I am crying for America.

On the morning after the Presidential election in 2016, the first person who called me was my father, whose words were “I’m sitting shiva.” Shocked and in despair we mourned together.

He is no longer here to witness the results of this election. And the dismantling in a matter of weeks the country he loved. A country unrecognizable.

And I am relieved.

Today I cry for our country, for my parents, my grandparents, and great-grandparents who came to this country filled with promise, all who loved this country, fought for this country, and believed in the possibility of America.

Today is a good time to remember George Washington’s warning in his farewell address that love of power could result in despotism, authoritarianism, and tyranny.

I cry at my father’s grave inscribed with his favorite saying  “It’s your America,”  a phrase filled with boosterish post-war possibilities of the greatness of our nation where anything is possible.

No Daddy, today I woke up to find out “it’s  not  my America.”