I write southern historical fiction, local history, and I've written a devotional book. The two novels I'm writing are set in Virginia and the Carolinas in the 1760s. My weekly blog started out to follow my journey as a writer and a reader, but in 2025 it has been greatly expanded to include current events and politics in the United States as I see our democracy under attack from within. The political science major in me cannot sit idly by and remain silent.
Note: This will be my last blog post for a while. There are just more pressing tasks – like cutting down sweetgum sprouts — that need my attention. One of the joys of country living. They multiply like rabbits and grow as fast as kudzu.
I will sorely miss getting to work on my blog posts every day, but life changes as we grow older and energy is limited.
Today’s blog is about the Ground Observer Corps and what I learned about it when I was writing a local history column for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper.
The Ground Observer Corps was formed during World War II. One source I found indicated than more than 1.5 million civilians volunteered to man 14,000 observation posts in the coastal states of the United States. Another source reported 800,000 volunteers manned the eventual 16,000 observation posts.
There was a Ground Observer Corps post in the little town of Harrisburg, North Carolina, so I did some research about it in 2007 when I was writing a local history column for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper.
Keep in mind that radar detection of aircraft was low during the war, so human eyes on the skies was a way to try to keep our country safe from foreign bombers.
The program was ended by the Army Air Forces in 1944 but was formed again during the Korean War in the 1950s.
Public service announcements were used to recruit volunteers who were instructed to call their local Civil Defense office.
The Ground Observer Corps post in Harrisburg, NC was organized on July 14, 1955 through the Harrisburg Volunteer Fire Department. It was another civic service in which our local general practitioner, Dr. Nicholas “Nick” E. Lubchenko, played an important role.
Presentation of certificates of service to representatives of the Ground Observer Corps Station in Harrisburg, NC January 27, 1959. Pictured, left to right, are U.S. Air Force M/Sgt. M.L. Venable; Emmett C. Sapp, Jr.; J. David Blume; Lt. Col. James Brennan, Ground Observer Corps Coordinator for North Carolina; and P.V. “Pete” Smith.
John David Blume, Sr. was the post supervisor. Plato “Pete” V. Smith was chief observer. Emmett C. Sapp, Jr. was assistant chief. Mr. Sapp’s extensive experience in an Aircraft Battalion in North Africa, Italy, and Germany during World War II made him well-qualified to assist in training the volunteers in Harrisburg.
Volunteers signed up for whatever hours they could be at the fire station. The post had to be manned 24-hours-a-day, seven days-a-week. This was quite an undertaking in a town of just 300 people!
The volunteers constructed an observation tower in 1957 to make observations easier and more efficient. Duke Power Company (now Duke Energy) donated utility poles to support the tower. Mr. Sapp remembered digging holes by hand for the poles to be anchored in. The tower was 15 to 20 feet tall (to the floor of the platform) and the platform was 20 feet square.
Mr. Sapp told me that almost everybody who lived in Harrisburg at the time – men and women – volunteered and played a part in the program. Although primarily concerned about an invasion by enemy aircraft, all plane sightings were reported. “We couldn’t take any chances,” Mr. Sapp said.
Radar detection of low-flying planes improved enough by the late 1950s that the Ground Observer Corps was no longer needed. It was deactivated on January 31, 1959.
If you’d like to read more about the Ground Observation Corps’ operations in Harrisburg, look for Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 on Amazon and at Second Look Books in Harrisburg. The book is available in paperback and e-book.
Janet
All history is local, but no history is just local
Today’s blog post is in honor and memory of all those brave soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944 — 82 years ago today. I knew one of them – Mr. Ira Lee Taylor of Harrisburg, North Carolina, and was privileged to interview him in 2007 about his World War II experiences while I was writing a local history column for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper. He was 93 years old.
I offer the following essay that I wrote in memory of Mr. Taylor:
“Memories of World War II”
His 93-year-old blue eyes were clear as his mind was sharp, though his back was bent and he relied on a walker to navigate inside his home. When I called and asked if I could interview him about his memories of World War II, he agreed without hesitation.
Born after the war, I was embarrassed by my ignorance of its details. It seemed that every year in school we started by studying Plymouth Rock and by the end of the year scarcely managed to get to Appomattox.
With pen in hand, I knocked on Mr. Taylor’s door. The only question I had in mind to ask him was, “What did you do in the war?” That question was enough for Mr. Taylor. Over the next several visits, he recounted in amazing chronological order the places he was sent and the things he saw, heard, smelled, tasted, and felt that forever changed his life. There was a reverence in his voice. We were treading on hallowed ground.
World War II Veteran and Harrisburg Mail Carrier, Ira Lee Taylor
Training for the war was thrilling and boring for a young man from a piedmont North Carolina community of fewer than 300 people. Although he had gone off to “State College” (now, North Carolina State University at Raleigh) and earned a degree in forestry, there was a naiveté about this army draftee that followed him through the battlefields of France, Belgium, and Germany. As he regaled me with his memories of the war, I sensed that many other recruits were as “wet behind the ears” as was Mr. Taylor. They shared a heavy responsibility and had in common the mindset, “You do what you have to do.” No self-pity in that generation!
