I loved Ronald Reagan, voted for him twice ,and cried when he was shot. But years after his presidency was over and he had passed I read that the dramatic increase of homeless people in the nineteen eighties was due in large part to his decision to cut funding to state run mental institutions. The inmates were taken to the nearest bus stations and given money for a bus ticket which they promptly spent on food and or drink as they had no place to go. I wept again for him and for them when I read that.

I loved Andrew Jackson, one of the few Presidents that came from my home state of Tennessee. As a boy I so enjoyed Charlton Heston’s portrayal of him in the movies and of Susan Hayward as his beloved wife. As an adult when I learned of his responsibility for relocating thousands of Native Americans from the Southeast to Oklahoma during the tragic travesty called the Trail of Tears I wept for him and them.

I loved Franklin Delano Roosevelt even though like Andrew Jackson he died before I was born. I was proud of his courage and his determination to try anything to bring our nation out of the Great Depression. But when I learned that he was responsible for putting thousands of Japanese American citizens in containment camps during World War Two I wept for him and them.

I love my country, the United States of America, right or wrong. We have not always done right as a nation. We pushed a lot of people out of the way to realize what we called our Manifest Destiny. We have done a lot of good but there has been considerable collateral damage and many have been murdered, mangled, and marginalized along the way. My own mother when I as a young adult expressed to her my horror that we European Immigrants had taken the Native Americans’ land said as her way of justifying it, “Well, they weren’t doing anything with it.” Pretty weak excuse, Mom. I wept for her and them.

I know that none of us is perfect but I believe we have a duty to ourselves and one another to be and do our very best. A part of that is fessing up to our failures and learning from them to be better and more compassionate people. Loving people right or wrong is the only way to truly love but love always hopes for the best in the people and things we love.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White