I am sorting through stacks of stuff on my desk and came across these New Yorkers from 2016 and 2018.

The one of the man reading the paper on the subway perfectly captures my utter disbelief at the travesty of the 2016 election.

I am still suffering the aftershocks of that disaster for our nation.

The cover to the right captures the gulf between two very different Americas.

It is a gulf. I have so few friends who are Republican or who will admit to me that they are Republican. They know my views. One Republican actually visited a couple weekends ago, and she joked that she had to get vaccinated before she came.

I laughed.

But felt a chasm open between us.

Her husband, a former member of the National Guard,  has lots of guns in the house. Apparently, he feels like he needs them in case some “crackhead” tries to break into their home. I was too polite to call her on the coded language.

Was that cowardly?

Maybe.

But she was a guest in our house and I wanted to keep her as a friend. We have been friends for over 30 years. She lived in the house next door to me. We went to college together. We went to each others’ weddings.

I tried to find some common ground on this topic of guns. I think we finally agreed that background checks were an acceptable compromise. And that maybe ordinary folks don’t need bump stocks or thousands of rounds of ammunition.

We did agree that tRump is a disgrace to the office of President. She assured me that did not vote for him. In fact, she did not vote for anyone for president in 2016.

Will that happen again in 2020?  Will the Dems run a candidate who is too liberal and then will this disaster of a POTUS be elected again?