It took 11 harrowing days for Mr. Taylor’s ship to cross the Atlantic along with other troop and liberty ships. German torpedoes picked off liberty ships on the perimeter of the convoy of more than 100 ships that transported and accompanied the U.S. Army 4th Division to England. The rough ocean made some men so seasick that they said if they survived the war they were going to stay in Europe.
Mr. Taylor recalled the training he got in England for the invasion of Normandy. He just didn’t know that was what he and thousands of others were being prepared for or when their skills would be put to the test. They were ordered to waterproof the trucks in the motor pool by packing something like Play-Doh around the sparkplugs and rigging up elbow pipes to the tailpipes that could carry exhaust up higher than the roof of the trucks in case the trucks were in deep water.
It was a time of “loose lips sink ships” and even journalists understood the necessity for complete secrecy of military plans and troop movements. The soldiers didn’t know much of what was going on in the war, but it wasn’t their business to know. It was their business to train, be ready, look out for one another, and follow orders.
The night before the scheduled invasion, the men of the 4th Division were briefed. They were told that they would make the landing on Normandy and it was expected that 80 percent of them would be killed in the process. They got halfway across the English Channel when a huge storm forced them to return to Plymouth, England.
Twenty-four hours later, Mr. Taylor was on one of the 499 vessels that took part in the invasion. Utah Beach was the code name of the speck of sand on the coast of France where he began his trek across continental Europe. “The beach was filled with black smoke, dust, dirt, and the smell of gunpowder. Boy, it smelled awful!” he said.
Another thing he mentioned that is not learned by reading a history book or watching a movie is the terrible smell of the fatigues the soldiers had to wear for the invasion and for the next several days. The fatigues were impregnated with chemicals to protect the soldiers in case they were gassed.
As Mr. Taylor’s narrative progressed through the war, he spoke of the ground quivering from the concussion of exploding bombs, booby-trapped bodies of American soldiers, countless nearly-impenetrable hedgerows, the French Resistance, foxholes, rumbling tanks, waves of blooming red poppies on Flanders Field, being surrounded at Bastogne in Belgium, The Battle for Huertgen Forest where the pine and fir trees in that beautiful forest were shirred off into matchsticks, shoe mines that would blow your foot off, the snow and cold of the Battle of the Bulge, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower walking up one day and talking to him like he was just another G.I., seeing the snow-capped Alps, and seeing lots of sights he had tried to forget.
Mr. Ira Lee Taylor of Harrisburg, North Carolina, with his framed military service medals
After a seven-day calm voyage back to the States during which the troops were treated to wonderful food and entertainment and sightings of whales and their waterspouts, the ship Mr. Taylor was on entered New York Harbor. Everyone rushed to one side of the ship to see the Statue of Liberty, but the ship started listing so badly that they were ordered to redistribute themselves on the deck.
Rewarded with a 30-day furlough, Mr. Taylor returned home to North Carolina where he got married and then boarded a bus bound for Camp Butner to be trained for the invasion of Japan. One of the men on the bus had a transistor radio over which came the announcement that Japan had surrendered and the war was over. That’s how close Mr. Taylor came to being shipped to Japan after what he had lived through in Europe.
The 4th Division suffered the third highest number of casualties of any United State military Division (22,600) in World War II. Mr. Taylor considered himself very fortunate to have come home alive. He delivered mail to my house for 32 years until he retired in 1980. It was only in 2007 that I learned that he had taken part in the largest military invasion in history.
If you want to read the whole story and other things I learned while writing the “Harrisburg, Did You Know?” local history column for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper, look for my books, Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 and Book 2 on Amazon and at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, North Carolina.
Janet
All history is local, but no history is just local.
The fire hose of corruption and trickery continues from the White House. I’m trying to keep up, but it’s impossible.
The New Acting Director of National Intelligence
Saying that Bill Pulte, who Trump named as Acting Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday has no intelligence experience is not a joke. It’s true.
When the position of Director of National Intelligence was created by the U.S. Congress in 2004, the law stated that the holder of that title “shall have extensive national security expertise.” That seems like a no-brainer, right?
So much for the law.
We learned during Trump’s first term in office that he prefers to have “acting” directors because “acting” directors and “acting” secretaries of departments of the Executive branch do not have to go through a Congressional confirmation process.
Pulte is the grandson of the Pulte Group’s founder. The company is the nation’s largest residential developer. (In fact, it is developing an 1,100-home development near my home.)
His genealogy and Mr. Pulte’s loyalty to Trump (such as a social media campaign to oust Jerome Powell as Chairman of the Federal Reserve and pushing to get Trump’s non-supporters like Lisa D. Cook, a Federal Reserve Board of Governors member, prosecuted for fraud – which hasn’t panned out) landed him his current position as Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In other words, he oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
According to a June 2, 2026 New York Times report, Pulte will continue in that position while he also serves as Director of National Security.
Does that make sense to anyone?
Trump chose not to visit 14 veterans wounded in the Iran War
While Trump was at Walter Reed Medical Center last Tuesday for a physical examination, he chose not to visit 14 veterans who were wounded in the Iran War.
Trump has downplayed the sacrifices made by our military personnel and their families. He still prefers to call the war “an excursion.”
