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Revisiting Julian Francis Abele, Black Architect of Duke University’s West Campus

In honor of one of my great-nieces, who is graduating this weekend from Duke University, I am reblogging (with some different photographs and an updating of the reference to a birthday anniversary) my post from April 25, 2022 about Julian Francis Abele, the black architect who never got the recognition he deserved for designing the university’s iconic West Campus.

Everyone reading my blog has probably heard of Duke University. It’s a world-renowned university located in Durham, North Carolina. You might not know of its meager beginnings, and you might not know that the architect responsible for its magnificent West Campus was a black man.

I’ve lived in North Carolina my entire life, and I only recently l learned who Julian Francis Abele was.

First, here’s a very brief early history of the university.

In 1838, a subscription-supported school called Brown’s Schoolhouse was established in the Randolph County community of Trinity. The school’s name changed a couple of times over the years but was settled as Trinity College in 1859.

In 1892, Trinity College moved to Durham, North Carolina. With heavy financial support from Washington Duke and Julian S. Carr – both Methodists – the name was changed to Duke in December 1924. That was then James B. Duke, son of Washington Duke, established The Duke Endowment. It was a $40 million trust fund set up for its interest to be divided between various hospitals, orphanages, the Methodist Church, three colleges, and the university to be built around Trinity College. In today’s dollars, the $40 million endowment would be equivalent to more than $630 million.

But what did Julian Francis Abele have to do with this?

Julian Francis Abele was born April 30, 1881 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – so Thursday of last week would have been the 145th anniversary of his birth. In 1902, Abele was the first black graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. All four years of undergraduate school there, Abele worked in the mornings as a designer at the Louis Hickman Architectural Firm and took afternoon and evening classes at the university.

Horace Trumbauer, a nationally-recognized Philadelphia architect, hired Abele. He sent Abele to study abroad for three years. Upon returning from Europe in 1906, Abele joined Trumbauer’s firm and by 1909 had become the company’s chief designer. When Trumbauer died in 1938, Abele became head of the company.

The company designed numerous buildings in Philadelphia, a number of mansions in Newport and New York, and the Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University.

But my interest in writing about Julian Francis Abele today is his contributions to the gorgeous English Gothic and Georgian buildings at Duke University. Over the 30-year period of 1924 to 1954, he was the primary designer of the university’s West Campus.

Photo by Zamir Karimov on Unsplash

If you’ve not had the pleasure of visiting Duke University…

Photographs of the buildings on the Duke University campus don’t do justice to the beauty of the architecture. The centerpiece of the campus and grandest example of Julian Francis Abele’s work is Duke Chapel.

Duke Chapel.
Photo by Charles Givens on Unsplash

“Chapel” in this case is an understatement, for the chapel is more of a cathedral than a chapel in the common sense of the word. The chapel interior is 63 feet wide, 291 feet long, and the nave proper is 73 feet tall.

Inside Duke Chapel.
Photo by Charles Givens on Unsplash

Standing on the highest point on the planned campus in 1925, James B. Duke said that it was on that place that the chapel should be built. It would be the highest point and the center of the campus. The cornerstone was laid in 1930, and it is said that students enjoyed watching the stone cutters and the progression of construction of the chapel over the next two years. Little did those white students know that the chief designer of the edifice was a black man.

In fact, it wasn’t until Julian Francis Abele’s granddaughter, Susan Cook, brought to public light in 1986 that a person of color had designed the magnificent focal point of the Duke campus. While students protested apartheid in South Africa, Susan Cook wrote a letter to the student newspaper to make it known that her grandfather had designed their beloved West Campus.

Portraits of Abele now hang in the main administration building on campus and in the Gothic Reading Room in Rubenstein Library alongside those of former Duke presidents and board chairs. In 2016, and the main quadrangle on campus, which stretches from the Clocktower Quad to the Davison Quad – and to the Chapel Quad – was named the Abele Quad.

As quoted from https://today.duke.edu/2016/03/abele, upon the naming of the Abele Quad in 2016, Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead said, “Julian Abele brought the idea of Duke University to life. It is an astonishing face that, in the deepest days of racial segregation, a black architect designed the beauty of this campus. Now, everyone who lives, works, studies and visits the heart of Duke’s campus will be reminded of Abele’s role in its creation.”

