Outside on the southwest corner of the Museum of Photographic Arts stands my favorite tree in San Diego… or perhaps I should say that at the moment I cannot think of another tree in San Diego that I would less like to see disappear.  The Rainbow Eucalyptus tree this spring after the best winter rainy season I can remember is spectacular.  The last three photographs in my BLOG today are of the same tree.  There is no question about why it is named for the rainbow. 

Another phenomenon in Balboa Park today was a demonstration by a group of women who made me proud to be listed in the same species with them.  They are a group of women who declare that they cannot remain silent when the world which in its leadership is being dominated by males is in the worst condition in my lifetime. The man who is in charge of our country has decided to tweet that Bill O’Reilly, the man, the President’s friend, has done nothing wrong.  Our President during his campaign for the highest office of my country stated that a man could grab any woman by her private parts because men are stronger and dominant. He implied that males have a right to be considered more important.  Males have a right, he implied, to get whatever they want.  He is wrong.  

As I watched and listened to women today in Balboa Park I felt a strong sense of pride that I have personally been blessed with strong, self-determining women in my life.  My mother and my sisters and my wife deserve credit for all of the good things I have accomplished with my male life. I recognize that I have been blessed with maleness in a world where strong, dominant women could have done any job I held as well or better than I did.  In my lifetime men simply because they were male have had the advantage in the world of work whether or not they were the most capable. Perhaps the best thing about this incompetent president in the White House is that he is showing the world that simply being male is not enough. We are fortunate to have among our citizens plenty of people, many of them women, who could do his job better than he is doing it. The tide has turned. His maleness is not enough.