To admit that 13 American military personnel have been killed and somewhere between 140 and 400 American military personnel have been wounded would be a negative reflection on him and his perfect deal making and war-ending prowess. It is such a distasteful admission from Trump or the Pentagon to make that the public cannot find out how many have been wounded. Hence, the 140 to 400 figure. Just try finding a definitive number in an online search.
I remember back in the 1960s and 1970s when the Pentagon released such information weekly. Some said later that those reports were inaccurate, but at least they made an effort to keep the American people informed about war casualties.
Then there’s the 250th Birthday of America Great American State Fair
For starters, Trump wouldn’t know a state fair if he fell into one. This 10-day or 16-day celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was organized by Donald Trump’s nonprofit Freedom 250.
(“Donald Trump’s nonprofit…,” sounds like an oxymoron to me, but that is how Freedom 250 is described.)
Many singers and artists were invited to perform. Some of them, like Martina McBride, signed on because they thought it was a nonpartisan event.
Most of them, including Trump’s buddy, Kid Rock, have announced they aren’t going to participate. It’s pretty bad if Kid Rock won’t even show up.
I guess it will just be Lee Greenwood singing “I’m Proud to Be an American” over and over and over and over….
Of course, now Trump is calling the performers who have cancelled “third rate.” He wrote on social media that they were “overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain.”
So why did his nonprofit organization invite them?
He now says he might just host the whole thing and turn it into a MAGA Rally… as if that wasn’t what he wanted all along. It’s all about him.
The 4th of July was a nonpartisan celebration of freedom for 249 years. Of course, Trump had to do everything imaginable to try to ruin it this year. Of all the years for him to be in office!
This year’s celebration of a week or two won’t hold a candle to our bicentennial celebration in 1976, which lasted all year – no matter how Trump claims otherwise.
Don’t let him ruin our nation’s 250th birthday for you!
I wonder who told Trump this was our nation’s 250th birthday. I wish they hadn’t told him.
A spelling lesson
It was so classy for the U.S. President to spell “dumb” for us last week. He was excited to point out that “most people” don’t’ know that “dumb” ends in a “b,” then he went on and to claim he had coined the word “dumocrat.” In fact, he went into detail to explain to us exactly what he did to transform “democrat” to “dumocrat,” as if it rocket science.
Mr. President, I’ve heard the word “dumocrat” before you so proudly said it and explained to us in detail how you came up with it. I even had a cousin call me and my grandfather dumocrats in an email to me during Trump’s first term after she found out that I did not support his policies.
To say that I found that offensive is a gross understatement. My grandfather (her great-grandfather) died in 1956 when I was three years old. Frankly, I had no idea of Grandpa’s political leanings, and I don’t know if my cousin knows what she’s talking about. It does not matter to me how Grandpa voted. He’s the only one of my four grandparents who was still alive when I was born. I have only faint memories of him. It brings tears to my eyes as I type these words. For anyone to call him a “dumocrat” when he was a farmer born in the 1870s is abhorrent.
Trump thinking it was cute, clever, funny, mean – whatever his motivation – last week in bringing the word “dumocrat” back to my attention was like pouring gasoline into an old wound and then striking a match. The saddest part, though, is that this example of Trump’s name calling is probably the least offensive one he’s ever used. He is normalizing bad behavior. The derogatory names he calls and things he says about women, for starters.
Microsoft Word is even offended, for it keeps automatically changing “dumocrat” to “democrat” every time I type it. It will be a miracle if I get this published on WordPress the way I’ve written it.
Words are weighty. Words can be used like daggers. The “leader of the free world” should choose his words carefully. They perhaps carry more weight than those of anyone else in the world. And the world is watching and listening.
I cringe to imagine what horrors loom in the 10 days until Trump’s birthday and then the remaining three weeks until the 4th of July.
By the way, we have troops who were sent to the Middle East with very little notice in March and more were sent on April 19 for the war in Iran. No one is talking about them, but they were deployed, and they have no idea when they’ll get to come home.
Trump says he is in no hurry to reach a peace agreement (which he incorrectly calls “a deal.) He keeps drawing a line in the sand. A few minutes later, he moves the line. A businessman conducting a war….
Janet
The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.
It would be helpful for you to read my blog post from yesterday before you read today’s. Here’s the link to yesterday’s post: Public education is still under attack.
November 3, 2026 is Election Day in the United States. Political campaign ads will start any day now. We will be bombarded by hundreds of hours of smear campaigns
Photo by Cyrus Crossan on Unsplash
The GOP reportedly plans to spend $100 million to campaign against former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina as he runs for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Thom Tillis.
I think the right-wing conservatives have taken an ounce of misinformation and grotesquely twisted it to fit their agenda. What we have now are members of Congress making statements and laws denigrating public education. They probably don’t personally know a public-school teacher, a public-school administrator, or a public-school student.
That’s been part of the grand plan ever since the birth of the Tea Party. Day-by-day, these people chisel away at public education. We’ve certainly seen it played out by the North Carolina General Assembly!
I happen to know some public-school teachers. They are too busy trying to teach Johnny and Jane how to read and do basic math to spend time trying to force Johnny to become Jane or Jane to become Johnny.
It doesn’t help when we have a U.S. President who says that you send your son to school in the morning and he comes home that afternoon as a girl.
