Woodrow Wilson 

Woodrow Wilson had poured all he had inside into his effort to get a League of Nations established in the Treaty of Versailles drawn up after World War I. He had let Clemenceau do so much that he knew was wrong to punish Germany for starting (as Clemenceau saw it) that war. He had given up on trying to convince Lloyd George and Clemenceau that punishing Germany would only cause so much hatred that the nations of the world would have to do the whole ugly mess again in a generation. And in this, as events showed so dramatically, he was absolutely right. But he let it all get compromised away in order to pin his hopes on his precious League of Nations. An international body that would police all and thus insure lasting peace. 

When the politicians back in the U.S. began to organize and argue against America's getting into the League, Wilson went back home and set out to campaign till he either got Americans to see the sense and decency of his "League" or to die in the attempt. He got his wish. In only a few months.  

When I was a kid, I couldn't imagine how a person could drop down in exhaustion from prolonged mental stress and fatigue. Being physically exhausted I could understand; but mental depletion ...nah. Too silly. That would never happen to me. 

Now I'm quite a bit older. I've gotten utterly burnt out mentally a few times. And that depletion has, several times, made my physical health break down. The mental exhaustion causing the physical exhaustion, instead of what I thought as a kid was the logical way, namely the other way around.

Right now, Hilary Clinton is struggling. I suspect she is as far from immune to all of the jibes and attacks that have been launched at her in the past few weeks as it is possible for a person to be. She feels every one of them. Every nuance of every remark, every moment in her life going back to her childhood, every shifting expression on her face down to the slightest lift of an eyebrow - all these are analyzed over and over by her enemies until they are shopworn, ragtag bits of computer-stored information, drained of every bit of human feeling. Such is life in politics today. 

I'm praying for her tonight. Delirium Trumpens might be the end of us all at worst, and at best, he will be merely massively incompetent if he gets to be president of the U.S. A few months ago most of the world and most of America considered him a clown. Now all that stands between him and the presidency of the most powerful nation the world has ever known is Hilary. 

God protect, nourish, and guide her now. 

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I think in the darkest levels of a lot of humans, some female, but mostly male, it is harder for them to accept a female president than an African-American one. And all of this, in spite of the fact that she is far and away the most qualified person for the job.

There are just so many who seem to gloat over every even momentary mistake on her part. It's sick to imagine into her, just because she is female, all sorts of flaws and wicked motives. But that kind of thinking is what is happening nevertheless. She is being characterized as the witch right hand of Satan or the wilting female weakling - back and forth - every few days now. This kind of vacillating is sure evidence that those set on bringing her down are imagining almost all the flaws they claim to see. And I repeat: what is driving such thinking is truly ugly to look at. 

It's the ugliest kind of misogyny. It's sick.   

God protect, nourish, and guide her now.