17 more unjust things going on in America

Continuing in the vein of my blog posts on March 24 and 31, and April 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, and yesterday, today I highlight 16 more unjust things going on in America.

The Trump Administration has fired two Democrat-appointed members of the National Credit Union Administration. Since it was created in 1970 to credit union members and their deposits, it has been a bipartisan board.
The entire staff of the NIH office that sets federal poverty guidelines have been fired. It was the office that set eligibility guidelines for health programs such as Medicaid, food assistance, child care, and other services.

A top National Institutes of Health nutrition researcher quit his job after one of his research reports was censored because it did not reflect a preconceived outcome Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. desired.
US Secretary of Health and Human Service Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is so ignorant about the autism spectrum that he said, “And these kids will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.” When that statement hit social media, people came out of the woodwork to express their disgust and anger at Kennedy for making such a statement. One person after another gave personal examples from within their families to contradict every word in Kennedy’s statement.
The BBC reports that the US is poised to place a 3,521% tariff on solar panels from Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Vietnam. (Is Trump just pulling numbers out of a hat?) The Solar Energy Industries Association says such tariffs will hurt American solar manufacturers because they will raise the price on imported cells for solar panels assembled in the US. Trump hates solar power and wind power, so he will do whatever it takes to destroy those industries. He is pushing “clean coal” energy.
As President Trump paves the way through Executive Orders to boost the coal industry through expanding coal mining into federal lands and removing emissions restrictions on coal-powered plants, there is concern over the simultaneous elimination of 900 employees of the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety. Included in those work force cuts are people from the respiratory health division in West Virginia that oversaw a black lung X-ray screening program.
More than 790,000 children under the age of six are in the Head Start program this year. They get educational help, meals, and healthcare. The Trump Administration is ending the program which has helped 40 million children since its establishment 60 years ago.

Photo of a little boy smiling with his school backpack on his back — Photo by TopSphere Media on Unsplash

In a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni last Thursday, Trump called himself a “tariff savior,” and admitted that he does not know what the Republic of the Congo is. He said, “You know they release jails, Giorgia, from all over the world. Not just South America. The Congo in Africa. Many, many people come from the Congo. I don’t know what that is, but they came from the Congo,”
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments from the Trump Administration that the birthright citizenship guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution should end. The Court will hear arguments in May. Trump maintains that the children of mothers who are in the US illegally should not automatically have US citizenship.
Via Executive Order on Thursday, Trump ended all protections on the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. About 750 miles west of Hawaii, the area was set aside as a US Monument in 2009 by President George W. Bush and expanded in 2014 by President Barack Obama. Trump’s order opens it up to commercial fishing, although it contains more than 160 seamounts (undersea mountains), coral atolls, and endangered sea turtles and whales. Typical of his blind goal of being the first in everything, Trump said, “The United States should be the world’s dominant seafood leader.”
Remember the cancelling of 1,200 National Endowment for the Humanities that I mentioned in my April 16, 2025, blog post, 16 more highlights of how things are going in America? The Associated Press reports that one of those grants was $282,000 to enable the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition to digitize more than 100,000 pages of boarding school records. For 150 years, indigenous children were taken away from their parents and put in US Government boarding schools where they were prohibited from speaking their language languages in the name of “Americanizing” them and “civilizing” them. It has only been in recent years that these stories have started coming to light. Another of the grants cancelled was $30,000 for the Koahnic Broadcast Corporation and the Alaska Native Heritage Center to broadcast oral histories of elders in Alaska. This coincided with the Alaska Native Heritage Center’s loss of a $100,000 Institute of Museum and Library Services grant to curate a boarding school exhibit. I hope all tribes are taking steps to preserve their stories, and I hope that someday those stories will be available for all to read and hear.
Trump is going after the major TV networks. Specifically, he is suing CBS over an interview with Kamala Harris that they aired on “60 Minutes.” He is upset because the interview was edited. I’m sure he know from his own experience on TV that a lot of editing occurs in TV. Full interviews are rarely broadcast, but he sues people at the drop of a hat. This sounds silly on the face of it, but the Executive Producer of “60 Minutes,” one of the most-trusted investigative news programs on TV, resigned today because he said he is no longer able to produce the show like he has in the past and he’s not going to bend his knee to the Trump Administration. If Trump can get his tentacles into all the major news networks, we are most certainly doomed.

Photo of a cell phone with CBS on the screen — Photo by appshunter.io on Unsplash

Trump is going to reclassify federal employees who work on policy matters as “schedule policy/career.” They will be required to support the President’s policies, apparently, in thought, word, and deed.” He said, this will finally ensure that the federal government is run like a business. That sends a chill down my spine because by its very nature and purpose, the federal government is not a business. It does not produce a product to be sold on the open market or even on the black market. It does not manufacture shovels or picture frames or sheets and towels. It provides services for the good of the whole. It does those things that individuals cannot do for themselves. It protects citizens from outside interference. It provides for the common defense. It operates a system of courts to protect citizens and visitors alike. It secures fundamental individual rights as well as the rights of the people collectively. There is a fundamental blatant intentional misinterpretation of the purpose of a democractic government by Donald Trump and his followers. They are hellbent on destroying every shred of the US Government as we have known it for 249 years. May God forgive them, because I cannot.
The US State Department has issued “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices” since 1977. These reports include all countries and are mandated by statute to give a “full and complete report regarding the status of internationally recognized human rights.” Now that the United States is guilty of trashing human rights on our own soil, the Trump Administration has ordered major changes in what those reports include. The reports will no longer include involuntary or coercive medical or psychological practices, arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy, serious restrictions to internet freedom, extensive gender-based violence, and violence or threats of violence targeting people with disabilities. The elimination of these parts of the traditional reports are across the board. These abuses will no longer be reported for any countries. When the Trump Administration is guilty of such abuses (or planning to put them in place?), I guess it would be awkward to put in black and white that his regime is guilty of the same things as other dictator-led countries.
First Lady Melania Trump got credit for hosting the annual Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn on Monday, but it became obvious weeks ago that her husband was calling the shots. It was the first Easter Egg Roll with corporate sponsors. There was a reading nook and photo op sponsored by Amazon; a “Bunny Hop Stage” sponsored by YouTube, owned by Google; and an “AI-Powered Experience and Photo Opportunity” sponsored by Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Thread’s parent company, Meta. A “Ringing of the Bell Photo Opportunity” was sponsored by the New York Stock Exchange. Call me sarcastic, but… nothing celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ like a bunch of billionaires buying more favor from the US President. To show how Trump has transformed the Republican Party into something unrecognizable… Richard Painter, an ethics lawyer who served in the White House Counsel’s Office during President George W. Bush’s Administration told CNN, “That would have been vetoed in about 30 seconds in my day.”
Four police officers from Seattle have asked the US Supreme Court to keep their names out of public records related to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol. I would like to think they are embarrassed about their participation. One has to wonder how dedicated they are to upholding the law.
And this from The New York Times on April 21: The White House is getting ideas from various sources on how to create a “baby boom” in the US. Ideas being floated are to pay a married woman $5,000 when she gives birth, and married women will be encouraged to have six children. Another idea is to set aside 30% of Fullbright Scholarships for married women with children. Another idea calls for government-funded programs to educate women about their menstrual cycles so they can better understand when they are ovulating. There could be a National Medal of Motherhood for mothers with six or more children. The new word being bounced around is “pronatalism.” Vice President Vance told a March for Life anti-abortion rally in January the he wanted “more babies in the United States of America” and more “beautiful young men and women” to raise them. It seems that Elon Musk thinks the low birthrate in America is a threat to civilization. (Some people think he is a threat to civilization!) It seems that the people behind this think women are putting too much emphasis on education and career and not enough emphasis on being reproductive machines. The Heritage Foundation, which led Project 2025 is a driving force behind this. Some of the people pushing this baby boom want the National Institutes of Health to ramp up research into infertility. Too bad Trump and Musk have already fired most of the researchers! Duh! The lengthy newspaper article does not address race or ethnicity, but it doesn’t take a genius to read between the lines. The Trump Administration certainly doesn’t want women of color having six or more children. I’m sure when all is said and done and the US is turned into a real-life Handmaid’s Tale, there will be restrictions on just which women qualify for the honor of giving birth and raising six or more children. It seems to me like if they were merely interested in boosting the birthrate, they wouldn’t be working so hard to deport 11 million people from Central and South America. Hmmm. But wait… don’t a lot of families today with even fewer than six children rely heavily on Grandma and Grandpa to help raise their children? Just what most grandparents need… six more children to raise! And let’s have a show of hands: How many of you men want six or more children? Go on. Don’t be shy. Raise your hands if you want six or more children. This is one more slap in the faces of single people and non-traditional families. As if single people aren’t already taken to the cleaners by the IRS! This would be funny if it weren’t so sick and misogynistic.

