Like many of you, Tuesday felt like a bad dream — a really bad dream. But unlike in 2016, when it seemed we just had to tread water for four years and wait out the absurdity of such a huckster being our president, this time it feels much more profound.

Our country — my country — is not the one my younger self could ever have imagined. The promise of President John F. Kennedy, the excitement of the Apollo missions, the long-overdue rights of women to govern their own bodies, the simple acknowledgment that when a president broke the law, he, of course, needed to resign.

Fast forward 50 years, and I now find the majority of my countrymen (sorry, I’m really not all that woke) have happily, almost gleefully, set aside the momentum we once had for a world built on logic and compassion.

Like many, it was a hard day for me, and I’m grappling to understand how it could have happened. For now, all I know is that the starry-eyed kid who is still inside of me  somewhere is very, very disappointed — and a bit scared.

ROB MASSEY

Astoria