Every day, as I either skirt around or clunk into and out of potholes, I’m reminded of our crumbling infrastructure and of the lame political promises of the Trump administration to fix our roads, bridges, airports, water and sewer pipes and more. Just before the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland Florida, Donald …
Continue reading Trump infrastructure proposal another administration fraud
Every time I have written about gun violence and mass shootings, one reader or another (you know who you are) will charge me with being a bleeding heart liberal. So, let's take the emotion out of the equation. After all, we've been through this scenario multiple times. The horror has become part of our national …
The images will last forever, I am certain. The bustling narrow streets of the Old Quarter area of Hanoi, the water puppet show dating back to the 10th century, the 11th century Temple of Literature honoring scholars and men of learning, the Museum of Ethnology, the Women's Museum in Hanoi, the War Remnants Museum in …
Continue reading Vietnam through New Eyes, part 5: The faces of today
So many places drew us away from the breathtaking landscape, the mouth-watering cuisine, and inviting art galleries and toward the American experience in Vietnam. Toward places familiar from books and contemporaneous television news: Red Beach #2 in Danang, where the first U.S. combat troops landed in March, 1965; China Beach, where the GI's went for …
Continue reading Vietnam through New Eyes, part 4. My Lai and the trail of tears
Today half the 94 million Vietnamese are under 29 years old. They were not alive during what they call the American War. For the younger generation, that’s ancient history. They are focused on the future. But, for a significant number of other Vietnamese, the war goes on. It persists in the dangers of so-called UXO …
Continue reading Vietnam through New Eyes, part 3. The war goes on
Coming from Boston, you’d think we’d be used to crazy traffic and pedestrian behavior. Boston is an Eden compared to Vietnamese cities, where the intensity of the traffic takes your breath away. Most people ride motor bikes (due to the high cost of cars and huge taxes imposed on the purchase). Many wear face masks …
Continue reading Vietnam through New Eyes, part 2. A kaleidoscope of images
Thirty years ago, I stood with my husband on the banks of the Mekong River in Thailand, where that country comes together with Burma to the west and Laos to the east, and knew that we had to return someday, somehow, to Southeast Asia, to Vietnam. At the time, the U.S. embargo was still in …
Continue reading Vietnam through New Eyes, pt. 1: why we went
Just when you thought Donald Trump had already taken the Presidency as low as it could go, he asked, "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries coming here?" Our esteemed President, according to credible reports, told a group of bipartisan legislators Thursday he didn't want Haiti, El Salvador and African nations sending …
The stock market is up “very, very big today” and the “tax cuts are really kicking in far beyond what anyone thought,” President Trump said last week, making an illogical cause-and-effect connection between the two. He also touted the latest jobs report. During the week, he claimed the gain in market value was due to …
Continue reading Trump trumpets economic performance: questions remain
My New Year's gift to you is a list of headlines. I have precious little expectation that we will see them atop newspapers, magazines, newscasts or on social media in 2018. Please send your own in the comments section below. I won't do something snide like: President receives heart transplant, develops empathy and humility. Perhaps the …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 