Until my next blog post … tomorrow

I hope you’re reading a good book.

Pay attention to what’s happening at the hands of the Trump Administration. This is the time to do what you can to stand up for American democracy.

Remember the people of Ukraine, Myanmar, and western North Carolina.

Janet

Some unjust things going on in America

When I blogged The Importance of Marbury v. Madison Today on February 24, I didn’t intend to start an endless series of political and political science posts, but there seems to be no end to the chaos the Trump Administration is creating.

I don’t make this stuff up. I’m trying to put a human face on the madness. All the numbers are huge. The suffering is individual and collective. The grief for what the United States of America used to be is real.

Watching various politicians and representatives of the Republican Party interviewed or speaking as panelists on several Sunday morning news shows on TV only serve to reenforce my fear that worse days lie ahead for the United States of America. Through the voicing of their beliefs, they demonstrated that Republicans have lost their way. They have lost sight of the US Constitution. They have lost sight of the truth.

Here’s just one example. On “Meet the Press” on Sunday, this exchange took place between Host Kristen Welker and US Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana (https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/04/20/gop_sen_john_kennedy_if_trump_defies_a_court_order_ill_call_him_out.html):

“Kristen Welker: Do you believe that President Trump is following orders of the courts right now?

“Sen. John Kennedy: Yes. And I don’t believe that President Trump will defy a federal judge’s order. If he does, I’ll call him out on it.”

I hope when Senator Kennedy catches up on the news from the last several weeks, he will indeed call out President Trump.

Here we go…

As of April 14, 2025, all grants with the Office on Violence Against Women have been terminated because the US Department of Justice has concluded that these grants “no longer effectuate the agency priorities.” This is an admission by the Justice Department that they used to “effectuate the agency priorities.” I conclude that it is no longer a priority of the US Department of Justice to address violence against women. As a result, on April 14, 2025, the American Bar Association immediately cancelled “all its upcoming trainings.” This apparently refers to training lawyers on how to effectively prosecute men who violently attack women and educating women who find themselves in a dangerous situation. No wonder President Trump said he would “take care of women.” It creeped me out when I heard him say that because we all know how he personally takes care of women, but this official DOJ warning to women is a whole other level. It’s no longer creepy; it’s frightening. To use a term that Trump’s macho hunter friends use, I guess it is now “open season” on women.

The US Air Force has removed webpages, photos, videos, and biographies about several trailblazing female pilots, including retired Colonel Nicole Malachowski. She served in the Air Force for 21 years and was the first woman to pilot with the elite Thunderbirds team. Does anyone see a pattern here?

According to a Washington Post report, “Thiry-eight of 43 experts cut last month from the boards that review the science and research that happens in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health are female, Black or Hispanic, according to an analysis by the chairs of a dozen of the boards. The scientists, with expertise in fields that include mental health, cancer and infectious disease, typically serve five-year terms and were not given a reason for their dismissal…. These scientists rate the quality of the science on the nation’s largest biomedical research campus, where 1,200 taxpayer-funded investigators lead laboratories focused on Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, cancer immunotherapy, and other diseases and treatments.” A pattern, or a coincidence?

Proposed US Department of Health and Human Services budget cuts would slash 40% of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes for Health budget. I hope all the medical researchers and physicians who have lost their jobs due to Donald Trump will be able to find new opportunities in other countries where their knowledge and skills will be appreciated.

A doctor who is a US citizen born in Pennsylvania received one of the US Department of Homeland Security’s emails informing her that she has to leave the United States immediately. Maybe the new Department of Government Efficiency needs to investigate the top officials at Homeland Security. Seems like they’re making a lot of mistakes in who they’re trying to deport.

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

US Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has threated to prevent Harvard University from enrolling international students unless it gives her information on all of its student visa holders’ disciplinary records and protest participation. Harvard has been given an April 30, 2025, deadline or it will “face immediate lost of Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification.” It’s difficult to imagine Harvard University without any international students.

On Friday, Trump, who was partially elected because he claimed he would bring down the cost of eggs and other groceries, said, “You can have all the eggs. You watch, we have too many eggs. In fact, if anything, the prices are getting too low. So I just want to let you know that the prices are down.” Like he would know or care about the price of a dozen eggs!

In case you needed more proof that Donald Trump does not have a clue what Easter is about or who Jesus Christ is…

Looking out from the empty tomb on Easter morning
Photo by Pisit Heng on Unsplash

Sunday was Easter Sunday, and President Trump chose the occasion to issue perhaps the most off-the-beam Easter greeting ever issued by anyone. I wonder if any Evangelical Christians read it. If they agreed with it and saw it as anything but disrespectful to God, then maybe they need to reevaluate their religious beliefs.

On Easter Sunday, Trump took to social media and wished “Radical Left Lunatics” a happy Easter. He attacked “weak and ineffective judges and law enforcement officials” for calling for the return to the US of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador although the Trump Administration had already admitted that his deportation was an “administrative error.”

In light of the US Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling that the Trump Administration must bring Mr. Abrego Garcia back to the United States, in his Easter message, the President blasted the legal pushback as “an attack so violent that it will never be forgotten!”

Violent? It was a decision made by the highest court in our country. There was nothing violent about it. I believe the violence was perpetrated against Mr. Abrego Garcia when he was sent to an El Salvador prison against a court order.

And Trump remains obsessed with President Joe Biden. Constantly drumming into the American people the lie that every immigrant is a criminal, in his Easter greeting he once again claimed that Biden “purposefully” allowed “Millions of criminals to enter our Country, totally unvetted and unchecked” and called it “the single most calamitous act ever perpetrated upon America.”

In case you missed it, this is how Trump concluded his angry Happy Easter greeting to the American people:

“But to him [Biden], and to the person that ran and manipulated the Auto Pen (perhaps our REAL President!), and to all of the people who CHEATED in the 2020 Presidential Election in order to get this highly destructive Moron Elected, I wish you, with great love, sincerity, and affection, a very Happy Easter!!!”

Whoa! That is just bizarre yet, sadly, not surprising.

But the worst thing that’s been proposed yet

This somehow got in under my radar since February 25. Blackwater founder, Erik Prince and its former Chief Operation Officer Bill Matthews sent a proposal to Trump’s advisers before January 20.To say it is chilling and horrific and un-American, is not strong enough language. Words fail me.

In a nutshell, what I read in a New Republic article online last Thursday: For $25 million, Prince and Matthews’ new company, 2USV, will transport 12 million immigrants from America to the notorious prison in El Salvador in two years’ time.

But wait… there’s more… the US will buy part of the prison campus, declare it an American territory, and then the Administration can’t be accused of sending Americans or anyone else to a prison outside the United States.

Let that sink in.

No one outside the Trump Administration or Prince and Matthew’s orbit know what the status of this proposal is.

Keep in mind, it was just last week that Trump and the President of El Salvador discussed the possibility of sending more prisoners from America to El Salvador. Now we know that idea did not just come out of nowhere!

To deport 12 million people in 24 months, an average of 500,000 would have to be rounded up and transported every month. To facilitate this, 10,000 private citizens would be deputized. I’m not making this up.

If this were a novel or a movie, it would be labeled as horror.

Until my next blog post … tomorrow

I hope you’re reading a good book.

Pay attention to what’s happening at the hands of the Trump Administration. This is the time to do what you can to stand up for American democracy.

Remember the people of Ukraine, Myanmar, and western North Carolina.

Janet

Books I Read in March 2025, & Hurricane Helene Update

Several of my recent blog posts have been 2,000 words or more, which is way beyond where I like them to be. These are uncertain and stressful times, and some topics I have been led to blog about could not be covered in a few words.

Alas, today will be a somewhat shorter post because I did not get many books read in February; however, I have a couple of special items to share about Hurricane Helene recovery in western North Carolina, so this post isn’t as short as I thought when I started writing it.

