"I've never heard a white man talk about impostor syndrome. I haven't met one."

[H2O Man]

88. Thank you

for reading it.

My children have all been to Ireland. The youngest studied at the University of Cork. She and my older daughter searched for a cottage for me to move to. But I am old and prefer to stay here and fight for democracy, the rule of law, and the brotherhood & sisterhood of humanity. Years ago, my late friend Rubin Carter tried to get me, my family, and my nephews to move to Canada before the empire began to crumble more rapidly. The young men all told Rubin that they would rather fight for America. My older daughter, and her husband and baby, currently live in His European country, largely because of this president. But also because it is a society that cares about citizens' well-being, health, and education. My younger daughter has visited them twice, and is thinking of moving there.

On one hand, I feel bad, not only because I might not see them in person much, if at all, but also because my daughters are the type of citizens this country needs in order to heal. On the other hand, I know lives include cycles, and I look at the tin-type picture I have of my grandfather's grandfather, who saw his daughters and granddaughters move to this country. Those women's pictures hang on my walls, and they were among those that contributed to American society.

My first book was about the cultural contributions of the Irish in the northeast, including some of my extended family. The guy who was the most prolific railroad history author in the country used to use my father as a resource. After my father died, he asked me if I knew of the mass-burial of Irish railroad workers near here. The WASP community refused to allow them to be buried near "white people," at the time in the 1800s, the same as with the black people held in slavery here. Of course I knew where this was located.

My daughters and I took him to it, driving through fields and a deep creek. As we sat there, it got quiet, before the author said, "This is lonely. No one knows they are here. No one knows their names." I said we know, and we are here. And if he wanted to know who they were, I'd bring him to my house and show him some old pictures, and tell him some names. Which I did, leading him to say I should write a book from the Irish immigrant point of view. That book paid for three semesters of my younger sons university education.

History fascinates me. I was fortunate to have two great mentors, Hurricane Carter and Onondaga Chief Paul Waterman, each of whom had very different experiences here than white people. I think that society would benefit from learning about other cultures. Enough so, that I taught a sociology course at the local state university, although most of my teaching experience at that level was in the field of psychology. Thus, I consider the concept of "impostor syndrome" in the context of sociology and psychology, often a measure of something I feel bad when good people experience it, likely more common in today's society than at any other time. But a bigger problem in my opinion, is those in this administration, that do not experience it. For they are only interested in the power and comfort of the office, rather than actually doing the job.