It isn't only the Senate that will change.

To what is being broadcast on the news,
the one feeling I don't respond with, is surprise.
This division has been a very long time coming.

I grew up in the part of northwestern Ohio not at all far
from the native town of that young man
who did the Charlottesville shootings.
I'm old enough to remember times of prosperity there,
not far from Detroit, Michigan, and all its industry.
Even then, when all seemed right with the world for
many people in the small towns along the railroad tracks and highways,
there was all this hostility, intolerance, avarice, contained aggression.
I could hear it and see it during recess in the yard outside
the elementary and junior high schools.
The exclusionism and narrowmindedness were hallmarks of civic gatherings inside the local church.
I remember hearing an elder declare,
"People in this country have got too many rights."

There are reasons I don't go back there, even to visit.
Today it doesn't surprise me that generations of people
across the country seduced by fear and hatred
are fighting what reminds me of a family feud at the national level.

I don't know whether or not I will be here to see it,
but someday what is and has been one single nation
will be disunited instead of united;
it is the only way to settle and move forward, sadly.