I know that transgenderism is an issue. I know that there are children and adults who feel trapped in a body with genitalia that does not feel right for them. My heart breaks for them. It has to be miserable to feel like you are not living in your authentic body.
Transgender people do not scare me, but right-wing regular folks and right-wing politicians who hate and fear transgender people do scare me.
As for their fear that a transgender person might enter a public restroom? That does not bother me as much as the time I was in a public women’s restroom when a man walked in and urinated in the sink.
The usage of keywords and catch phrases in campaign material should give you a clue where a candidate stands on a lot of issues.
I believe the Republican Party’s favorite word is indoctrination. Sadly, the “indoctrination” they seem most afraid of is that students might learn to be accepting of others.
They might learn that it is not right to bully others, even though the U.S. President does that daily.
They might learn that each individual should be allowed to aspire to and attain whatever occupation and level of achievement they strive for, even though daily the U.S. President berates journalists – especially those who are female and those who are female and of skin color other than white.
They might learn that girls have an equal opportunity to excel in education even though the U.S. President brags about grabbing women by their genitalia.
Politicians who spend their time worrying about non-existent problems while turning a blind eye to the horrendous corruption of the Trump Administration and its evil actions that cause the deaths of innocent people and animals do scare me.
All this right-wing broken record hoopla is pushed through the use of catch-words like “indoctrination,” “transparency,” and “parental rights.” But those hot-button words are not what’s behind this. They are just convenient ways the right-wing conservatives rely on to get our attention and try to scare us.
It will be tempting to turn off the TV from now until November 3 to avoid hearing the thousands of campaign ads. Don’t rely on what the ads say. Research a candidate’s track record. Look into the things they say when they think the microphones are muted. Look at their voting record if they’ve held public office before.
You owe it to yourself and everyone else living in the United States today and in the future.
Watch for my blog post tomorrow when I will write about a proposed anti-abortion bill under consideration in North Carolina.
Janet
The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.
Today is Memorial Day in the U.S. Take time to think about the members of our armed forces who have given their lives since 1775 so we can live in a free country.
Photo by Janne Simoes on Unsplash
Memorial Day used to be on May 31, but then the American people got spoiled and didn’t want a holiday to fall willy-nilly on just any day of the way, so now we remember our citizens who have died on the battlefield on a Monday so we can combine it with trips and furniture and car sales.
No excuse is too small for retailers to make a buck on such a sacred day.
My guess is that most Americans have no idea what Memorial Day is really about. When I hear someone say, “Happy Memorial Day,” I have to shake my head. What is happy about a day of remembrance of our war dead?
Since Memorial Day falls on May 25 this year, it shares the day with the opening of the 1777 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
After we declared our independence from Great Britain, we needed a framework for a government to replace the monarchy. The Articles of Confederation were adopted by the Continental Congress in November 1777. It was in that document, penned by John Dickinson of Delaware, that the name “United States of America” first appeared.
The Continental Congress continued to govern the new country through the end of the Revolutionary War.
Janet
The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.
Every year on May 20 or sometime that week I blog about the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. It was signed on May 20, 1775 – a full year before the national declaration.
Unfortunately, the original copy was lost when John McKnitt Alexander’s house burned. The writers and signers got together after the fire and reconstructed the document from memory.
Since the original copy was lost, there are naysayers today. I don’t know what their motives are, but they insist on seeing the original in order to believe it existed. A newspaper account in the Raleigh Register on April 30, 1819 does not suffice as proof for them.
There has never been any love lost between Raleigh – the State Capital – and Charlotte (in Mecklenburg County), so I find it surprising that a Raleigh newspaper ever acknowledged the document. For a newspaper in Raleigh – of all places – to do so only indicates to me a level of certification.
May 20, 1775 was added to the North Carolina state flag in 1861, so there must have been a high degree of belief that the document was real. Again, with the historical seat of power in North Carolina being in the eastern part of the state, the legislators would not have been quick to given Mecklenburg County any credit on the state flag.
Here is the wording of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, as it was recreated after being lost in a fire, and as it is found in The Hornet’s Nest: The Story of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, by LeGette Blythe and Charles Raven Brockmann, published in 1961:
That whosoever directly or indirectly abetted or in any way, form or manner countenanced the unchartered & dangerous invasion of our rights as claimed by G. Britain is an enemy to this County – to America & to the inherent & inaliable rights of man.
We the Citizens of Mecklenburg County do hereby desolve the political bands which have connected us to the Mother Country & hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British crown & abjure all political connection, contract or association with that nation who have wantonly trampled on our rights & liberties & inhumanely shed the innocent blood of American patriots at Lexington.
We do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people – are & of right ought to be a sovereign & self-governing association, under the control of no power other than that of our God & the general government of the congress, to the maintainence of which independence civil & religious we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual cooperation, our lives, our fortunes & our most sacred honor.
As we now acknowledge the existence & control of no law or legal officers, civil or military, within this County, we do hereby ordain & adopt as a rule of life, all, each & every of our former laws – wherein nevertheless the crown of great Britain never can be considered as holding rights, privileges, immunities, or authority therein.
