Happy Birthday, Milo--What's the matter with Kansas?

Happy Birthday, Milo.

I know you didn't believe in any "life" of any kind after death. I can't say you're not right, nor can I say you're wrong.

I do know that I'm reminded of you often--whether by my internal calendar (it seems to alert me to your birthday) or by your music (it's in my "mix") or by the wonders of the night sky, the entertaining behavior of my cats, or the ranting and raving of the regressives that are so anxious to whip our country back a century or two.

I do know that if you were still alive today, you'd be as livid as ever with what's going on in our country--especially the display in Kansas today. The extreme right's "ideals" have gripped Kansas in a breath-halting grip and now the GOP candidates have descended on Kansas like a plague of locusts to continue to whip up a consuming frenzy of hate and oppression that we have not known in this country in many, many years.

I'm relieved you're gone--this would break your patriotic heart. To think the country your father so selflessly served, that the children you and your parents so lovingly taught, the women you respected and loved and the science you revered and embraced have all become pawns of those who seek to control others for their own pleasure.

I'm glad neither of us had children--unless things change a great deal in this decade, there will be nothing left to leave to future generations that won't come with immense pain and suffering. I had hoped that this century we would be able to take the opportunity for better living (medicine, clean water, education and peace) to other places in the world where people still suffer with little. Now I think we're on our way backwards to join them. I'm glad I won't be here for for the next century--it's not looking good.