There were several books I attempted to read or listen to, but a lack of interest or inability to concentrate meant that those books were not finished.

I only completely read two books last month, so this section of today’s post will be short.

Words to Remember: So that you don’t forget yourself, by Becky Hemsley

*Words to Remember : So you don’t forget yourself*, by Becky Hemsley

I discovered poet Becky Hemsley on Instagram a few months ago. Many of her postings struck a chord with me, so I purchased one of her books of poetry, Words to Remember: So that you don’t forget yourself.

This book is jam-packed with poems that inspire. I repeatedly thought about my four great-nieces (ages 20 to 27) as I read the 74 poems in this book.

If you need encouragement or you know someone – especially a young woman – who needs to be reminded that they are good enough, give them a copy of this book.

One Big Happy Family: Heartwarming Stories of Animals Caring for One Another, by Lisa Rogak

My sister happened upon this book and let me borrow it before she had to return it to the public library. What a jewel! (My sister and the book!)

This book contains 50 stories, one- to three-pages in length (including wonderful photographs) about unlikely animals who have bonded, become best friends, adopted orphans of other species, and shown a deeper understanding of empathy than a lot of human beings are capable of.

A few examples of these unlikely friends: a cat and a squirrel, a Springer Spaniel and lambs, a Border Collie and her Vietnamese pot-bellied piglets, a goat and a wolf, a cat and her chicks, a chicken and her Rottweiler puppies, a rabbit and her kittens, a bulldog and her baby squirrels, an orangutan and his lion cubs, a dog and his baby monkey.

Each story includes a “Family Fact” sidebar with an educational sentence or two about one of the species featured in that story. For instance, I learned that pigs like to roll around in the mud because they lack the ability to sweat to cool off. And I learned why Dalmatians are associated with fire trucks.

This would make a great gift for any animal lover and for a child. These delightful stories from around the world will make you laugh and smile. Just what the doctor ordered for your mental health in 2025!

This next is in the “I didn’t see that coming!” category…

Beowulf: A New Translation (translated by Irish poet Seamus Heaney)

Don’t laugh! Ann Patchett highly recommended this translation of Beowulf on Instagram on February 21, 2025. The said it was good to read when you can’t sleep because your mind is racing and worried about what’s going on. (I’m not sure now if that was a direct quote, but it is the jest of what she said.) I was pretty keyed up about what’s going on, so I decided to check it out of the public library.

Patchett seemed to be saying that reading this wonderful translation of this ancient work that I had to read in Old English as a high school student would renew my confidence that the monster will not eat me. In Beowulf, the monster (Grendel) is killed by Beowulf.

I was glad to learn that because after reading it in Old English in high school I had no idea what it was about. I didn’t even remember that it was a poem.

After bringing Seamus Heaney’s modern English translation of Beowulf home from the library, I struggled through around half of the 22-page Introduction. I eventually jumped ahead to the actual poem. If I could have read this translation as a teenager, I might have at least understood what the poem was about.

I did not read the entire translated version. Life is short. I needed something to take my mind off politics, but Beowulf wasn’t it.

In case you have a hankering to read Beowulf, this appears to be an excellent translation. The edition my county’s library system has is bilingual, with the Old English version on the left page and the translation on the facing page. It was published in the year 2000.

I gather from Patchett’s comments that the moral of this legend is that good wins over evil. I’ll try to keep that in mind as I navigate the minefield laid out by the Executive Branch of the US Government in 2025.

There are a couple of other books I started reading in March. I’ll finish them in April and tell you all about them in May.

Hurricane Helene Update

As I write this post late on Saturday night, areas from Texas to Missouri and Kentucky are experiencing major flooding. I would be remiss not to mention that flooding and the suffering of the people affected; however, as I have maintained since last September, I live in North Carolina and I will continue to blog about the Hurricane Helene recovery efforts in my state.

As of Friday, 139 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included nine US highways, 13 state highways, and 117 state roads. That’s an overall decrease of seven road since March 21.

Although the region received some rain last week, the weather turned unseasonably warm on Friday. Wildfires continued to be a problem.

I realized that I have failed to mention one 501(c)3 foundation that was born out of the devastation Hurricane Helene left in Mitchell and Yancey counties in North Carolina, so I’ll remedy that oversight today. First, I need to explain a word in the name of the foundation: hollers. If you look up the word “holler,” you will be told that the definition of that word is a loud shout (noun) or to give a loud shout (verb). That’s not what “holler” means as used by Rebuilding Hollers Foundation, based in Bakersville, NC. If you’re from the mountains of NC or anywhere close by, you know that a holler is the area at the foot of a mountain… as in “hills and hollers.” Now that you know what a holler is, here’s a link to the Rebuilding Hollers Foundation website: https://rebuildinghollers.org/page-18086. Six months after the storm and the flooding that resulted from 30 inches of rain, the need is still overwhelming.

I have reported a lot of bad news and scary news in my blog over the last couple of weeks, so I am delighted to share some uplifting news with you today! This next story makes my heart sing! Yancey County hasn’t received as much media attention as Buncombe County (where Asheville is) because that’s just the way it is when any natural disaster happens. For instance, New Orleans got most of the attention after Hurricane Katrina, although neighboring small towns on Mississippi’s coast were devastated. That’s just the way it is, but I recently learned about an amazing way the carpentry students at the only high school in Yancey County are actively aiding recovery after unprecedented destruction.

Photo by Chandler Cruttenden on Unsplash

The students in the Advanced Carpentry Class taught by Jeremy Dotts at Mountain Heritage High School in Burnsville, NC are building a tiny house to be given to someone impacted by Hurricane Helene. What a wonderful way a public high school is empowering students who were themselves affected by the hurricane! Thank you, Mr. Dotts, for teaching your students empathy and compassion while also teaching them carpentry skills! Here’s the link to a story a TV station in Raleigh-Durham did on the project: https://abc11.com/post/high-school-carpentry-students-turn-homebuilding-storm-victims/15903556/.

But that’s not the complete story, by any stretch of the imagination! I wanted to look deeper and I discovered that tiny house is just one part of the story. First, I found an article from 2022 about the carpentry program (https://www.ednc.org/the-construction-of-a-yancey-county-carpentry-program/) and then I found a website that gives details of how carpentry isn’t the only skill or trade the students in Yancey County can learn in high school and how course completions can transfer into credits at Mayland Community College. (https://mhhs.yanceync.net/page/skilled-trades/.)

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every high school or at least every county in America could have a program like this? After all, everyone can’t excel in science or math. Some people excel in carpentry… and those of us who don’t have woodworking and construction skills rely on those who do every day of our lives.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read. Find something to read that will calm your nerves and enable you to escape the stresses of life for at least a few minutes every day.

Savor your memories of and time with friends and family.

Remember the people of Myanmar, Thailand, Ukraine, and western North Carolina.

Janet

Six Months After Hurricane Helene

It has been six months since Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina. The State of North Carolina has just allocated an additional $524 million for Hurricane Helene recovery, and the National Hurricane Center issued its final Hurricane Helene report last week.

As of Friday, March 21, 146 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included 9 US highways (that’s 2 fewer than the previous Friday), 15 state highways (that’s 2 fewer than the previous Friday), and 122 state roads (that’s 2 fewer than the previous Friday).

Last Wednesday, March 19, NC Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat, signed a bill that had finally passed the NC Legislature that will provide $524 million in hurricane relief in the western part of the state. The bill emphasizes home and private road repairs, agriculture, and infrastructure to aid businesses.

Stein had asked the Republican-controlled General Assembly for an additional $1.1 billion for Hurricane Helene recovery on top of the $1.1 billion the State of North Carolina has already spent or appropriated.

The Associated Press reported last Wednesday night: “Stein’s administration projects that disaster relief approved by Congress in December and other federal funding sources may ultimately provide more than $15 billion in Helene recovery funds to North Carolina. Stein is now seeking another $13 billion from Washington.”

About 4,600 households in western NC were still receiving temporary housing assistance as of a couple of weeks ago.

The WUNC public radio website (https://www.wunc.org) gives the following breakdown of the $524 million for western North Carolina Hurricane Helene recovery:

$200 million for crop loss programs and agricultural debris removal
$120 million for rebuilding and repairing homes
$100 million for repairing private roads and bridges
$55 million for small business infrastructure grants
$20 million for debris removal
$10 million for volunteers and nonprofits actively assisting in the disaster
$10 million for fire department grants
$9 million for learning recovery in the Helene-affected counties
$4 million for travel and tourism marketing

The bill also extends the state of emergency and increases the number of counties eligible for school calendar flexibility due to missed school days.