It is also further decreed that all, each & every military officer in this County is hereby reinstated in his former command & authority, he acting conformably to these regulations. And that every member present of this delegation shall henceforth be a civil officer, viz, a Justice of the peace in the character of a “Committee-man” to issue process, hear & determine all matters of controversy according to sd. Adopted laws – to preserve peace, union & harmony in sd. County & to use every exertion to spread the love of country & fire of freedom throughout American until a more general & organized government be established in this province. A selection from the members present shall constitute a Committee of public safety for sd. County.
That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by express to the President of the Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia, to be laid before that body.
Ephraim Brevard
Hezekiah J. Balch
John Phifer
James Harris
William Kennon
John Foard
Richard Barry
Henry Downs
Ezra Alexander
Charles Alexander
Zaccheus Wilson
Waightstill Avery
Benjamin Patton
Matthew McClure
Neil Morrison
Robert Irwin
John Flennegin
David Reese
William Graham
John Queary
Hezekiah Alexander
Adam Alexander
John Davidson
Richard Harris
Thomas Polk
Abraham Alexander
John McKnitt Alexander
Recreation of the May 20, 1775 Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence
Captain James Jack rode horseback from Charlotte to Philadelphia to deliver a copy of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and a copy of the May 31, 1775 Mecklenburg Resolves to the Second Continental Congress. It is disputed that he made it to Philadelphia with the Declaration, but he did get there with the Mecklenburg Resolves.
Archibald and Maggie Sellers McCurdy lived in the part of Mecklenburg County that became Cabarrus County in 1792. Mr. McCurdy stood on the steps of the Mecklenburg County courthouse in Charlotte on May 20, 1775 and heard the declaration read.
He came home and told his wife, Maggie, that they needed to make a list – perhaps written, perhaps mental – of all the people in the community that they could trust. The community was dominated by patriots, but they needed to evaluate which of their neighbors and associates could be trusted in the coming inevitable war for independence.
I wrote a story about the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and the McCurdy’s, “Whom Can We Trust?” and included it in my book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories.
My book is available in paperback and e-book on Amazon, and the paperback is available sometimes at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC.
Janet
All history is local, but no history is just local
Some of my blog readers have dropped by the wayside. I suppose they got tired of my rants about the corruption in the Trump Administration. It’s a free country. Each individual is free to bury their head in the sand. Each individual is free to say, “I don’t watch the news any more. It upsets me.”
To that I say, “I’m glad it upsets you. It should upset you, but do you think that by ignoring it you are making things any better?” (If you are more than 90 years old, I will give you a pass. You have already done your part to try to preserve our democracy.)
The news upsets me, but the people who choose to ignore it upset me more. But, like I said, it is a free country. You don’t have to participate. You don’t have to care about the rest of us. You don’t have to care about future generations. You don’t have to do your part.
Today, I will draw your attention – if you’re still with me – to just three things that you might not have heard about, if you have stopped watching the news. Even if you still watch the news, you probably did not hear about these actions.
Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management quietly removed “conservation” as a use for public lands. Let that sink it.
Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash
What uses are approved?
Grazing, mining, and energy development.
The Public Lands Rule (also known as the Conservation & Landscape Health Rule) was finalized in 2024 to conserve and restore federally-owned public lands that had been damaged by drought, development, wildfires, and invasive species.
It is beyond sad that the Trump Administration hates nature so much. We, the American people, own these lands. They were supposed to be held in trust for future generations – you know… like previous generations put them in trust for us. Ever hear of the National Park system? It did not happen by accident.
This is what you get when you put a New York City alleged-businessman in the White House, and then blindly approve everyone he nominates to Cabinet positions and judgeships.
In repealing the 2024 Rule, the Bureau of Land Management says that by removing conservation as a legitimate use of land, “balance” will be restored as grazing, mining, and energy development will be prioritized.
They really think we are stupid.
The EPA and toxic coal wastewater
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rolling back the rules governing the release of toxic wastewater from coal plants. In the old days, like April 2026, coal plants were required to treat wastewater before it could seep into rivers, lakes, and streams.
Why, you may ask?
Because those rivers, lakes, and streams eventually provide drinking water for millions of Americans. Also, beings like fish and salamanders also live in those waters. They are part of our ecosystem. They are not beings to be trashed.
Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash
Why do reasonable people not want coal waste in their drinking water?
Because it contains such things as arsenic, mercury, and lead.
The policy put in place by the Biden Administration to restrict coal wastewater release was projected to keep 660 million pounds of toxic waste from reaching our waterways per year.
Why is the Trump Administration pushing to end this policy?
The official reason is to “bolster the power grid.”
Trump likes to talk about “clean coal.” I’m not sure what “clean coal” is. Trump hates wind power and solar power, but he loves coal-burning plants. He loves toxic black coal and calls it “clean.” Calling it “clean” does not make it so.
Ever heard of Black Lung? Anyone in your family want to be a coal miner? Anyone in Trump’s family want to be a coal miner?
I knew Trump hated the natural world’s beauty. The concept that the world’s natural beauty holds value just by being, well, natural and beautiful, is a concept he was obviously not taught at home or in the expensive private schools he attended.
The natural world allows us to breathe clean air and drink clean water, but Trump’s hatred for such things for the American people is overwhelmingly complete. In his eyes, the natural world only holds value when a dollar sign can be attached to it.
