Matihilja Poppies

I was prowling around the garden at 6:40 this morning because the light was so beautiful. These poppies can be difficult to get started, and fall into the category of 'fire followers' because they are often found in burned areas, but once established they can take over. They are also known, for obvious reasons, as 'fried egg' flowers. I liked the way the sun was shining through the big petals, fluttering in the breeze. 

OilMan and I were sitting up in the arbor in front of these cheerful flowers last evening, avoiding the television news but talking about it anyway. I was quite shocked to find myself in tears as I was saying how angry I was at the Trump administration for deliberately encouraging tribalism and setting people against one another in this country. It's hard to know where to begin for he seems to have reached into every corner of American life from sports to trade to healthcare and women's rights. 

But the thing that brought me to tears was the recently announced 'zero tolerance' immigration policy of separating children from their families at the border and holding them in separate places. It is a heinous and deliberate abuse of human rights and It iis being done in the name of the  American people. I was happy to see the program denounced as an illegal infringement of human rights by the United Nations human rights office. The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the US government, but a court case will undoubtedly drag on until the children are no longer children. 

It seems we live in a climate where evil can be perpetrated in a heartbeat but undoing the evil can take decades if not lifetimes....