In addition to the $524 million for Hurricane Helene recovery, the legislature allocated $217 million for Hurricanes Matthew (2016) and Florence (2018) recovery on the coast.

The $9 million for a voluntary summer school program in districts that were closed for many weeks due to Hurricane Helene is less than Governor Stein requested.

Stein had requested money for two business grant programs to help companies that suffered significant losses, but the legislature omitted those programs from the final bill. Instead of Stein’s request, the legislature designated $55 million in the form of grants to local governments for sewer, utility, and sidewalk repairs which will indirectly benefit small businesses.

The dollar amount for the damage caused by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina alone has been estimated to be $53.6 billion, so drops of relief continue to drip into the bucket.

The need is still great, but in the NC General Assembly the people who are still homeless or hanging on by a thread since the hurricane must compete for the millions of dollars our legislators want to give out in vouchers so children can go to private schools instead of our public schools. (Don’t get me started!)

The National Hurricane Center released its final report on Hurricane Helene on Friday. The full report can be found on the NOAA website: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL092024_Helene.pdf .

A few highlights from the report as it pertains to the storm in western North Carolina: 106 deaths in NC were attributed directly or indirectly to the storm. Busick, NC in Yancey County got 30.78 inches of rain – the most recorded anywhere from the hurricane. Approximately 40 miles to the south (as the crow flies), a site in Transylvania County, NC recorded 29.98 inches. Ten counties in the state recorded more than 18 inches of rain, so you can see that a large part of the mountains in NC received incredible amounts.

Mt. Mitchell recorded sustained winds of 80 miles per hour and gusts as high as 106 miles per hour. The small town of Banner Elk recorded wind gusts of 101 miles per hour. The hurricane caused more than 2,000 landslides, most of which were in North Carolina.

The North Carolina Forest Service estimated 822,000 acres of damaged timberland, which resulted in $214 million in damages to North Carolina forests.

By the way, US Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, announced at Monday’s meeting of the President’s Cabinet that she plans to “eliminate FEMA.” Apparently, there are no natural disasters in her home state of South Dakota. At the age of 53, she is fortunate if she’s never experienced one. She and Trump think states can handle disasters better than the nation. States don’t have the resources the US Government has… but maybe that’s just my opinion. We’ll see how this works out.

Until my next blog post

My planned topic for next Monday is the 298 words Trump wants federal agencies to limit or avoid. As you can imagine, this hit a nerve with me!

I hope you have a good book to read.

Hold your family close.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

#OnThisDay: Ramifications of Backgrounds of US Supreme Court Justices

When I read that today is the anniversary of the 1777 birth of Roger Brooke Taney, I wondered why his birthday appeared on any lists. When I learned that Mr. Taney was a US Supreme Court Chief Justice when the landmark Dred Scott decision was made, I knew there was a story behind the story.

We are all products of the times in which we live but, fortunately, we can be influenced by forces other than majority or peer pressure. We each have freewill to come to our own conclusions and beliefs.

Some US Supreme Court Justices try harder than others to disregard their personal backgrounds and experiences when considering a case. Some don’t seem to try at all in the 2020s.

Photo of US Supreme Court Building in Washington, DC — US Supreme Court Building, Washington, DC. (Photo by Brad Weaver on Unsplash.)

Let’s learn who Dred Scott was, and then we’ll look at how the life experiences of Roger Brooke Taney and the other six Justices in majority vote probably played into the US Supreme Court Dred Scott v. Sandford case.

Settle in. This gets complicated.

Who was Dred Scott?

Dred Scott was born a slave in Southampton County, Virginia around 1799. He moved to Alabama with his owner, Peter Blow, in 1818. In 1830, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri where Mr. Blow ran a boarding house.

Dr. John Emerson purchased Mr. Scott after Mr. Blow died in 1832. Dr. Emerson took Mr. Scott to Illinois and later to the Wisconsin Territory. Illinois was a free state, and slavery was illegal in the Wisconsin Territory.

Mr. Scott married Harriet Robinson, who was also a slave. Ms. Robinson’s owner sold her to Dr. Emerson. Things got more and more confusing in the ensuing years after Dr. Emerson moved back to St. Louis, but hired out Mr. and Mrs. Scott, leaving them in Wisconsin.

Dr. Emerson moved to Louisiana. He married Eliza (Irene) Sandford in 1838. Dred Scott went there, but shortly thereafter the Emersons and their slaves, including Mr. Scott, moved back to Wisconsin.

Dr. Emerson was discharged from the US Army in 1842 and – you guessed it – he and his wife and the Scotts moved back to St. Louis. Mr. and Mrs. Scott, by then, had two daughters.

Dr. Emerson seemed to have financial problems, so he and his wife moved to Iowa. It is unclear whether the Scotts went with them or if they were hired out and remained in Missouri.

When Dr. Emerson died in 1843, the Scotts and all his other slaves became the property of his widow, Irene Sandford. She moved back to St. Louis, retained ownership of the Scotts, and hired them out.

Mr. Scott tried repeatedly to purchase his freedom from Irene, but she would not hear of it.

Photo of a dark-skin wrist and clenched fist with a rope tied around it. — Photo by Tasha Jolley on Unsplash

Dred and Harriet Scott lawsuits

Dred and Harriet Scott separately filed lawsuits against Irene Emerson in April 1846. They were firmly based on two Missouri statutes. One allowed anyone of any color to sue for wrongful enslavement. The other statute said that any slave transported to a free territory automatically became free and would remain free even when taken back into a slave state.

The Scotts’ church, abolitionists, and you’ll never guess who: Dred’s previous owner’s family, the Blows, gave their support. Since neither Mr. or Mrs. Scott could read or write, they needed all kinds of support to fight their cases.

The St. Louis Circuit Court ruled against the Scotts in 1847, on a technicality. The cases were heard again in 1850 and the Scotts won their freedom. That should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t.

Irene Emerson appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court. That court combined the two cases and reversed the decision of the lower court in 1852, making the Scotts slaves again!

Then, Irene Emerson transferred ownership of the Scotts to her brother, John Sandford, or so was thought. (Actually, the transfer did not happen, but that’s why the case was called Dred Scott v. Sandford as the Scotts’ legal struggle continued.)

In 1853, Dred Scott filed a federal lawsuit with the United States Circuit Court for the District of Missouri. The case was heard in May 1854, and the court ruled against Mr. Scott.

The Dred Scott Decision/Dred Scott v. Sandford

US Supreme Court Building, Washington, DC. (Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash.)

Later that year, Mr. Scott appealed his case to the US Supreme Court. The case gained support and notoriety by the time the Justices heard the case in 1856. A curious aside is that by then, Irene Sandford Emerson had married Calvin Chaffee. An abolitionist, Mr. Chaffee was also a US Congressman.

When Mr. Chaffee learned that Irene still owned Dred Scott and his family, he sold the Scotts to Taylor Blow, the son of Scott’s original owner, Peter Blow.

On March 6, 1857, the US Supreme Court announced its 7-2 decision in favor of Mr. Sandford.

On May 26, 1857, Taylor Blow freed the Dred Scott family. Sadly, Mr. Scott died of tuberculosis just 16 months after finally becoming a free man.

What was Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney’s background?

Roger Brooke Taney was born in Maryland on March 17, 1777. He was educated in France. After coming home from France, he graduated from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, and studied law with Judge Jeremiah Chase of the Maryland General Court.

In 1806 he married Francis Scott Key’s sister, Anne.

He had a private law practice. After being nominated by President Andrew Jackson, Roger Taney was sworn in as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court in March 1836, replacing John Marshall.

Oh… and did I mention that he was a slave owner?

But what was Roger Taney’s personal track record with slaves?

Taney freed seven of his slaves on July 14, 1818. He also provided for the emancipation of the three older children of one of his freed slaves at later dates – one of them would be freed in 1836 at age 25, one in 1843 at the age of 30, and the other one in 1845 at the age of 30.

As a young lawyer, Taney was quoted as calling slavery a “blot on our national character,” but by 1857 (the year of the Dred Scott decision) he was an advocate in favor of slavery. It was then that he called the abolitionist movement “northern aggression.”