What a sad man. He is to be pitied for his narrow-minded short-sightedness and worship of the almighty U.S. dollar. Oh… and gold. The tackier the better!
Trump’s Triumphal Arch
I have had the privilege of visiting Washington, DC several times. Those visits always left me awestruck and proud… and wanting to visit again.
One thing that never crossed my mind was, “What our nation’s capital needs is a 250-foot-tall arch to block the view of the Lincoln Memorial from parts of Arlington National Cemetery.”
View of Arlington National Cemetery and the Washington Monument Photo by J. Amill Santiago on Unsplash
Never crossed my mind.
Trump is hellbent on building this monstrous arch. He brags that it will dwarf the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and will be 30 feet taller than the world’s tallest arch – the Monumento a la Revolución in Mexico City.
In the process, he is attempting to skip the permitting process and the competitive public bidding process (like he did when he gave one of his buddies the $7 million contract to paint the bottom of the Reflecting Pool bright blue like a swimming pool.)
He bypassed the legal requirement of public competitive public bidding by claiming that painting the bottom of the Reflecting Pool bright blue was “an emergency.”
The way the Reflecting Pool was designed and built, government buildings such as the Washington Monument were reflected in the water. The beautiful blue sky was reflected in the water.
Trump said in one speech that some people call it a pond. He thought it was funny and said it could be called many things. I’ve always heard it called the Reflecting Pool.
Trump has no respect for its name or purpose. He has a better idea. Let’s paint it a gaudy bright blue so it will resemble a swimming pool! And while we’re at it, let’s not put the project out for competitive bids. I know a guy. He does not build pools, but I know a guy who might know how to paint. He can pocket $7 million and be beholding to me.
I’m glad I’m old and will never visit Washington, DC again. I want to remember it the way it was before Trump arrived. Before he tore down the East Wing of the White House without permission and lied about how “the ballroom will not touch the White House.” Surely you remember when he said, “It won’t touch the White House.” He failed to mention that he was going to demolish the East Wing.
I want to remember Washington, DC without a golden Trump arch.
To those of you who still worship Trump & his 20-foot Golden Statue at Doral Golf Club
I pray you will see the light before it’s too late and we lose everything.
I know your stock portfolio is brilliant. I’m sure your 401(k) is secure and soaring.
You preach the love of Trump from your church pulpits every Sunday and again on Wednesday night.
Do you really believe you and Trump are “doing the Lord’s work?”
Do you really believe Trump was “sent by God” to destroy the environment and break all our laws?
I pity you.
I hope your children and grandchildren will enjoy seeing all your money, because chances are they won’t ever see a national park, or breathe clean air, or drink clean water.
They are going to smell the waste that is dumped in our streams – like I smelled back in the 1950s and 1960s in the textile mill belt in the piedmont of North Carolina. They are going to breathe the dirty air in their cities like I saw first-hand in Charlotte in the early 1970s when I started working.
With the repeal of the laws and policies governing pollution, that’s what we are going back to. Young people don’t understand that, because they haven’t seen it. They didn’t smell Buffalo Creek in Concord, North Carolina before it was even in sight. They haven’t seen 20-story buildings shrouded in brown air.
To the rest of you
I wish I could ignore the rampant corruption in the Trump Administration and spend my time writing historical fiction. That’s what I would rather be doing instead of watching our beautiful environment and democracy crumble.
In my early adulthood, I worked for several city and county governments. Much of my job in each position was putting projects out for bid. It was… and is… the law. It was not up for debate or question. I just did it. I did it many times. I never considered trying to circumvent the law or the spirit of the law.
My upbringing and my education in political science and public administration grounded me in following the law. Those laws were there to protect the taxpayer. Those laws were there to protect our democracy.
Those laws are in place to protect the American taxpayer from the likes of Donald Trump, but the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court have torn down the guardrails. Donald Trump has been left to ignore and trample such laws into the dirt.
The laws are still there, but Trump thinks he is above the law.
November 3, 2026 is election day for EVERY member of the U.S. House of Representatives and one-third of the U.S. Senators. Things could change with the November 3 election.
“We, the people….”
Photo by Larry Alger on Unsplash
Janet
The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.
Plessy v. Ferguson is one of those landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases we would like to forget. Put it behind us. Consider it ancient history from the 19th century.
Not so fast.
We have something to learn from Plessy v. Ferguson today, 130 years after the ruling.
Background
To refresh your memory from history or political science class, Homer Plessy was a man of mixed race. That meant, under the law in the United States, he was considered Black. Though reportedly seven-eighths white, he was not permitted to ride in a “whites-only” railroad car in New Orleans. The Louisiana State Legislature had passed a Separate Car Act in 1890. That law required separation train cars for white and Black passengers.
In 1891, a group of Black men in New Orleans formed “Citizens’ Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law.” Bolstered by a May 15, 1892 ruling by the Louisiana State Supreme Court in favor of the Pullman Company, the Committee decided to test the law in interstate travel. On June 7, 1892, Mr. Plessy purposely took a seat in a whites-only rail car on the East Louisiana Railroad to test the law.
