Surprising but not surprising news last weekend from Venezuela. Even though there was clearly a lot of work done in advance, by a lot of people, I wonder how many who thought it wasn’t a very good idea spoke up and said why. There’s also a lot of doubt as to the true reason for why everything took place.

It’s really fortunate that there were no deaths (announced) among the soldiers and officials who took part, but unfortunately not so on the ground in the country.

The truth comes out with time, and the last weekend is one more check in the box of bad choices for quite a few people. Eventually you have to answer for your actions, and in the meantime the drain on their spirit has got to be unbearable.

Apparently, there’s another protest scheduled for later in the month. I’m checking the sign-up page to see if there’s something close to home that I can attend. It’s been a while.

In the meantime, I’m hoping that the behavior at the top of the government doesn’t make all of us unwelcome in other countries. It’s a true blessing to be able to visit places that are quite different from home and appreciate what’s there. I try to be honest about the limitations of my education as far as world history goes, while being genuinely eager to fill in some of the gaps in a world that existed long before Christopher Columbus sailed west, and continues to this day.

I try to not be unwelcome to return.