He wrote for the majority in favor of Dred Scott’s owner in Dred Scott v. Sandford.

Taney seemed to be conflicted on the subject of slavery. Yes, he gradually freed his slaves, but why did he drag it out over 27 years? If he was indeed against slavery as a young man, what didn’t he free all his slaves at that time instead of waiting until 1845 to free the last one? He made the children remain slaves until they were 25 to 30 years old. Where is the humanity in that?

What about the six Justices who sided with Chief Justice Taney?

Justice John Catron, a lifelong slave owner, joined in the majority opinion.

Justice Peter V. Daniel, who owned slaves throughout his adult life, joined in the majority opinion.

Justice Samuel Nelson voted with the majority but disagreed with Chief Justice Taney’s reasoning. Justice Nelson maintained that the states had the right to determine whether slavery was legal within their boundaries and that the federal government did not have the authority to tell the states what to do in that matter.

Justice Robert Cooper Grier voted with the majority and concurred that slaves were not citizens.

Justice James M. Wayne was a lawyer, politician, and judge from Savannah, Georgia. I did not find that he owned slaves. He agreed with President Andrew Jackson on the forced removal of Indians to the Oklahoma Territory. Surprisingly, he was against the formation of the Confederate States of America.

Justice John A. Campbell was a lawyer in Georgia and Alabama. Even though Justice Campbell did not believe that the Court could determine whether Dred Scott was a citizen, he agreed with the Chief Justice on most other points. He agreed that, as a slave under Missouri law, Mr. Scott could not sue in federal court.

The Majority Opinion of the US Supreme Court in Dred Scott v. Sandford

Although basing its decision on what was stated in the US Constitution at that time, the words are chilling. I’ll share just a fraction of the decision here.

Writing for the majority in the Dred Scott case, Chief Justice Taney stated, “A free negro of the African race, whose ancestors were brought to this country and sold as slaves, is not a ‘citizen’ within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States.

“When the Constitution was adopted, they were not regarded in any of the States as members of the community which constituted the State, and were not numbered among its ‘people or citizen.’ Consequently, the special rights and immunities guarantied to citizens do not apply to them.

“And not being ‘citizens’ within the meaning of the Constitution, they are not entitled to sue in that character in a court of the United States, and the Circuit Court has not jurisdiction in such a suit. The only two clauses in the Constitution which point to this race, treat them as persons whom it was morally lawful to deal in as articles of property and to hold as slaves.”

And, “The plaintiff having admitted, by his demurrer to the plea in abatement, that his ancestors were imported from Africa and sold as slaves, he is not a citizen of the State of Missouri according to the Constitution of the United States, and was not entitled to sue in that character in the Circuit Court. This being the case, the judgment of the court below, in favor of the plaintiff of the plea in abatement, was erroneous.”

Chief Justice Taney said in the majority decision that slaves were property and the ownership of slaves was on the same footing as the ownership or anything else. It said, that the courts could not at that time, under the Constitution, deprive a citizen of their property. It said that just because a citizen took their property into “a particular Territory of the United States,” (Rock Island, Illinois) did not mean they did not still own that property.

The majority decision referred to the Missouri Compromise, enacted in 1820, which admitted Missouri to the Union as a state allowing slavery, but it outlawed slavery from the rest of the Louisiana Purchase lands located north of the southern border of Missouri (the 36-degree 30-minute parallel.)

In the Dred Scott decision, the court ruled that the Missouri Compromise (which had been repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854) was unconstitutional and, therefore, Dred Scott and his family “were not made free by being carried into this territory….”

Background of the 36-degree 30-minute parallel

Since our current president likes to call borders artificial lines drawn by someone with a ruler decades ago, I looked into the history of the 36-degree 30-minute parallel. It was originally drawn as the boundary between the Colonies of Virginia and North Carolina. Later, it was extended to be the border between Kentucky and Tennessee. When the Missouri Compromise came along, that line was extended to balance the number of states that allowed slavery and the states that did not allow slavery.

The moral of the story

The next time there is a vacancy on the US Supreme Court or on your state’s Supreme Court, you need to pay attention. Dig into the nominee’s background and let your elected officials know what your concerns are or if you think that nominee will make be a fair, honest, law-abiding Justice with integrity. Watch the Congressional hearings and listen carefully to the nominee’s answers – to what they say and what they don’t say. Watch their body language. Are they at ease? Do they smirk? Do they easily lose their cool?

Hurricane Helene Update

As of Friday, 152 roads in North Carolina were closed due to Hurricane Helene damage and repairs. That count included 11 US highways, 17 state highways, and 124 state roads. This is an overall increase over a couple of weeks ago.

Asheville’s application for a $225 million Disaster Recovery Block Grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is in limbo because it includes a $15 million Small Business Support Program that would prioritize Minority and Women Owned Businesses. The City, which sustained more than $1 billion in damage in Hurricane Helene, has been given until April to submit a plan that is in line with Trump’s anti-minority and anti-women regime.

Keep in mind that the application was submitted last year according to the regulations that were in place at the time. Does anyone else found it ironic that HUD Secretary Scott Turner, who is a black man, wrote that “DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] is dead at HUD”?

As employees of the National Park Service and National Forestry Service are fired by the Trump Administration in the name of “waste and fraud,” you can expect to see fewer post-Helene clean-up activities in the parks and forests in western North Carolina.

As you plan a trip to the mountains in western North Carolina this spring, here’s a link to important details about the Blue Ridge Parkway: https://www.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/helene-recovery-projects-at-a-glance.htm. We probably need to continue to plan our mountain visits avoiding most of the parkway.

Since my last blog post

I heard from a number of you in reference to my March 10, 2025, blog post. I heard from fellow-Americans, and I heard from people in various parts of Europe and the Caribbean.

It seems we still have a lot in common with our European allies (I can’t bring myself to refer to them as “former allies” yet): We’re all deeply concerned – and dare I say scared – over the current political situation into which the US President has thrown us.

The people in Mexico, Canada, and Europe did not ask for this… and half of the Americans didn’t ask for or vote for this. The brave people of Ukraine certainly didn’t ask for and don’t deserve this chaos.

Until my next blog post

I hope you find a good book to read that will inform you and/or give you a few hours to escape into a fictional place or time.

We didn’t all vote for this, but we’re all in it together now. We’ll be watching in the coming days, months, and years to see how the US Supreme Court will rule on cases resulting from the chaos we’ve been thrown into since January 20^th.

I hope my next blog post will be shorter than this one. It depends on what’s going on.

Please remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina… and all the people terrorized by tornadoes over the weekend.

Janet

An Historical & Current Look at “America First”

It is sad that many Americans do not know history. I blame the results of the 2024 US Presidential election on that along with today’s popular mindset that is only concerned with how something affects “me” instead of being concerned with “the common good.”

A policy of isolationism has never turned out well for the United States, and I doubt it will as we find ourselves in a true global economy in which no country can thrive in isolation.

Donald Trump campaigned for President on an America First agenda. That apparently sounded good to half the population. The picture he painted of America First did not include alienating the allies we’ve had for our entire 248-year history. It did not include turning our backs on Ukraine and embracing Vladimir Putin. Trump so successfully sold half the voters a bill of goods that they find themselves unable to admit they were hoodwinked. They cannot admit they made a grave mistake in the voting booth.

They interpreted “America First” as an idyllic country in which we would literally build walls instead of bridges, we would have cheap eggs and cheap gasoline, we would not be bothered by having under-paid migrants picking our fruits and vegetables, we would not be bothered with immigrants cleaning our hotel rooms or cutting our grass, and we would not have to compete with highly-qualified foreigners for jobs we have not prepared ourselves to assume.

It is a fact that Americans already have cheap gasoline compared to such places as Great Britain. As the “Bird Flu” continues to spread, we already look back on $4.00-a-dozen eggs as “the good old days.” And how many of us are lining up to make the beds and clean the toilets in hotels for $7.25-an-hour?

Much of America finds itself in an “us versus them” mentality. It is a mindset based in a belief that anyone who doesn’t look and talk like I do doesn’t have the right to live… not a right to live in the United States, at least. When I voiced my political views on social media in January, one commenter told me I should find another country to live in.