What happened to Mr. Plessy
Mr. Plessy was arrested for boarding a “whites-only” train car. His defenders in court argued that the Separate Car Act of 1890 violated the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Section 1, 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
When Mr. Plessy’s case went to District Court, the judge was John H. Ferguson. Judge Ferguson denied a request to dismiss the case and then ruled that the Louisiana Separate Car Act of 1890 was constitutional because the State had the authority to regular public accommodations.
The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision, and Mr. Plessy took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Surely, that august body would see that the Louisiana law was unjust, discriminatory, and unconstitutional.
After all, the 13th Amendment had abolished slavery in the United States in 1865, and Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1866, not only extended citizenship to former slaves but also state, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Mr. Plessy and his lawyers maintained that the Separate Car Act on 1890 was unconstitutional under the last phrase in Section 1 of the 14th Amendment.
Section 1, 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
The ruling
In a 7-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on May 18, 1896, that the State law in Louisiana was constitutional because it provided “separation but equal” accommodations for white and Black passengers.
That famous “separate but equal” wording is what took the United States down a terrible road of discrimination for the next 70 years.
It paved the way for “Jim Crow” laws. It made racial segregation in public education, in public conveyances, restaurants, lodging, etc. lawful.
The “separate but equal” doctrine stood until the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court case in 1954 and the Civil Rights Acts in the 1960s. (The Brown v. Board of Education ruling, ironically, was handed done in a 9-0 decision on May 17, 1954, just one day shy of the anniversary of the Plessy v. Ferguson decision.)
We all know now that “separate but equal” was never equal; it was just separate. That doctrine became the umbrella and shield for untold acts of discrimination and violence until the late 1960s.
Who cast the dissenting vote?
Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan was the lone dissenter in the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling. Although he came from a slave-holding family in Kentucky, Justice Harlan often cast the dissenting vote in civil rights cases that went before the U.S. Supreme Court. He sat on the Court from 1877 until 1911.
Lessons to be learned from Plessy v. Ferguson in 2026
If I had penned this blog post a couple of years ago, it probably would have ended there. Just a nice little history lesson. Just the facts of the case and the final ruling.
But I’m writing this in mid-May 2026, and that 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case has taken on a whole new significance.
As in 1896, in 2026 we have a U.S. Supreme Court majority who tend to be constitutional textualists or literalists, meaning they usually view the Constitution and laws as the people at the time of a law’s enactment would have interpreted it and not necessarily taking into account the spirit of the law.
In my six years of studying political science in college, I was taught to study the time and letter of the law but to look for the spirit of the law.
I offer a current example of how some people now want to interpret the 14th Amendment as applying only to the people who had been slaves prior to and during the American Civil War. They argue that the 14th Amendment does not grant citizenship to everyone who just happens to be born in the United States. They don’t want the 14th Amendment to apply to the children of undocumented immigrants. Trust me. We have not heard the last of that argument.
Just a couple of weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially dismantled the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As a result, state legislators are falling all over each other to redraw Congressional District boundaries. They feel emboldened to eliminate majority Black or Democrat districts before this November’s mid-term elections.
This is history repeating itself. The hurried gerrymandering and shifting of Congression District lines in 2026 is in many ways a mirror image of the Jim Crow laws of the late 1800s.
Why is it that we don’t learn from history? Or perhaps a more accurate question is “Why do we only learn how to repeat the harmful things from our history?”
The Roberts court is taking us down a road of easier corruption in politics (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 2010), less accountability for the U.S. President (Trump v. United States, 2024), and an attempted erasure of all the progress our country made in racial relations and equality in the 60 years following the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Louisiana v. Callais, April 29, 2026).
The racial discrimination the U.S. Supreme Court is fomenting by its Louisiana v. Callais decision a couple of weeks ago is far-reaching and should send chills done the spine of every American.
The lesson for us to learn from the last 16 years of U.S. Supreme court decisions, un-checked Presidential powers, and a U.S. Congress that acts more like a lap dog than a co-equal branch of the federal government is that our rights and the “guarantees” we have in our laws and U.S. Constitution are no more secure than the paper they are written on.
Every week I learn that more protected federal lands set aside generations ago for wildlife and the preservation of the natural world are being trashed by our own elected officials. It’s being done quietly, of course, because they don’t want us to know. If they were proud of what they’re doing, they’d be making grand announcements.
I assumed the East Wing of the White House would be there forever. I assumed national parks and wildlife refuges were permanently protected.
The U.S. Constitution is a living and breathing document. It will always be up for discussion, debate, and amending. That’s the beauty of it, but it also makes it fragile and vulnerable to the whims of Presidents and others who wish to test it.
The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution
Democracy is more fragile than I realized.
Janet
The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.
The free press is under attack in the United States. President Trump and his followers never miss an opportunity to criticize journalists. Trump delights in telling falsehoods about specific news organizations, and one of his favorite pastimes is to publicly say nasty things to female reporters.
If you take time to watch his press conferences, speeches, and interviews, you know what I’m talking about.
We have not in my 73 years had any other U.S. President who had a personal vendetta against the free press. His contempt for the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is frightening to those of us who treasure freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America
To mark World Press Freedom Day tomorrow, I will give just two examples of what we were made aware of this week thanks to the free press.
Defense Department Drone Deal
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that the U.S. Department of Defense is going to purchase drones from a company owned by Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump.
