Sitting here in 100-degree temperatures on my farm, the times seem strange to see and comprehend.

I have no access to any secret information in Washington and don’t want any.

I want to think for myself with no labels.

No cable news show will ever invite me on the air (and I would never go), the New York Times would never reprint a word I wrote, and Fox News has never heard of me and never will. It’s just where I want to be. I am free to think, not just respond to other people’s thoughts.

Despite labels like red and blue, they are mind killers.

My political writing was long ago, but my instincts have mostly, but not entirely, held up. I understand that this is a new and different world.

I’m writing my perspective because I don’t see much coming from the outside, and the people who read my blog and like my pictures are getting scared. There is a lot of hysteria out there, posing as news,

I want to help. They tell me I am sometimes helping.

So, I will offer my perspective to you in the hope that it is helpful and trustworthy. Buyer beware: take it or leave it.

I don’t hate; I don’t argue my beliefs, and I dislike drama and hysteria, which are now the primary responses of extremists on both sides and of a media that once stayed close to the middle and often, if not always, told some truth. I don’t hate people because they disagree with me.

People who tell me they hope I’m right don’t get it.

No one, including me, can say who is right or wrong or what will happen, especially now. We writers jump in and hope we hit the water. I’m not seeking perfection, just my truth.

My truth:

First, we are not close to a civil war, and even if Donald Trump had been killed, I don’t believe we were ever close to having one or will be any time soon.

The ingredients of a civil war are not there. Extremists do not start civil wars on social media; they are launched by great masses moving to dismantle a government and sacrifice their lives, not defecate on politicians’ desks and do their fighting on computers.

Both sides have strong followings, control large government elements, and lead constituents in a nation that is still, despite challenges and stresses, the most profitable and economically stable in the world.

Most Americans still want to be free. Women, immigrants, and people of color have amassed enormous power, as have the Christian and white men fighting for their place. They both have a place and cause to fight – social media. Neither will sit nicely for being dominated.

No one in America is without a voice. There have never been more ways to make it heard.

As always, large numbers of illegal immigrants are frightening and enraging large numbers of American, mostly white citizens as they always have and as they are all over the Western World.

They are sparking populist movements everywhere, from Europe to America. They frighten entrenched people who fear they are stealing their lives and resources.

Tens of millions of refugees live in camps all over the world and are desperate to get out of them, and they will continue to try and pour into our country, no matter how many walls we put up or how many laws we pass.

That will worsen unless someone comes up with better plans to control the border than Chinese Walls and drones. I can’t quite imagine the answer; it’s not for me to say.

It is true that America is now a bitterly and almost evenly divided nation, with one half primarily white and the other a mix of white and different colors.

Each side portrays the other as evil, dangerous, and threatening the Republic. It is also true, as it was in the Civil War, that no statesman like Abraham Lincoln was around to capture what was at stake and lead his followers. A nation divided, he said, cannot survive too long.

So far, people following Trump have very little to show for it, except for smaller bank accounts. The same applies to rural America, abandoned to Wall Street and the new economy by the Democratic Party years ago.

Donald Trump is in a position he never had while growing up or as a child Playboy.

He will have to decide if he wants to be president of fewer than half of the people or try to represent all of them. So far, he has proven he can’t do that or won’t.

He has proven to be a brilliant showman and a more formidable, resilient political force than I imagined. But I can’t imagine him as a leader of people like me or much of the country.

If cats have nine lives, he has at least 20. He keeps adding to them. But they alone are not enough.

He remains a vulnerable candidate against overwhelming odds. He is no longer underrated and has left behind a tsunami of hateful and frightening threats, lies, and stupid messages that will haunt him, as they did four years ago.

He is no different than he was then and will have to change his message or remain a vulnerable political target. His problem is that changing now equates change and compromise to social and political treason among his followers, which doesn’t leave him much wiggle room.

He is already caught between two worlds. Just think of the abortion issue.

None of that has changed.

His bobbing, waving, and victories have puffed him up even more, like a giant balloon begging to be challenged and punctured. Biden could have done it in that debate, but he made it clear that he is no match for this man, a brilliant survivor.

Trump suggests that he is preparing a softer, kinder message for the Republican Convention. He will have to do it more than once and all over the country. That will be a neat hat trick. He’s been spouting grievance and revenge for some years now, and gentleness and empathy will sound strange.

If given the chance, many others could puncture the Trump balloon in the Democratic party in a debate. Trump has never had a good one until Biden went into a standing coma.

So far, the President hasn’t let them.

The Democrats have much the same decision to make as Donald Trump, and they have little time to make it. They can lead or get led, change or get changed.

One reason Trump looks so strong is that Biden seems so weak.

No one has offered real alternatives or actual challenges, and Trump is romping freely across the landscape, unscathed, unchallenged, and more prosperous by the hour.

Magicians are said to change chaff into gold. Trump transforms adversity into cash.

Joe Biden is way too late to take him on and win.

It doesn’t matter how much he knows about foreign policy and governing; he seems like he can’t walk across the street, and it doesn’t matter what he really feels or how sharp he often is.

I continue to believe he will not be on the ballot.

No one can say what will happen, not me, except that our politics are being turned upside down.

I am a minority in thinking this is a horror rather than a necessary collision of values. It reminds me of a boil that has to break and finally is.  Boils need to break.

Americans are tired of the anger and chaos; they want a strong leader who will bring change and listen to them. Biden works competently inside a vacuum. He has forgotten or is no longer able to connect with most people.

If the Democrats can find someone, they will likely win; it is ridiculous to say it’s too late.

In either case, the Republic is not nearly on the edge of collapse; panic is pointless, self-destructive, and premature.  Let’s see what happens before we hit panic buttons.

Sadly, our media has become chiefly a partisan hysteria and conspiracy machine. Since they can’t guide us, we are called to advise ourselves. I’m not doing panic or hate.

In the long run, it promises to be just another effort at mass killing by a mentally ill young man with a careless gun-loving parent. We are all sadly used to that now; we never seem to remember it for long as a society.

If we are still slaughtering children in their classrooms, how much attention will we give a politician, and for how long?

The problem with pundits is that they never know how to say “I don’t know” and naturally drift to one side or the other. That doesn’t help anyone and is not real journalism.

It doesn’t matter what I know, and it matters what I think I see, one day at a time. Unlike so many people spouting off online, I am  not afraid to be wrong. I do it all the time.

Please don’t write to tell me you hope I am right.

I hope I am honest. The rest is not up to me.

I hope this helps some of my readers. The truth will make itself known; it always does. I’m waiting for that.