Shocking to our 21st century minds, is the fact that the racial prejudices of the early- and mid-20th century deterred Mr. Abele from visiting the Duke University campus to see his designs come to fruition and caused him not to be admitted to the American Institute of Architects until 1942.

Mr. Abele died in Philadelphia on April 23, 1950, which was 72 years ago this past Saturday.

Visit Duke University in person or virtually

If you’re ever zipping along on Interstates 40 or 85 in Durham, take several hours to leave the hustle and bustle behind and visit the Duke University campus. Duke Chapel is open every day from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Stroll around the campus and be sure to visit the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. (Visit https://gardens.duke.edu/ for information about parking and what’s in bloom.)

Photo by Charles Givens on Unsplash

Visit https://chapel.duke.edu/about-chapel/history-architecture/ to take a virtual tour of the Duke University campus and to watch a tour of Duke Chapel. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the links to various aspects of the chapel to learn more about the 77 stained-glass windows, the portal, the carillon, and the four pipe organs (including the diminutive 2014 153-wooden pipe positive organ that can be moved about within the chapel for small concerts.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Books I Finished Reading in April 2026

May is Get Caught Reading Month, Mystery Month, National Share a Story Month, and Latino Book Month, so I wish you a happy May in all those ways and the other ways you celebrate it.

Here in the northern hemisphere, it is truly the month when we transition into summer. What’s not to love about that? (I know… humidity, snakes, and mosquitoes, but let’s not go there.)

As has been my practice (some months and years more so than others), I like to blog early in the month about some of the books I read the previous month.

I will point out (again) that I am not a book reviewer. There are people who do that as a profession, and I am not one of them. Occasionally, I receive an email from a stranger asking me to review their book. I don’t do that. My reading time is precious and I only read the books I choose to read.

My fiction reading has been sparse for several months now due to the brain fog that is part of ME/CFS, which I have lived with for 39 years.

This is frustrating, to say the least. I used to love to read and, as a fiction writer, it is especially difficult for me to admit that I have difficulty reading a novel and remembering what I’ve read on a page – much less to try to remember the plot of a story.

This makes for embarrassing times at book club, where I feel like an intruder in a group where everyone else knows the minute details of novels. All I can do is marvel at what extraordinary memories they have as I sit quietly and listen to the discussion.

You may wonder how and why I’m trying to write novels. I have spent years working on two novels, and I have no idea when either of them will be completed. It is only because I have worked with this story and these characters for so long that I am able to believe I can finish writing the book. It is challenging work, but writing brings me joy and a sense of accomplishment.

That said, I will share a little of what I read, or more accurately, finished reading in April.

40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger, A Different Kind of Fast, by Alicia Britt Chole

40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger, A Different Kind of Fast, by Alicia Britt Chole

I’ve been a Presbyterian all my life, so fasting for Lent has never been a thing for me. There has been a growing emphasis on Lent in the Presbyterian Church USA in recent decades, but fasting or “giving up something for Lent” is not part of that emphasis. 

I was drawn to the title of this book several years ago. I finally purchased a used copy of it and looked forward to reading it in the 40 days of Lent leading up to Easter this year.

I am a flawed human being and a flawed Christian. I read it “religiously” (pardon the pun) for the first 20 days. Then, I got distracted. I lost my focus and read the last 20 chapters on a hit-and-miss basis. That is not a reflection of the book. It is merely a reflection on me and my failings.

This book is excellent! If you want to give up eating chocolate or something for Lent, that’s quite all right, but this book takes a different approach. I believe it takes a deeper approach.

For each day during Lent, the book encourages the reader to give up something in their lives.

For instance, on Day 1, we are encouraged to give up Lent “as a project” with a beginning and ending date. On Day 2, we are encouraged to give up regrets. That is a huge one! Especially if you are in your later years. Another day we are encouraged to not speed up sorrow. Give yourself and others time to grieve. Don’t rush it.

As you can see, this book is packed with baggage we all have. Each day gave me something to ponder and to try to get rid of.

