wealthy, Christian conservatives, and corporations. The GOP has taken over and is trampling the ideals of a 21st-century society which includes and respects the individual’s rights to live a life of free choice. But the other puzzle is that this same party seems so bound and determined to stay in power that it will allow Russia, a nation which the USA has considered an enemy and a threat for decades, to interfere with our elections and domestic and international policies.

Power is really that seductive.

That or their wish to impose their regressive, judgmental, paternalistic, and xenophobic views on the rest of us.

And last night the orange cheetolini who unbelievably is the president nominated for SCOTUS a man who has written that presidents should not have to face trial because it would disrupt the functioning of the executive branch. In other words, cheetolini has nominated someone who may decide whether he can be tried for crimes currently being investigated by Robert Mueller. Am I living in a banana republic yet?