I was fortunate to have been born in the United States. I did nothing to deserve that. My immigrant ancestors came here in the 1700s and — fortunately for me — were not deported by the Native Americans who had been living here for thousands of years.

By merely being born in the United States I am the recipient of blessings and opportunities about which the majority of people in the world can only dream.

Photo of the Statue of Liberty with the New York City skyline in the background — Photo by Priyanka Puvvada on Unsplash

Don’t get me wrong… illegal immigration into the United States needs to be addressed, but the mistakes of the past have turned Americans into an “us versus them” mentality in which the “us” no longer view “them” as human beings. The dehumanization of people leads to hate and violence.

It is tragic that we now have a President who repeatedly tells us that we are victims, suckers, and losers being taken advantage of by other countries.

“What’s the history of “America First?” you may ask.

Former Secretary of State, the late Madeleine Korbel Albright, explained it well in her book, Fascism: A Warning, in 2018, so I will quote some of what she wrote:

“America First is a slogan with a past. Founded in 1940, the America First Committee (AFC) brought together pacifists, isolationists, and Nazi sympathizers to fight against the country’s prospective entry into World War II. The AFC opposed creation of the Selective Service and also a Roosevelt initiative known as Lend-Lease, to keep the British in food and arms as they struggled to survive the German onslaught. Within twelve months of its founding, the committee had built a membership of more than 800,000 and attracted support from across the political spectrum – corporate tycoons and Socialists alike.”

Photo of a barbed wire fence at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II — Fence at a Nazi concentration camp. (Photo by Darshan Gajara on Unsplash.)

Albright also wrote, “Four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler declared war on the United States. The AFC soon disbanded and, in the intervening decades, its name has carried a stigma of naivete and moral blindness. Now ‘America First’ is back – but what does it mean?”

Donald Trump stated at an assembly of the United Nations that every country should put its interests first. But Albright maintains, “What the assertion ignores is the stake that all countries have in the fates of others.”

My thoughts

I started Janet’s Writing Blog more than a decade ago. Until recently, I planned to basically blog about my journey as a writer and my journey as a reader. As time passed and I wanted to establish my credibility as a writer of history and historical fiction, I began to blog about historical events and documents, usually on anniversary dates.

I did not plan, intend, or want to turn my blog into a political platform. I still do not want to do that, but I find myself in a situation in which I cannot avoid it. I must live with myself. I cannot have this public platform and pretend that everything in our country and world are going well.

Writers are cautioned against being too political, but aren’t writers, teachers, and scientists the first groups and individuals fascist governments go after? I don’t want to turn my blog into nothing but a political sounding board; however, I will not sit idly by while our government is dismantled.

Until the day that I am silenced, I will continue to voice my opinions and speak out against injustices. I will come down on the side of the United States Constitution, and I will come down on the side of the downtrodden. My Presbyterian faith instructs me to do so.

The growing mindset in the United States is “us” versus “them.” I think the 2024 Presidential Election bears that out. In the words of Secretary Albright, “To reduce the sum of our existence to a competitive struggle for advantage among more than two hundred nations is not clear-eyed but myopic. People and nations compete, but that is not all that they do.”

Photo of a painting of the western hemisphere. — Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash

We have just experienced a week of whiplash caused by the policies, pronouncements, Executive Orders, and constantly changing mind of Donald Trump. One day we have tariffs, the next day we don’t, but the next day we do, and no one knows – apparently, not even Trump – whether they’re on or off later today, much less tomorrow.

The words of Trump supporters that “we need a businessman in the White House” echo in my head. Being a student of government and political science, I bristled at that mindset when it was first voiced and I continue to bristle and cringe at it today.

If this is the way businesses operate, I don’t think our democracy (or any democracy) can afford it. I know a democracy cannot afford this in a constitutional way – in a “this is what we stand for” way.

When facing excessive debt, do businesses fire all their employees only to try to locate and rehire the good ones later? Do businesses issue blanket lies in writing about the performance of the employees they fire or layoff in mass reorganizations in order to make it more difficult for them to find new jobs?

Oops! We didn’t mean to fire the air traffic controllers. We didn’t mean to fire the people who safeguard our nuclear stockpiles. We just meant to fire the scientists working on cures for cancer, the people who are trained to fight wildfires, the people who work at the Veterans Administration and the VA hospitals, and the people who make sure we have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and safe food to eat.

We just meant to cancel classes at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland, the premier fire academy in the US where firefighters from all over the nation come for special training. (Too bad for the firefighters who had already bought their plane tickets, etc. for the new round of classes that were scheduled to begin this week.)

We just meant to traumatize the millions of disabled and elderly citizens who rely on Social Security. After all, we must find the money somewhere to give the millionaires and billionaires more tax breaks.

To me, that’s a sign of insanity, but I did not major in business administration in college. I majored in political science and my graduate degree is in public administration.

The government is not supposed to be a profit-making entity. It is service oriented. The government does not manufacture things. It contracts with private companies (and billionaires like Elon Musk) for those things. If the federal government is “getting ripped off” as Trump says, perhaps someone needs to take a look at federal contracts with private companies and see where the waste is.

Photo of a contract marked with a "sign here" sticky note — Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

When I worked in government, I was required to recommend to the elected governing body that a contract be given to the lowest bidder unless the lowest bidder was deemed unable to fulfill the contract and accomplish the work as specified. If we think the federal government is paying too much for water faucets or whatever, perhaps the fault likes with the private company selling us those faucets.

If contracts are being issued to the highest bidder because an elected official has a personal relationship or a financial relationship with that bidder, perhaps the elected official needs to be impeached. And the bidder attempting to defraud the government (i.e., the American people) needs to be exposed.

In the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln reminded us that in the United States of America we have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. It is time for we, the people, to remind all three branches of the federal government of that.

Photo of the tops of three heads: a blonde, a brown, and a black haired and skinned group of people — Photo by Clarissa Watson on Unsplash

We are the government. We, the people, are not the enemy of the government. A free press is not the enemy of the people.

Until my next blog post

It is tempting during these uncertain and chaotic times to withdraw and stop listening to or reading the news; however, it is more important than ever that we pay attention. We need to stay as informed as possible about what is happening in and to our government. We need to get our information from a wide range of reliable sources.

I deleted my weekly western North Carolina Hurricane Helene Update today due to the length of my blog post. It should return next week.

I hope you have a good book to read. I have several going now, as usual. Regardless of your political leanings, I encourage you to read Fascism: A Warning, by Madeleine Korbel Albright.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

One Decision Changed the Course of History

Perhaps you need to be of a certain age to recognize the name of Hyman G. Rickover. Or perhaps you are not aware that he was born in Russia on this date in the year 1900.

His parents made the decision to leave Russia and settle their family in Chicago in 1906. When I read that, it struck me how just one decision made by an individual or a couple can change the course of history.

Statue of Liberty Photo by tom coe on Unsplash

Rickover graduated from the US. Naval Academy. He went on to work his way up through the ranks to head the Naval Reactors Branch of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and head of the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power Division. He was instrumental in the design and construction of the USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine.

He was known as a blunt man who sometimes butted heads with political leaders. Nevertheless, he went down in history as “Father of the Nuclear Navy.” The Soviet Union was unable to match the nuclear power held by the US military during the Cold War, and Admiral Rickover’s contributions and service were very much credited with that standing.

Admiral Rickover served in the United States Navy for 63 years, retiring in 1982.

Imagine how world history might have taken a different turn in the 1950s and beyond if Rickover’s parents had decided to stay in Russia in 1906.

Some reflections

After thinking about how one decision can change or set the path for the rest of our lives, as it did for Hyman G. Rickover and his parents, I thought about the decision made by my ancestors.

What about the day in the mid-1700s when my Morrison great-great-great-great-grandparents decided to leave Scotland and sail to America?

What about the day they decided to purchase land in the wilderness of North Carolina and set out down the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania?

What about the day my father applied for a job at Martin Aircraft in Middle River, Maryland and uproot his young family at the start of World War II?

What about the day he and Mama decided to move back to North Carolina as soon as the war was over?

What about the day Grandpa Morrison decided how to divide his farm among his three sons. His decision about what land to give his youngest son determined where I grew up and once again live today!

If my father had inherited the land Grandpa left to Uncle Gene, my parent’s house would have been destroyed by a tornado in the 1940s.