I highly recommend 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger, A Different Kind of Fast, by Alicia Britt Chole. I don’t plan to wait until Lent 2027 to re-read it. Most of the topics in the book are things that I need to work on constantly. I think many of us could benefit from reading it throughout the year. Some of the daily topics could be dwelt on for a week.

Even though the book was designed to be read in daily increments during Lent, I refuse to feel guilty for taking several extra weeks to finish reading it. In fact, I think that’s perfectly okay.

It takes some of us longer than 40 days to get our lives straightened out. I’m a work in progress.

Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy,by Nathaniel Philbrick

Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy, by Nathaniel Philbrick

I wanted to read the entire book, but I was unable to devote the time necessary to do that. My reading for pleasure tends to just be for the pleasure in the moment of reading a well-written, interesting novel. This book is not a novel but a retracing of George Washington’s 1791 tour of the southern states. I was especially interested in his travels in South Carolina and North Carolina in light of the novel I’m writing.

I enjoyed that part of the book and took some notes for future reference. I was disappointed, though, that the book jumped from Washington’s time with the Catawba Indians to “his next stop in Salisbury.”

Washington’s next stop was not Salisbury. He traveled to Charlotte, and spent the next night (May 29, 1791) as a personal guest of Red Hill Tavern owner Martin Phifer, Jr. near the present-day intersection of US-29 and Poplar Tent Road in Concord, Cabarrus County.

Mr. Phifer had served with Washington at Valley Forge, so they were more than acquaintances.

I’m puzzled over why the author skipped over Mecklenburg and Cabarrus counties and went directly to Rowan County.

Otherwise, what he covered that I got to read was very interesting and easy to follow. I think anyone interested in George Washington or his tour of The South in 1791 would enjoy this book.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have one or more good books that you’re reading! I’m reading The Mad Wife, by Meagan Church and Brawler: Stories, by Lauren Groff.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

When the U.S. President has no moral compass

I write this on the evening of April 7, 2026, as the President of the United States becomes more unhinged by the minute. He clearly places no value on human life.

Once again, at the proverbial eleventh hour, he snatched us back from the brink of a “civilization ending” attack on Iran.

Was that his plan all along?

Did he have a plan?

We’ll never know the truth of the matter.

When the President of the United States of America delights in jerking the world around like it’s his plaything….

When the President of the United States of America makes rash promises and outrageous threats on a daily basis….

When the President of the United States of America is undeterred, the entire world is at risk.

When the President of the United States is undeterred when told that something he wants to do is a war crime….

When the President of the United States is undeterred when told that something he wants to do is against international law….

When the President of the United States says he is not concerned about international law….

When the President of the United States surrounds himself with advisors who either agree with him or lack the moral courage, a love of our democracy, or the rule of law enough to advise against his unhinged wishes….

When the President of the United States promises to destroy the oldest civilization on Earth….

When the President of the United States, in his ignorance, uses profane language to threaten another country, he is playing right into their hands….

When the President of the United States is so ignorant of history and religion that he thinks by using vulgar threats against the regime in power in another country he will stop them from chanting, “Death to America”….

When the President of the United States bizarrely says, “Praise be to Allah” on social media on Easter Sunday….

When the President of the United States is nothing but a spoiled brat bully….

When the President of the United States changes his mind on a whim….

When the President of the United States has no moral compass….

This is where we are tonight: A two-week cease fire.

Perhaps two weeks in which we can take a deep breath and brace ourselves for whatever is to follow.

The two sides in this war are not in agreement on numerous points. They aren’t likely to be in agreement two weeks from now.

Both sides have already declared victory, which would be laughable if the future of the world did not hang in the balance.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Is The United States of America a Christian Nation? – Part 2

My blog post from yesterday grew to be too long, so I divided it into two parts. Before reading today’s post, it would be useful for you to read yesterday’s to put today’s post into context: Is The United States of America a Christian Nation? – Part 1.

As I stated yesterday, Christian Nationalists love to say that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, but you will not find the words “Christian” or “Jesus” in the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits the United States from making any “law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Americans, under our Constitution, are free to practice any religion they choose. They are free to practice no religion whatsoever. That is one of the bedrocks and beauties of the United States of America.

That is why I find the likes of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth so dangerous. As I noted in yesterday’s blog post, he sees our current war in Iran as a holy war. But the United States of America does not fight holy wars. The day we start down that road will be the beginning of our demise.

