Every morning, I pick up the paper at my front door, scan the headlines, and put it aside in disgust. Then in the evening I watch the world news and again feel the same hopeless despair. The news is not good and doesn’t appear to be getting any better.

Recently, though, I’ve been wondering: What if Kamala Harris had won the 2024 election?

• Would we be reading every day about the snarky exchanges between her and her best friends?
• Would she hold press conferences to display her signature on some scary, new directive that might negatively affect huge numbers of innocent, powerless people – the immigrants, the elderly, the uninsured, the homeless?
• Would there be major rallies every weekend around the world protesting her policy decisions?
• Would we, as a nation, have lost our positive standing and influence as a world leader?
• Would we be ridiculed and ignored by leaders of other, more powerful nations?
• And, seriously, would Kamala Harris have celebrated her birthday with a multimillion-dollar military parade?

I miss her positive optimism, her smile, her infectious laugh. I miss her thoughtful, intelligent ideas for implementing sound domestic programs that would benefit those most needy among us. I miss her firm, unwavering position towards foreign leaders who aim to overthrow and defeat their less powerful neighbors. But most of all I miss her forward-thinking, joyful vision for this country going forward.

Let’s hope that, the next time around, we have presidential candidates who can deliver on those same policies and promises.

Ruth Covell
Gorham