If my father had inherited that part of the farm instead of Uncle Gene, he would have rebuilt that house after the tornado just as Uncle Gene and Aunt Louise did. In that case, I would now be faced with the imminent construction of an 1,100-house development literally in my back yard. Thanks to Grandpa’s decision, I will live around the corner from that massive development and will, for the time being, still enjoy the beauty, tranquility, and wildlife of the woods behind my house.

Decisions.

And those are just examples from my Morrisons. My life and world view have been molded by the thousands of decisions made by all my ancestors. The same is true for you. Have you ever stopped to think about that?

Sometimes we agonize over a decision, and sometimes we make a choice on a whim. We usually have no idea how our decisions will affect those who come after us. We can make their lives easier or more difficult. We all just do the best we can with the information we have at the time.

Try not to judge your ancestors, and grant yourself forgiveness and grace for the choices you wish you hadn’t made. You did the best you could at the time. Like your ancestors, you did not have a crystal ball to see into the future.

Hurricane Helene Update

At the request of NC Gov. Josh Stein, FEMA’s Transitional Shelter Assistance program extended coverage of temporary housing in rental units/motels until May 26, 2025, for people who lost their homes in September in western NC due to Hurricane Helene. The coverage had been scheduled to end on January 18. With sub-zero temperatures and windchills in the negative double digits for days, people being turned out of temporary rental housing would have been another disaster for those individuals and families. Temporary housing assistance will not automatically be extended for everyone. Each case is periodically reviewed.

President Trump visited the Asheville area on Friday and talked about water in California, making Canada the 51^st state, and what a good-looking guy Franklin Graham is. When he managed to focus on where he was, he said several times that he would be going out “to the site,” which sounds like the disaster was limited to one location. It actually covers hundreds of square miles of pockets of destruction in a challenging terrain.

Trump also said that NC had been treated “very unfairly” by FEMA, but the mayor of Asheville said she wasn’t sure what he was basing that remark on. Trump said he wants to overhaul FEMA or perhaps get rid of it. He left the impression that FEMA hasn’t done anything to help western NC since Hurricane Helene. He wants money to go through “us” (did he mean him? He said, “through us”) directly to the states and not through FEMA. He also talked about putting a litmus test on states before they could get federal disaster funds.

(I’m sure FEMA is not perfect, but to claim the agency has failed NC just is not true. There is confusion over what FEMA’s role is in a disaster. It will be interesting to see how disasters in the future are addressed if FEMA is overhauled or dismantled. There’s always room for improvement.)

As of Friday, 183 roads in North Carolina are still closed due to Hurricane Helene, including Interstate 40 near the Tennessee line. There is no estimate for when the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina will be fully reopened.

In these remaining 183 cases, it’s not just a matter of resurfacing a road, some cases involve reconstructing entire roadbeds (many on the side of mountains), reconstruction of infrastructure, and reconstruction of bridges. County roads, state highways, and Interstates 26 and 40 have been affected.

Until my next blog post

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

I hope you are reading a good book. I just finished reading The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

What decision(s) have you and your ancestors made that you realize now had long-range and perhaps unanticipated ramifications?

Remember the people of Ukraine, western North Carolina, and Los Angeles County.

Janet

The Black Architect of Duke University and a Hurricane Helene Update

This my 700^th blog post! I started blogging in 2010 but didn’t begin to make much traction and attract views until 2017. Over the years I’ve played around with content and scheduling. Posting once-a-week works best for me.

The best part of blogging is the friends I’ve made from all around the world. It has also enabled me to connect with other writers, which has truly been a blessing.

Thank you for following my blog and encouraging me along my journey as a writer!

Since I did not finish reading any novels or nonfiction books of general interest in November, today I’m sharing some highlights from my April 25, 2022 blog post about the black architect who never got the credit he was due for designing the iconic buildings on the West Campus of Duke University.

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, Julian Francis Abele.

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 on December 11, 1942. That was when 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 $813 million. (That’s up from $630 million when I wrote the original blog post in the spring of 2022!)

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

Julian Francis Abele was born April 30, 1881 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 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.

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.

A front view of the magnificent Duke Chapel at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina — Duke Chapel, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. 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.

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.

Inside Duke Chapel. Photo credit: Chuck Givens on unsplash.com

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 21^st century minds, is the fact that the racial prejudices of the early- and mid-20^th 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.

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.)

If you wish to read my original blog post about Julian Francis Abele, here’s the link: You should know who Julian Francis Abele was.

December 2, 2024 Hurricane Helene Update on Western North Carolina

Just to give you an idea about the recovery situation 67 days after the storm hit western NC…

Housing: With more than 125,000 homes damaged or destroyed by the storm, recovery for those individuals and families will take years.

Roads: Interstate 40 is still closed near the TN line. Hopes are high that two lanes (one lane in each direction for non-commercial traffic) will be opened around the first of January through the Pigeon River Gorge. As of Friday, of the 1,329 roads that were closed in September due to Hurricane Helene, 266 remain closed.

Blue Ridge Parkway: There is still no estimated date for all the parkway in NC to be reopened. Some 140 miles of the parkway in NC remain closed due to damage sustained from Hurricane Helene. As usual during the winter months, additional sections of the road were closed this weekend and will continue to be closed from time to time due to snow and ice.

A fresh fir Christmas Wreath from Avery County, NC: Do you remember in my November 18, 2024 blog post (Some Things Aren’t Funny, & Hurricane Helene Update) in which I wrote about how one Christmas tree farm in western NC that lost 60,000 trees in the storm was making wreaths out of the tops of their trees whose lower branches were destroyed by Hurricane Helene?

The wreath my sister and I ordered was delivered on Saturday, and it is beautiful! I wish my blog had a way for me to convey the wonderful scent to you! Here’s their website, in case you want to place an order for a wreath or a virtual tree: https://www.averychristmastrees.com/

Here’s our wreath…

Our fir Christmas wreath from the Avery Family’s Trinity Tree Company, Newland, NC

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read and enough quiet time to read it.

Treasure your time with friends and family.

Remember the people of Ukraine; western NC; and Valencia, Spain.

Janet

Some Things Aren’t Funny, & Hurricane Helene Update

Some things are not funny. One of those is hearing loss.

I was blindsided after I got hearing aids the first time when a friend made fun of me over it.

Those expensive hearing aids served me well for about seven years. When they ceased to work, I could not afford to replace them.

Six years have passed, and I recently decided to buy MUCH cheaper hearing aids from one of those membership warehouse stores. What did I have to lose but $1,499 this time? That’s a drop in the bucket compared to what my first pair of hearing aids cost, not to mention that I had to periodically pay for replacement batteries. Thank goodness my new ones recharge in a little box every night!

I was once again caught off guard a couple of weeks ago when a friend (a different one) thought it was hilarious to mouth silent words in my direction since I have hearing aids.

Where do adults get off making fun of those of us who have lost hearing?

It is a widely mistaken understanding that hearing loss is just the loss of ability to hear sounds below a certain volume. Volume is only part of the problem. Hearing loss is the loss of the ability to understand certain letters/sounds of the alphabet. In addition, some people lose the ability to hear bass sounds, some lose the ability to hear high-pitch sounds, and some of us lose the ability to hear somewhere in the middle. The electronic diagram of that sort of hearing loss resembles what a cookie looks like after someone has taken a bite out of it.

Hearing is a precious gift from God, along with eyesight, the ability to walk and move our arms, and feel a soft summer breeze on our faces.

I would never make fun of someone who was losing their sight or someone who has become paralyzed… and I doubt my two friends would either. Therefore, it baffles me that they both thought it was funny that I have hearing loss.

I mention this today to remind each of us to stop before we speak or laugh about someone else’s health problems.

Hurricane Helene Update on Western North Carolina

Just to give you an idea about the recovery situation 53 days after the storm hit western NC…

Roads: Interstate 40 is still closed near the TN line. As of Friday, of the 1,329 roads that were closed in September due to Hurricane Helene, 270 remain closed. The last report I heard said the NC DOT hopes to open the westbound lanes of I-40 to two-way traffic (but probably not trucks over a certain size) on New Year’s Day. Rebuilding and opening the eastbound lanes will take years.

Water system in Asheville: The City of Asheville Water Resources serves about 160,000 people in Buncombe and Henderson counties. They are still under a Boil Water order; however, if three days of water testing expected to be completed today gives good results, it is possible that the Boil Water Notice will be lifted in a couple of days.