You did not get that information from The White House or from the U.S. Department of Defense.
You got it from a free press.
1,000-Year-old UNESCO Site Damaged by Department of Homeland Security
The Washington Post reported that a bulldozer cut a 60-foot swath out of a 200-foot Native American archeological treasure on Friday, April 24, 2026.
Did The White House report it? Did the U.S. Department of Homeland Security report it?
No, the free press reported it.
The priceless site in in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) treasure that was partially destroyed was an etching in the desert sand known as an intaglio.
At least 1,000 years ago, ancestors of the Hia-ced O’odham Indigenous People scraped down to white soil under the desert sand to create a 200-foot long etching of a fish.
Thanks to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issuing waivers for the construction of Trump’s border wall, the Trump Administration does not have to abide by the federal laws protecting the environment or sacred Indigenous sites while building the wall.
Now, thanks to those waivers and a President’s administration devoid of respect for history, nature, or indigenous peoples, a 60-foot swath has been ripped through the etching as the construction of the Trump wall between the United States and Mexico continues at the rate of three miles per week.
The Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge is administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior. An anonymous employee of that department confirmed to The Washington Post that the damage had been done by the Department of Homeland Security.
The Tohono O’odham Nation was able to prevent the first Trump Administration from building the wall across its reservation. They were able to protect the intaglio and a sacred burial site then, but that protection has been ignored by the second Trump Administration.
Archaeologist Rick Martynec, who has studied the site over the last 20 years, reported that the Refuge had been in discussions with the Department of Homeland Security to make sure the intaglio was not damaged. When he visited the site a couple of weeks ago, he saw stakes in place that marked the boundaries of the etching.
Various people and groups were actively working to make sure the Department of Homeland Security did not destroy the site, but it was all to no avail.
And we would not know it if not for the free press.
Janet
The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.
This weekend I finished reading and taking copious notes from an excellent new nonfiction book, The Regulator Movement in North Carolina: Prelude to the Revolution, by Marcia D. Phillips.
Today is National Tell a Story Day, and this nonfiction book tells quite a story!
The Regulator Movement in North Carolina: Prelude to the Revolution, by Marcia D. Phillips
If you want to know some of the little-known background leading up to the American Revolution, I highly recommend this book. As a native North Carolinian, I learned about the Regulators in North Carolina History classes; however, to read the details of it as an adult is to better grasp the terror that many residents of my state were living under in the late 1760s and early 1770s.
The author did an amazing job, like no one else I’ve read, of giving hundreds of years of history leading up to the Regulator Movement in North Carolina. She wrote about how the feudal system in Europe and even the Magna Carta laid the groundwork for what happened here in the mid-1700s!
I had never connected some of the dots that Ms. Phillips connected, but it all fits together now in my mind.
The book also does a great job of explaining the differences between the Regulator Movement in North Carolina and the Regulator Movement in South Carolina. That’s something important for me to keep in mind as I write my historical novels in progress.
Quoting from The Regulator Movement in North Carolina: Prelude to the Revolution, by Marcia D. Phillips,
“In a nutshell, the North Carolina Regulators were not attempting to overthrow the colonial government, just convince it to be the same one they had for years and true to British common law. Their actions were not intended to disrupt the law but to ensure the government’s actions were regulated, to promote uniformity and fairness. The issues of the day – excessive taxation and fees with limited recourse in the assembly, lack of justice in court rulings, and forced taxation for the Anglican Church, which none of the Regulators attended – were the sticking points but also indicative of underlying principles being violated. These discontented farmers were even willing to self-regulate if the colonial government would allow it.”
The Regulators signed petitions in an effort to get Governor Tryon to address their grievances. His appointed officials in the North Carolina Piedmont – particularly in the northern Piedmont part of the province owned by Lord Granville – were robbing the citizens blind and pocketing the money they collected.
They were sick and tired of paying tax to support the Anglican Church. They were Presbyterians and Baptists, and they wanted the right to pay their own clergy. Their clergy were not allowed to officiate over marriages or funerals. For people who had left Europe for religious freedom, this was unacceptable.
The Regulator Movement in North Carolina came to a head in Alamance County on May 16, 1771, when Governor Tryon ordered eight cannons to fire upon a group of Regulators who had asked to be heard. Under the Johnston Riot Act, Tryon gave them until noon to disperse; however, instead of arresting them at noon when they did not disperse, he turned eight cannons on them. It is called the Battle of Alamance, but it was really an ambush.
As the book gives in detail, that was not the end of Tryon’s reign of terror. He had a number of Regulators hanged and had many of their farms burned to the ground.
The book includes an extensive bibliography for readers wanting to do additional research. Thank you, Ms. Phillips, for giving us such a concise and well-researched account of the Regulator Movement in North Carolina.
Perhaps it is partly because of our current political environment that, but while reading this book, it struck me how similar Governor William Tryon of North Carolina was to Donald Trump. I’m not just referring to the fact that he built an extravagant palace for himself while in office.
Some leaders build palaces. Others build ballrooms and triumphal arches.
But it is the pattern of retribution demonstrated by Tryon and by Trump that hit me as an undeniable and frightening similarity between the two men.
Janet
The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.
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