One only needs to look at the history of Europe to see how differing interpretations of Christianity in government can create great conflict. When one monarchy favors Roman Catholicism to the detriment of Protestantism… or a monarchy favors Protestantism to the detriment of Roman Catholicism we see oppression and wars.

My Presbyterian ancestors experienced that struggle in Scotland and it, no doubt, influenced them to come to America in the mid-1700s. My ancestors on the Kintyre Peninsula of Scotland had to worship in secret in the 1600s in gatherings called conventicle because the monarchy favored Roman Catholicism at the time.

(One of the historical short stories in my book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories is about the Covenanters in Scotland and how they were punished for not espousing the Roman Catholic traditions.)

In Colonial America, religious freedom and religious overreach were issues. As noted in my Author’s Notes after “You Couldn’t Help But Like Bob” story in my short story book, fines ordered by the courts in Colonial Virginia were often to be paid to the Church of England or the Anglican Church.

There was no separation of church and state in Colonial America. In Colonial North Carolina, the Episcopal church held sway over the government. It was illegal in North Carolina for a Presbyterian minister to officiate over a marriage. Marriages conducted by Presbyterian ministers were not recognized by the Royal Government. My Presbyterian colonial North Carolina ancestors were on the wrong side of the law.

It is almost impossible for 21st century Americans to comprehend how life was in colonial times. That is why it makes it so easy for Christians in 21st century America to call for the Ten Commandments to be posted on public school classroom walls and courtroom walls. They do not grasp the danger – the slippery slope – such actions can lead to.

In their hearts and minds, they think they are doing a good thing. They think they are following Jesus’ instructions found in Matthew 28:18-20: “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

But Jesus did not say we are to make our governments Christian. Christianity is a personal acceptance of Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and Savior. It is not a belief to be imposed upon another human being. It is not a belief system to be used as a cudgel by a government. To see it that way is blasphemous and indicates a basic misunderstanding of Jesus Christ.

Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash

In Matthew 22:15-21 (as found in the New International Version of the Bible), the Pharisees try to trap Jesus by questioning him about paying taxes: 

Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?” But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

In Mark 12:13-17, that same encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees is recorded as follows in the New International Version of the Bible:

Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we?” But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

Getting back to Matthew 28:18-20, yes, Jesus instructed us to spread the Gospel, but the Christians who want to force the Gospel on people by weaponizing the government with the Bible are taking the easy way out. They are taking a dangerous way out. The Bible and its words should never be used as a weapon.

Not once in the New Testament did Jesus force or instruct His followers to force His brand of religion on the government or on the people via the government.

A meme with the words of the First Amendment with the American flag in the background
The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

Christians have countless ways to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with others. Forcing the Gospel on people through our government is not one of them.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Books I Read in March 2026 & National Literature Month

April is National Literature Month in the United States. Maybe I’ll get to read more books this month than I did in March of any of the recent previous months. Writing this blog almost every day along with other things pressing on my time and energy have left little time for reading for pleasure.

In the more than ten years that I’ve been blogging, I have traditionally blogged on the first Monday or around the first day of the month about the books I read the previous month. That has not been the case over the last year or so, but maybe I will get back into that rhythm this year… or eventually. I miss having time to read.

Photo by Susan Q Yin on Unsplash

I read one very small book and part of another book in March. Perhaps what I have to say about them will giver you the incentive to read them.

The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, by Walter Isaacson, is a tiny book with great importance during our country’s 250th birthday this year. Walter Isaacson has done extensive research and written many books about individuals who played instrumental roles in the formation of the United States. It was only natural for him to write a book about the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Isaacson takes that sentence and breaks it down by word and phrase to address their meanings and how those particular words made it into the final draft of the Declaration of Independence.

He states in the first chapter, that “We the people” “is as profound as it is simple. Our governance is based not on the divine right of kings or the power imposed by emperors and conquerors. It is based on a compact, a social contract, that we the people have entered into.”

That early sentence in the chapter titled, “We,” sets the tone for the 67-page book. “We the people” is also the opening phrase in the United States Constitution.

Being a wordsmith of sorts and a political science major in college, I especially enjoyed how Isaacson brought in details about Benjamin Franklin’s input and editing recommendations of Thomas Jefferson’s early drafts of the Declaration of Independence. Both men were learned and very specific in word choice.

Both men were well-read and students of philosophy. They drew on the theories they had read about humanity and governance.

For instance, Jefferson had written “sacred and undeniable” but Franklin insisted that “self-evident” was a more accurate description of our rights. Franklin had become a close acquaintance of Scottish philosopher David Hume. Hume’s theory, known as “Hume’s fork” maintained that there are two types of truths. One is dependent upon empirical evidence and observations (such as, New York is bigger than Philadelphia), while the other type of truth is just true. Such truths are not contingent upon physical evidence or observations. An example is “All bachelors are unmarried.”

Franklin held that our rights are self-evident. They are not based on information that must be gathered and analyzed.

Another interesting tidbit was that Jefferson wrote that we are endowed by our Creator with certain “inalienable rights,” but when John Adams copied from Jefferson’s document, he changed “inalienable” to “unalienable” and that’s the way it was approved on July 4, 1776. No wonder I get confused sometimes over which word ended up in the document!

There is really no difference between “inalienable” and “unalienable.” Perhaps it was a case of personal preference… or an error in copying.

A book that I started reading for book club in March was Where the Rivers Merge, by Mary Alice Monroe. Time ran out, as it often does, and I did not finish reading it before the club met for discussion on March 22. I hope to read it in its entirety before the book club reads its sequel perhaps in 2027. The sequel has not been published, but book club members said it is being written.

Mary Alice Monroe knows the ACE (Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto) Basin area of coastal South Carolina very well. The story in Where the Rivers Merge is anchored in that location and it is a deep love and respect for that physical environment that is the heart of this book about a family whose members have varying degrees of appreciation for the place and differing ideas about its worth.

The ACE Basin is a large undeveloped estuary in Colleton, Charles, and Beaufort counties in South Carolina on the Atlantic coast. In addition to being an author, Ms. Monroe is very interested in conservation and the environment.

Happy reading during this National Literature Month!

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

A Modern-Day Good Samaritan Story

I had planned to blog today about this being the 251st anniversary of Patrick Henry’s famous, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” speech.

But something happened at my house on Friday, and I haven’t been able to get it off my mind. I rarely blog about happy things. Life here has taken one bad turn after another, but what happened in my front yard on Friday gives me hope.

In case you are not familiar with Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan in the Bible, a man was beaten up and robbed. Left by the roadside to die, a number of individuals walked past him and kept going. Some of them considered themselves to be religious.

But then a man from Samaria came along. He helped the man up, accompanied him to a place of lodging, and even paid the bill for the man to stay there and recover.

There are political and religious subtexts to that story, and I invite you to read it. It is found in Luke 10:25-37. (Here’s a link to it from the New International Version of the Bible: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2010:25-37&version=NIV.)

What I want to share with you today is that there are still people in this difficult world who carry the spirit of the Good Samaritan in their hearts, and some of them are children.

Another point I want to make is that we often forget that little children are capable of great things.

Let me start at the beginning

My sister and I share a home. Whether we like the label or not, we both qualify as “senior citizens.” (We didn’t see that coming!)

We have a large yard with many large, old hardwood trees. Hardwood trees drop dead limbs. They drop healthy limbs during 12-inch snowfalls and storms with high winds.

I compare our trees dropping limbs it to another Bible story — the one in the 16th chapter of Exodus about God providing manna for the Israelites to eat every morning in the forty years they wandered in the wilderness. They depended on God to provide for them daily. They were told not to hoard the manna, for it would get wormy. The manna appeared on the ground every day.

It looks like we are hoarding limbs, but we really aren’t!

That’s the way it is with the limbs in our yard. We are greeted with limbs on the ground. Every. Single. Day. Unlike manna, we cannot eat the limbs, and we do not need them for fuel. We must pick them up, put them in a brush pile, then hire someone to come haul them off. Sometimes we burn them in a big oil drum, but that’s not safe on several levels.

Years ago, someone who had lived in a city all her life asked me, “Where do you get your brush?” How do you even answer a question like that? I don’t recall how I answered her when I calmed down enough to speak!

Perhaps I complained too often in recent months about having to pick up limbs six days a week. (I’m thankful that I don’t have to feel guilty for not picking up limbs on Sundays!) Since my sister’s surgery in November, it has all fallen on me. I complained too much.

On Friday, while I sat at the computer writing this week’s blog posts, my sister went out to pick up limbs. I looked out the window and checked on her occasionally. She always appeared to be doing okay, so I kept writing.

You know where this is going.

You, no doubt, know where this is going and you are probably wondering when I will get to the “happy” part of the story. Keep reading.

My sister fell. She wasn’t badly hurt, but she could not get herself up.

Several cars passed. We live out in the country. There’s not a lot of traffic. I got absorbed in my writing and stopped looking out the window.

The first I knew there was a problem was when my sister came inside, breathless.

Here’s the happy ending

A car came along and the little boy in the back seat saw my sister. He said, “Mom, that woman is lying on the ground!”

His mother stopped the car, turned around, and drove into our driveway. She and her little boy rushed to my sister, asked if she was hurt, and then the two of them helped her to her feet.

My sister thanked them. She thanked the little boy for being observant and for telling his mother that there was a woman lying on the ground who needed their help. She told the little boy what a wonderful thing he had done by speaking up.

She thanked the mother for stopping in the midst of her busy day to give assistance.

The mother asked if my sister planned to keep working or was she going in the house. She said she was going in the house. The mother asked if she was here alone. She told her that I was in the house.

The mother said, “Go inside. We’ll sit here and watch until we see that you are safely in your house.” And that’s what they did before they continued on their way.

What could have happened

This story could have ended differently. My sister could have broken a bone or sustained a concussion. She did not.

The little boy could have been playing on his tablet or been asleep and not noticed my sister.

The little boy could have seen my sister but not said anything. His mother was focused on the road and did not see my sister out of the corner of her eye.

The mother could have been illegally using her cell phone while driving and not heard her son.

The mother could have had music playing or been distracted by any number of concerns and not heard her son.

The mother could have heard her son but ignored him.

The mother could have heard her son but said, “We don’t have time to stop. I’m in a hurry. We’re running late.”

The mother could have said, “She’s okay. Someone else will help her.”

The mother could have said, “It might be a trick. I’m afraid to get involved.”

The unidentified “Good Samaritan”

My sister did not get the names of the little boy or his mother. Chances are, they were not Samaritans. They were Americans. They were Americans doing something that would have been expected and taken for granted in earlier generations.

It is a sign of the times that this incident made such an impression on me. It is sad that we are tempted today to not get involved, to justify our inaction by telling ourselves that someone else will help the person in distress. It is sad that our first thought when we see someone needing assistance is to wonder if it is a trick. If I stop to help, I might get robbed or worse!

I hope the mother in this story thanked her son for what he did and used it as a teaching opportunity. I hope she impressed upon him the value of what he did. I hope he will carry that few minutes and the memory of the action he took throughout the rest of his life.

Janet

World Storytelling Day

Today is World Storytelling Day. I recently learned about this day’s designation, and it led me to do a little research.

Photo by Mike Erskine on Unsplash

As a fiction writer, one of the hats I wear is storytelling, but I do not qualify or see myself as a storyteller – not in the true storytelling sense of the word.

Storytelling is an art form. It is a skill, and it is a gift. It is not an instrument in my toolbox. I would love to be a good storyteller, but I am not.

If called upon to tell a story, I will stammer, break out in the sweat, and present my audience with a lot of silent time. Unless those are attributes that a storyteller wants to incorporate into their presentation to enhance the experience for their audience, those behaviors have no place in storytelling.

The National Storytelling Network (https://storynet.org/) defines storytelling as follows: “Storytelling is the interactive art of using words and actions to reveal the elements and images of a story while encouraging the listener’s imagination.”

Taking the definition a step further, the National Storytelling Network explains that, “Storytelling involves a two-way interaction between a storyteller and one or more listeners. The responses of the listeners influence the telling of the story. In fact, storytelling emerges from the interaction and cooperative, coordinated efforts of teller and audience.”

See? Storytelling is technically a whole different thing than writing fiction. The fiction writer rarely gets feedback from the audience before publication unless you count the responses given by beta readers.