Blue Ridge Parkway: There is still no estimated date for all the parkway in NC to be reopened. Approximately 150 miles of the parkway remains completely closed. Another 15 miles of the road are subject to partial closures and one-lane traffic as paving is done.

Public School Systems: All the affected counties continue to struggle with bus routes due to so many road closures.

How you can help a family business: The Avery family in Newland, Avery County, NC owns Trinity Tree Company. The farm has been in their family since the 1700s. They grow Fraser Fir Christmas trees. On September 24 their farm was decimated by Hurricane Helene. They lost 60,000 Christmas trees along with a house, barn, office, and their equipment. (That’s not a typo: sixty thousand.)

Photo from https://www.averychristmastrees.com/

They are selling “table top” trees from the undamaged tops of some of their trees, Christmas wreaths, and “virtual” trees for a donation. The entire farm will have to be bulldozed. It takes 15 years to grow a Christmas tree. Here’s their website: https://www.averychristmastrees.com/.

United Cajun Navy

I’m not sure I’ve written about the United Cajun Navy in any of my Hurricane Helene updates, and for that I apologize. They have been in western North Carolina helping people since the day after the storm hit. Literally, the next day! The Facebook posts stated that they plan to work in western North Carolina for “years” to help the area recover from Hurricane Helene.

Since my last blog post

Have you subscribed to my e-newsletter, which at least for the time being has been converted into a short weekly e-mail? If not, finish reading this blog post and then visit my website, https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com , where you can click on the “Subscribe” button. As a bonus, in addition to being on my e-mail list, you can download a free copy of my historical short story, “Slip Sliding Away.”

Until my next blog post

I hope you have one or more good books to read this week.

Take time for friends and family.

Remember the people of Ukraine; western NC; and Valencia, Spain.

Janet

Best laid plans…

Do you ever over-organize your life?

I’m a planner. A list maker extraordinaire. The trouble is, I tend to think I can do more in a day than I actually can accomplish. Every. Single. Day.

Several inexpensive and two free online writing courses came along at the same time, and I took the bait.

As if that weren’t enough… along came Hurricane Helene.

I had a full schedule of webinars to participate in and other writing-related things I wanted/needed to do.

The rain poured on Thursday, and that was from a whole different weather system. They said it had nothing to do with Helene… that Helene’s winds and rain bands would arrive overnight and last most of the day Friday.

I got up early Friday morning to listen to the news and weather reports. It was still raining, but I thought we were probably going to be all right. Just as I started to put a pot of water on the cooktop to boil for a nice oatmeal and blueberry breakfast… the power went off.

I forget how addicted I am to writing at the computer… until the power goes off.

I’m trying to take the high road and not whine about the power being off for 14 hours. I live out in the country and have a well so when the electricity is off I don’t have any water. Things get interesting fairly quickly. However, this was a minor inconvenience compared to the widespread flooding and devastation that has and continues to occur in western North Carolina.

I live about 500 miles from where Hurricane Helene made landfall on the Gulf coast of Florida. It was hard to grasp that Helene would still be packing such a punch when she got to North Carolina, even though meteorologists warned that this could be a rain event of historic proportions in the mountains of the state.

Hurricane Helene and her remnants caused devastation in biblical proportions over hundreds and hundreds of miles. What I experienced here in the piedmont doesn’t hold a candle to what happened in the Appalachian Mountains 100 miles to the west.

Asheville, North Carolina is getting the bulk of the media coverage, so you might not be aware that the entirety of western North Carolina is in a world of hurt right now. Some areas received over 25 inches of rain from Helene.

Chunks of I-40 were washed away by flood waters while other sections are under mudslides. Virtually every highway and country road in the mountains were or still are impassable. (That total was 400 on Friday and Saturday, but dropped to 280 yesterday.) Town after town after town in addition to Asheville experienced record-breaking flooding. Not to mention all the nooks and crannies that aren’t towns but tiny communities. Many areas have not been accessed yet as I write this.

Roads are gone. Communications are down or spotty at best. The situation is dire and becomes more dangerous by the day.

Two weeks ago I blogged about my visit to my alma mater, Appalachian State University, in Boone, North Carolina (Who says you can’t go home again? Revisiting a university campus). Seeing aerial pictures of the Town of Boone under water has been gut wrenching the past days. The 21,000 students must be shell-shocked! I would have been if this had happened while I was a student there.

If you have subscribed to my monthly e-newsletter, earlier in September you read about my “field trip” to Swannanoa, North Carolina. I gave some of the history of the construction of the Western North Carolina Railroad through Swannanoa Gap in the 1870s. Sadly, the sketchy reports coming out of the Swannanoa/Black Mountain/Montreat/Old Fort area a few miles east of Asheville indicate that those particular towns are suffering severely from the flooding and landslides caused by Hurricane Helene.

The quaint small town of Chimney Rock was practically wiped off the map. Isolated communities and small towns are scattered throughout western North Carolina. The death toll is rising as search and rescue operations continue. Even the interstate highways are steep and winding.

Almost every one of the mountain towns I can think of was flooded on Friday. Cell, landline service, and electricity were knocked out. I’ve seen pictures of almost every town I can think of being under water.

Although served by two interstate and several US highways, on Friday and Saturday the city of Asheville (population 95,000) was only accessible by air.

I’m afraid the news cycle will transition to the fighting in the Middle East and back to the coming US elections. The public will soon forget Hurricane Helene. Or, there will be another natural disaster that needs our attention.

The devastation from Hurricane Helene covers hundreds of square miles in western North Carolina.

As the area slowly recovers over the coming months and years — when you know you won’t be in the way of first responders and second and third responders — visit the area and patronize the small businesses. Eat at the diners instead of the chain restaurants. Shop at the little shops and independent bookstores instead of at the big-box stores.

Western North Carolina’s economy depends on tourism. Autumn is the biggest tourist season as the native hardwood forests put on a colorful show. Tourists will not be visiting the area this fall because so many of the roads are in shambles.

Western North Carolina is famous for its apples. This is the beginning of apple season. Many orchards were severely damaged last week, but if you have the opportunity to purchase apples from North Carolina this fall or any time in the future, do so to help the farmers get back on their feet.

Western North Carolina is also famous for its Christmas trees. Many of the fir and spruce trees that have graced the White House through the years were grown in North Carolina. If you can buy a tree from North Carolina in December, do so.

Western North Carolina is known for its artisans. Quilt makers, glass blowers, textile artists, weavers, woodcrafts people, painters, musicians, potters, makers of corn husk dolls, knitters, and crocheters depend on tourists to purchase their wares. But now many of their retail outlets are gone. Seek them out online on marketplaces such as Etsy.com.

Mountaineers are sturdy, intelligent, talented, resilient, resourceful people. They roll with the punches during winter blizzards and hard times, and many of them are about as self-sufficient as a person can be in the 21^st century. But when they experience a 1,000-year flood followed by the remnants of a hurricane all in the span of three days that affects every community in the region, they need a hand up. They don’t want our pity. They need our support.

If you are so moved and are able, do what you can to help the hurting people of southern Appalachia. Donate what you can to a reputable charitable organization of your choice.

Since my last blog post

I got to visit a veteran of World War II and the Korean War last week who celebrated his 100^th birthday this weekend. How many people get to do that?

Until my next blog post

I’m writing this on September 29 and scheduling it for September 30. A fiber optics cable is being moved a couple of miles up the road and my internet service is going to be interrupted any minute now for an undetermined length of time. Not that Windstream gave us any warning. If not for word-of-mouth, we would have been blindsided. On second thought, I think I’ll just go ahead and hit the “publish” button and not rely on the “schedule” button! So much for my best laid plans for tomorrow!

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read.

Don’t take your family or friends for granted.

Remember the people of Ukraine and the people of western North Carolina.

Janet

Janet's Writing Blog

Category: Uncategorized

17 more unjust things going on in America

Some unjust things going on in America

Books I Read in March 2025, & Hurricane Helene Update

Six Months After Hurricane Helene

#OnThisDay: Ramifications of Backgrounds of US Supreme Court Justices

An Historical & Current Look at “America First”

One Decision Changed the Course of History

The Black Architect of Duke University and a Hurricane Helene Update

Some Things Aren’t Funny, & Hurricane Helene Update

Best laid plans…

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: