Dear Kenny,

Just got back from vacation. Visited your lovely wife in Huntington, WV. People around there are angry. Saw some billboards. Mostly religious based but very anti Obama.

Went to Nashua, NH to pick up the granddaughter. Stopped overnight in the Poconos. They were mad there too. Nashua the same.

Of course "you know who" wanted to stop in Plymouth, MA to tell the granddaughters about their privileged beginnings. Could have bought a few neat anti Obama t-shirts there.

Then we went to our brother's house in Vineland, NJ. What a teabagger. You would have loved him. He's even beginning to look like you. You can't believe how much existential bullsh!t I had to listen to. He wants me to read Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." Jesus! Do I want to put myself through that? It amazes me that he not only is proud of his organizing the Tea Party in Vineland, but that he has become a libertarian. He lectured me all night on the merits of Rand's morality of self interest.

I finally drove down to what was eating on him. He is going to lose everything because he didn't pay his property taxes and he didn't pay income tax on his overseas work. Hell, I would be mad at the government if they were going to take everything away from me. But I guess if I believed in Ayn Rand's crap, I would think I was getting what I earned.

Next stop on the trip: Cape May. Saw your daughter. Pretty as ever. Conservative as hell, as you well know. No peace for me there. But I did stay at our other niece's. That was a reprieve for me. But she is only liberal because her mother told her to be. No real commitment.

It occurred to me driving through the northeast that the Obama election stirred a level of racism this country does not want to wake up. Yankees are proud of the South's enslavement of Africans and not being a part of it. It's sort of like "How can you be that racist?" But Northerners never wanted blacks in their homes, have them get paid more than them, or be their bosses. Now one is running the country. It was really an ugly drive through the Northeast.

On to Atlanta. Stayed with friends. They were gentle with me. They softly queried what I thought of the recovery, the health care bill. They have bought the conservative rhetoric. "We've been screwed."

Having traveled four thousand miles I guess I only reinforced my depressive state. Our populace is standing up for patriotism for all the wrong reasons. They are standing up because they see others standing up. They are following blindly. Today's fashion is that the government is too big, spending too much and out of control. To be a patriot you have to stand up and be opposed to the government and in support of your soldiers. If you are a patriot you oppose your government! God, is nobody thinking?

You know I see no end to this that will be good for our country. I like this Neall Gabler comment from the Boston Globe:

SEVENTY YEARS ago, Americans found themselves in the depths of despair. The economy had crashed, unemployment was at 25 percent, people lined up at bread lines and soup kitchens, and nearly everyone was reeling in anxiety at what the future held for them. But as dire as things were, few Americans expected an immediate remedy. What they expected was some sort of action. Franklin Roosevelt first boosted morale by promising to tackle the problem and then set about on a long course to do just that — a course that wouldn’t conclusively end until World War II. Through it all, the country by and large demonstrated extraordinary maturity and patience. It persevered.

In our current economic travails, the public attitude is strikingly different. Americans want the economic disaster to be over now, and we are angry that it isn’t. We don’t have time for financial reforms or pump-priming or a long-term transformation to a green economy. We expect a magic wand. And who can blame us? Unlike our forebears, we live in a society in which nearly everything happens instantly. Impatience is the new American way.

Our way out of this is going to be ugly fascism. First they will make the brown skinned people the target to bind us together in patriotism. When they become strong they will include the black people as targets.

Ugly, ugly, ugly. I know you. I know what you wanted for this country. I never agreed with your conservative ways, but I know you had an ideal country in mind, like the one you grew up in. Like the one you served all those years in the Navy. But this is not the answer. Grabbing our country for the benefit of only some, while leaving others to suffer, is not right.

For those of you that see no harm in making brown skinned people carry proof of citizenship on their person at all times or those of you that think people should not be allowed to wear burkkas while you celebrate St. Patrick's Day, you are wrong and you are missing the whole point of our democracy. You are inconsistent. You want government to stop interfering with your life and start interfering in others'.

I'll stop for now. I am starting to ramble. I'll write again soon brother.

Love, the adopted one