Hillary Clinton look alike visited the Democratic Party table at the Reston Farmers Market last Saturday morning. The Dems have been a presence at the Market nearly every Saturday for a dozen years. From left -- volunteers Roger and Carrie Bruns with Ms. Clinton, Ann Cosgrove seated at table. Photo by John Lovaas
Hard to believe that August is almost done. Does that mean the wall-to-wall 90 to 100 degree days are about to end? Does it also mean that Labor Day is upon us and the U.S. presidential campaign is about to officially begin?! I can’t wait!
It doesn’t seem possible that our vacation travel to Vietnam and Cambodia ended over a month ago. What an interesting, educational trip it was! For me, it was returning to a country in the midst of a horrible, seemingly endless war when I left it 46 years ago; 46 years is a long time.
I hardly recognized Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon when I left in 1969). It is now a bustling, intense and, in many areas, a modern cosmopolitan city of 8 million people all in a hurry it seemed. I recognized but a handful of landmarks or neighborhoods I once knew. Imagine a city of 4 million modern motor scooters as the principal transport mode for a majority of the residents. Yet, the air was not visibly polluted as it was when the city was filled with ancient scooters, tiny fiat taxis and motorized pedicabs, all billowing blue exhaust smoke. The huge U.S. Embassy of my time had been levelled, replaced by a modest two-story structure serving as the Consulate since the capital of unified VietNam is now located in Hanoi as is our current embassy. The former embassy had to go—it is a building that exists only in pictures with helicopters evacuating retreating Americans from its roof. We also visited Hanoi, the capital of North VietNam when I served with the U.S. Agency for International Development in the then South VietNam. It is also a bustling urban center, but with a very different character, with its Old Quarter from the colonial days and buildings very French colonial in style along wide boulevards. We saw no visible evidence of the intensive American bombing around the edges of the city and nearby ports. But, we were taken to what remains of the so-called Hanoi Hilton where U.S. prisoners of war, mainly bomber crews, including a pilot named John McCain, were imprisoned. While not a fan of the politician he’s become, our short visit did reinforce my respect for him because of what he endured for several years at that horrible place.
The rest of our trip through parts of Cambodia with Angkor Wat and other amazing ruins left by advanced cultures a thousand years ago was awe-inspiring, even in the 90-degree heat with equal humidity. The one thought that kept going through our heads was how did they do that? Massive structures intricately decorated with fine carvings of mythical creatures, religious figures and flora and fauna. All this accomplished by a people who once ruled much of today’s Southeast Asia, and are now pretty much the least advanced, least powerful of all.
After this memory-building travel, we’re back home hopefully heading into a lovely fall and an exciting (?) political campaign. Signs of the coming campaign are everywhere, even at the Reston Farmers Market. Many of my Democratic leaning friends are still recovering from the primary wars, especially my cohort of Sanders revolutionaries. We are split—many still hurting from Bernie’s loss and the resentment of skullduggery at the DNC. A noticeable portion of them are swearing off politics or seeking to avenge the loss by signing on with Jill Stein.
Us? We just replaced our Bernie yard sign with Hillary’s, both because Trump is too horrible to contemplate and because Ms. Clinton has a record of accomplishment and the intellect and temperament to be a fine President. And, yes, it is a very good opportunity to elect our first woman President.