Even that feedback does not meet the definition of storytelling. Storytelling is in the moment. The feedback is instantaneous and the storyteller feeds off the energy and emotions of the audience.

Storytelling also often involves hand motions and variations in volume and tone. I can use an occasional exclamation point in writing fiction. I can use words to convey such states as happiness, despair, or surprise, but the storyteller has an advantage over me there. They can demonstrate mood and state of mind through facial expression, volume and tone of voice, and body language.

When I think of a good storyteller, I think of someone who holds my attention in their hand. Their storytelling puts me on the edge of my seat and immerses me in another world.

That’s what a fiction writer strives to do, but without the real-time interaction between the writer and the reader, I believe that level of give-and-take is not possible.

The National Storytelling Network’s website lists five components of storytelling:  It “…is interactive,” it “uses words” (including sign language), it “uses actions,” it “presents a story,” and it “encourages the active imagination of the listeners.” I invite you to visit the website for more details.

There is a calendar of events on the website, in case you want to look for storyteller performances and storytelling festivals in your area. Incidentally, in case you live in the Fairfax, Virginia area, a four-day Women’s Storytelling Festival began there yesterday.

The Patchwork Storytelling Guild is hosting a storytelling festival on Sunday in Philadelphia.

The Georgia Mountain Storytelling Festival is coming up on April 10-11 in Hiawassee. If you are interested but cannot attend in person, tickets for online listening are available. (Go to http://gamountainstoryfest.org for more information.)

Southern Appalachian Storyteller Donald Davis is appearing in Indianapolis on April 11 at a Talk of the Town fundraiser. There are online livestreaming tickets if you cannot attend in person. (Go to https://storytellingarts.org/event/talk-of-the-town-featuring-donald-davis for details.)

According to https://calendarcute.com, the theme for the 2026 World Storytelling Day is “Light in the Dark.” Storytellers are encouraged to offer stories of “hope, wisdom, and human connection into moments of uncertainty, difficulty, or fear” in connection with this year’s celebration.

“The theme was chosen collaboratively by the global storytelling community…. At the narrative level, it refers to story archetypes that feature illumination – characters or communities who bring clarity, warmth, or guidance to situations of darkness or confusion.”

I did not know where today’s topic would take me, but now I will start looking for a storytelling event in my area!

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

How bad does it have to get before we use the 25th Amendment?

We have a Secretary of Health and Human Services who does not believe in science or medicine, including time-honored and scientifically-proven vaccines.

We have a Secretary of Defense who mixes a conservative evangelical religion with a statement that the U.S. will show “no quarter” as the war in Iran continues. “Giving no quarter” is in violation of international law. If the U.S. starts slaughtering its prisoners of war, we have surely lost our humanity.

The U.S. has an all-volunteer armed forces made up of people of various religions and no religious beliefs. It is not the Secretary’s place to inflict his religious beliefs on the troops. If the Secretary is a Christian, as he claims to be, I would like for him to tell me where in the Bible it quotes Jesus as advocating giving no quarter to anyone.

We have a Director of National Intelligence who said that only the U.S. President – and not the intelligence community — can determine when there is an imminent threat to our national security. It is ultimately the President’s call, but her answer on Capitol Hill yesterday made it sound like she and the intelligence community have no part to play in the process.

We have a chairman of the Federal Communications Commission who warned TV networks that they run the risk of not having their broadcast licenses renewed if they continue to report the full picture of the war in Iran. He also wants them to concentrate on “patriotic” programming this year.

We have a Secretary of Education who thinks so little of public education that she vowed to shut down the Department of Education. Perhaps she should go back to her former career in pro wrestling administration.

We have a Secretary of the Interior who is okay with opening national parks for extensive logging and oil drilling while taking down informational park displays that tell not only the good but also the bad and the ugly of our nation’s history.

We have an Attorney General who has difficulty answering questions in a way that might not align with what the President wants her to say. In fact, every Cabinet Secretary has that same problem.

All these people were hand-picked by Donald Trump to “serve” in those positions of power and influence. They also had almost 100% approval of the Republicans in Congress.

