I'm out of here. [View all]

[FightingIrish]

I have known since the G.W. Bush presidency that I am eligible for Irish citizenship because my maternal grandmother was born in Ireland. My cousin obtained Her Irish citizenship through that route and now lives in Ireland. Leaving the U.S. was kind of an idle threat and a diversion from my anxiety about what this country was becoming.

I gave it some more thought after the 2016 election. My wife and I looked into emigrating to Canada which is just a few miles up Interstate 5 from where we live. We quickly learned that we were too old to be welcomed into Canada. We were in New Zealand when this virus madness erupted and thought it would be an ideal refuge from Trump’s America. That too was not possible.

Now we are very seriously preparing to abandon the country in which I have lived for seventy-five years and whose uniform I once proudly wore. I would be leaving my family and friends far behind, probably never to see many of them again. My sister thinks that’s selfish and not a great idea. Why would I do that?

I’m in reasonably good health and have no real idea how many years I have left. No matter how many, I won’t spend them in a country that would not reject Trump’s failed presidency. We get daily glimpses of the ugliness that empowers Trump. If those goons are the real Americans, I am no longer an American. I don’t belong here.

I feel like I’ve already lost three and a half years of my life from having Trump in my face every God damned day. He’s a cancer on my soul. My first waking thought every day is how much I want him gone from this planet. I’m perpetually outraged. If I look away for an instant, I open my eyes to some new horror he has perpetrated while I wasn’t paying attention.

By November, I hope to have my Irish citizenship. We will be making plans for a new life and that will make the coming months bearable. If Trump stays in office by whatever means, we will be on our way to a new life, an uncertain life but one free of possession by the ugliest creature that ever claimed to be a human being.