I put my kayak in on the Fort Mill side of the Catawba River yesterday and tried to reach the dam for about fifteen minutes but let myself give up to rest my arms and drift back into the abnormally high water that had formed a temporary lake on the same side of the river.  I got lost in light and in pointing my camera at creatures for an hour.

I tried for the face of the dam again and made my way close to shore to escape the current until I reached the zone at the base that pulls left, right and oddly toward the dam.

The water is fifty feet deep.  The dam is higher.  The sound of falling water is that of a visit to half a dozen waterfalls at once.

I got close enough to touch the wall and just sat there in water that throbbed up and down like the backside of a big wave.  Afraid.  Entranced.  Satisfied.  At peace in the shadow of the Lake Wylie dam on a sunny February day.

I came of age as the Civil Rights struggle matured and I identified with Martin Luther King and that struggle as I morphed from a boy to a man.  I suppose that makes me a liberal though I have never thought of myself by that label.  I was and still am for Civil Rights.

I came to love my country deeply during that time.  My love for America has increased as I have aged.  By fortune of geography and historical timing, the United States became the greatest country in the history of the world.  Not superior but for sure special.  Everyone not of pure Native American blood is an immigrant and, truth be told, Native Americans immigrated in pre-historic times themselves.

The heart and soul of America is the notion of a new man in a new land.  We are an immigrant nation.  President Trump and his supporters subvert that notion by preventing immigration reform and demonizing immigrants, most of whom are more law-abiding than established citizens.  Our national debt has been run up to unsustainable levels by a tax cut that benefits the wealthy.

Today President Trump is calling for an unprecedented military parade later in the year and had wished to arrange one for his inaugural.  Supreme Commander and former President Eisenhower must be rolling over and over within his casket.

Trump is thumbing his nose at the goodness of America.  We are not Soviets or North Koreans.   He claimed that a new record for a State of Union speech was set a few days ago when he spoke.  Not true.  He called the Democrats who did not applaud his words during the address “treasonous.”  Within the last few days he belittled the Democratic Leader of House Intelligence Committee by using the word little before his name and called him a liar.

Trump is outrageous beyond belief and challenges my view of my own country.  We have never had a demagogue beloved by 40% of the population before.  My faith in my country is sorely tested by his Presidency.  What kind of new man are we becoming under the leadership of a billionaire bully boy?