Today I’ll offer a random sampling of words that came across my desk in the last few days eliciting feelings – disgust, dismay and delight among them. One bit relates to German history, lessons not learned. The next to Portland, lessons papered over. And the last comes from a completely unfamiliar source but felt so uplifting that I thought I’d share.

Germany: “On today’s national memorial day for the victims of flight and expulsion we remember particularly the 14 million German expellees. Their fate is a warning for the present and the future. #World Refugee Day”

This was posted on Sunday by the most right-wing party in the German parliament, save the Neo-Nazi AfD. The CSU is particularly known for its anti-immigrant stance and hard-line approach to restrictive immigration policies and forced cultural assimilation. Rather than acknowledging the plight of today’s refugees, they bring attention to Germans who lost their homes due to a war that happened 80+ years ago. One that was started by Germany, if I recall. However traumatic the refugees’ flight from the Russians was – and it WAS – they did end up in a (part of their) country of which they were still official citizens with unrestricted rights, where they spoke the language, knew the customs, shared the religion. They were assigned housing with their fellow Germans until they were able to get back on their feet, even if they had to endure resentment for crowding private households. And they were able to go back, if they so chose, to their former regions, and received monetary compensation. – Dogwhistle for Nationalism. Nothing but.

Portland, OR: This was a large advertisement taken out by Travel Portland in Sunday’s New York Times.

And here is a perfect commentary by journalist Leah Sottile that captures every ambiguity brushed over or left out by the ad, revealing the true face of Portland in its current configuration. A worthwhile read – she is pulling no punches.

Finally my favorite for today, something that fluttered in on my Twitter mentions:

Can someone please remember to write an obit sort of like this when it is time for me to catch the bus? Not that I am a woman of menageries, savior tendencies, or approving of glitter; I even have my hesitations about Terry Pratchett.

But this woman was KNOWN for who she was, loved, obviously, for who she was and sent off with an acknowledgement to loss that refuses to bow to despair.

Words, then, that packed a punch.

Photographs are of Portland just as TRAVEL Portland would like them…..

Music, in turn, is Mahler’s ADAGIETTO from the 5th Symphony, elegantly analyzed in a lecture excerpt on The Delights and Dangers of Ambiguity by Leonard Bernstein. Ambiguity in music intensifies feelings, quite obviously, just in case we aren’t riled enough yet.