23 Skidoo

In 1975, as a undergraduate at the University of Oregon School of Journalism, I conducted a wide-ranging interview with my beloved Gramma, an Italian immigrant from Isolona, Liguria, Italy. In the interview, my question was simple: why did you leave Italy? Her answer? “The smell of war.” WWI was about to begin.

The year was 1912, My Gramma, who was 19, commandeered her mother, her brother and her baby sister on a ship called the “Ancona” across the Atlantic to Ellis Island in New York City, the immigration portal to the U.S. Instead of the popular cities back east, they came to Portland, Oregon. It was time to "23 skidoo," she said.

Flash forward to 2019, and the smell of war is back. Herr Gropenfuhrer is so desperate to be re-elected that he would sacrifice his country to the threat of war with the Iranians. Sad. Unspeakable. He must go, sooner than later. If not, we must turn out in force and vote the bum out. Anybody but Trump.