I never thought that I would say this.  But today I am ashamed and embarrassed to be an American.

To my friends and followers from all over the globe – from Great Britain to Canada to Australia to India to Finland to Sweden to Croatia and more places than I can remember  – I hope you know that I DO NOT stand with, support or in any way condone the disgraceful actions of our president. 

The United States has lost its soul.  Our country has never been perfect; no country has.  We have down a lot of shameful things in the past, from slavery to racism to the horrible internment of our citizens of Japanese ancestry in Word War II. 

But for most of our history we have tried to better ourselves, to learn from our past mistakes and to strive toward our ideals so perfectly laid out in our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. 

Yet today to witness our president and vice-president belittle, harass and attempt to coerce another country’s leader was just horrible. 

I apologize to all of you.  This is not what America is supposed to be about.  These are not the values that my father fought in two wars to defend. 

Please know that many of us Americans are just like you.  We work hard; we love and value our family and friends, and we try to be good citizens to our neighbors, our country and the world. 

Today I am very sad for the totally disgraceful behavior of the leaders of our nation.