In the morning, I will get up, feed the dog, take her for her walk while the coffee is brewing, and then, if its not too cold, I'll sit out on my balcony and drink my coffee and read the news. I used to love thumbing through a print copy of the Chicago Tribune, and could get through the news and sports section before I had to leave for work. Now, the print copy only takes about 15 minutes to look through and read, so the rest of the time I read some other news sources on the internet.

I'll make the 30 minute, six mile drive to work, listening to Richard Chew, on the morning talk show on WCPT, the progressive radio station in Chicago. All the time that I'm driving, I'm passing people in the traffic, walking along the sidewalk, riding buses. I'll be nervous, increasingly nervous, about the upcoming election and all of the implications related to the fact that in this government of, by and for the people, we have allowed a demagogue who showed nothing but contempt for the country and its constitution by trashing it when he incited an insurrection against the Capitol for the purpose of disrupting the peaceful transfer of power, to run for the office again.

He should be in prison, and would have been if we had cared enough to make sure the justice department prosecuted him in a timely manner. They didn't, we didn't and here we are.

But, I'll be aware of the fact that half of the people driving by, walking by or riding by do not have a clue about what is going on, aren't paying any attention, and while many of them are of Latino and Puerto Rican descent, have no idea at all that Trump insulted their ethnicity by making vulgar, racist jokes about them while speaking at Trump's rally in Madison Square Garden in New York this afternoon. Insult is really not strong enough of a word. This guy called them trash and labelled them subhuman. At Trump's rally.

Yet half of the people all around, in their cars or houses, already at work, or on the bus or train on the way, are not even registered to vote, and will not take the time or have the inclination to do so. They know little about politics, democracy or what it means to them, and they don't really care. So while I am wondering if I am living in the last months of the freedom I have really taken for granted all of my life, and have supported by being a registered voter, contributor, volunteer and writer, and worried about what it might look like come January 20th, half of the people I encounter have absolutely no idea of what is going on, and they really don't care.