We have a U.S. President who announced on TV that a member of Congress “will be dead by June” as he took it upon himself to reveal that Congress member’s devastating diagnosis of terminal cancer without that Congressman’s permission. The fact that he turned to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and laughed was the icing on the cake! (Here’s a video clip, in case you missed it or don’t believe it: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-appears-to-confuse-who-is-president/vi-AA1YRwG1?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=69baf386c77447a397c28662c1c9bfb8&ei=22.)

We have a U.S. President who clearly has no filter. If a segment of a thought or fantasy pops in his head, it comes out of his mouth or gets splattered all over his Truth Social account in all capital letters.

We have a U.S. President who has repeatedly called the war in Iran an “excursion” instead of an “incursion.”

On Monday, Trump said, “The President of the United States, Gavin Newscom, said that he has learning disabilities, dyslexia, everything about him is dumb.” That statement is wrong on so many levels, in addition to the fact that Trump called Gavin Newsom “the President of the United States.”

We have a U.S. President who orders shoes for his rich Cabinet members. That would have been ludicrous and inappropriate even if he had bothered to ask them their shoe size… which he did not.

We have a U.S. President who has “decorated” the Oval Office like a house of horrors… which, come to think of it… that’s what it is now.

Our closest ally, Great Britain, is now in the awkward position of advising their King not to visit the White House in April because the U.S. President might embarrass him. (I think we can guarantee that Trump will embarrass King Charles. Belittle and embarrass others is what he does best.)

We have a U.S. President who started a war without the blessing of Congress or seeking the support of the American people. Then, in the middle of a sticky situation in the Strait of Hormuz and a worldwide oil crisis, he begged our NATO allies for their help.

When our allies said, “No,” Trump said, “We don’t need NATO…. We do not need the help of anyone.” What an arrogant and short-sighted thing to say!

He said this was a test to see if NATO would ever help us. How ill-informed he is if he is not aware of NATO’s response after September 11, 2001!

Donald Trump said, “I can take Cuba…  It’s a failed nation…. I can do whatever I want to with it.” What an arrogant and egotistical thing to say about a sovereign nation, even if it is on the verge of collapse!

In case you are not informed about Trump’s latest “pay-to-play” scheme, which promises to put our national security at risk like never before, please read my blog post from yesterday, https://janetswritingblog.com/2026/03/18/more-telling-things-about-trump-administration/.

I hope I never again hear Americans say, “We need a businessman in the White House.”

Just how bad does it have to get before we use the 25th Amendment?

If the 25th Amendment is not called for now, I shudder to think under what circumstances it would be put into force.

Part of Section 4, 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Of course, if we use the 25th Amendment now, we get J.D. Vance as our President. Vance was hand-picked by Donald Trump. Again, I shudder to think about that.

Perhaps that outcome is what is holding back everyone on both sides of the aisle from seriously pursuing the 25th Amendment.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Freedom of Information Day in the U.S.

It is not coincidentally that Freedom of Information Day in the United States falls on the birthday of James Madison. Madison, along with being the fourth U.S. President, is known as “the Father of the U.S. Constitution.” He earned that moniker for his part in drafting the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the Constitution.)

President Madison was born 275 years ago today on March 16, 1751.

Photo credit: Aaron Burden on unsplash.com

The Freedom of Information Day was designated by the U.S. Congress in 1986 on the 20th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Freedom of Information Act gave citizens (and the press) permission to see government records. It encourages us to hold our government accountable and to seek and share information.

As the methods of gathering and storing information continually evolve, the FOIA and its interpretation will, no doubt, evolve. After all, in 1966 at the creation of the Freedom of Information Act, technological capabilities like artificial intelligence were things of science fiction.

Codified at 5 U.S.C.§ 552, the Freedom of Information Act spells out the types of records that can be accessed, as well as the procedure for requesting access along with nine exemptions to protect sensitive information. Those nine exemptions include things like national security, personal privacy, and matters of a law enforcement nature.

It is thanks to the Freedom of Information Act that journalists and news agency are guaranteed access to certain government papers and documents so on this Freedom of Information Day do not take that for granted.

It is thanks to the Freedom of Information Act that the heavily redacted Epstein files have been partially released. I hope the Freedom of Information Act will soon make it possible for the files to be released with only the names of the victims redacted. Somehow, these men must be held accountable for their pedophilia.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.