A Marine played taps at a slow cadence, the notes hanging in the air at Saint Cecilia Cemetery

Only a few people attended Betsy’s coworker’s husband’s funeral. He was a WWII Marine. 

Lots of tiny Stars & Stripes flags dot our cemeteries.

About 1/2 of the boys at the table I ate school lunch with “back in the day” years ended in Vietnam. Maybe “back in the day” is pre-Vietnam. 

Lukens Steel built America’s railroads, buildings, bridges and ships. The unions and education forged hope for the future in people from all over the world that came here.

World Trade Center Steel Tree
at Steelworkers’ Memorial Coatesville PA:

Coatesville is made from black families coming north for jobs. Syrians, Italians, Spanish, Polish, Hungarians, Slovaks and other people looking for honest work and the promise of America. The promise of America for their children. 

My grandparents came to Coatesville from Italy more than 100 years ago. 

The Stokes, A black doctor & a nurse escaped the segregation in St. Louis. My Mom & Dad my brother Joe & me were their neighbors on Black Horse Hill Road. Dr Stokes became the first Black doctor to become a resident at Coatesville Hospital.

For most people in my generation wherever they came from the promise of America came true. 

The promise of America came true for my own children.

But my grandchildren, I worry about. I worry every day about.

Donald Trump thinks veterans are "Suckers and losers:"