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.
The United States of America used to be a nation of laws, or am I naïve?
I did not plan to blog today, but something came to my attention that I can’t let slide.
Amnesty International has issued a 48-page report. I thought it was going to be a report on the organization’s findings throughout the world but, no, it is a report on detention facilities in the State of Florida. 48 well-documented pages.
The U.S. Detention Center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” due to its location in the Everglades and the manner in which it was publicized by the Trump Administration and the early reports that came out of there, has completely fallen off the radars of news organizations. With Border Patrol and ICE activities in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, and Minneapolis-St. Paul dominating the news cycles along with the Epstein Files and whether the United States is going to bomb Venezuela and force a regime change in that country… “Alligator Alcatraz” cannot compete for attention.
Thank goodness it hasn’t fallen off Amnesty International’s radar. The organization’s report this week paints a horrible picture of conditions at “Alligator Alcatraz.”
I know there are Americans who glibly turn a blind eye to any reports that put the Trump Administration in a bad light. They seem to think it’s acceptable for the U.S. to bomb boats in international waters and launch multiple attacks to kill any survivors. They also tend to agree with Trump that anyone who ends up in a detention center is sub-human and deserves horrible treatment. Many of these people also claim to be Christians. This baffles me, but that isn’t the purpose of today’s blog post.
(And why is Trump’s good buddy, Steve Witkoff, giving Putin advice on how to negotiate with Trump? But I digress.)
Photo by Mitchel Lensink on Unsplash
I cannot easily summarize the report in this blog post, but here are a few highlights:
Lights are on around-the-clock;
Although the United Nations considers solitary confinement lasting more than 15 days to be torture, but at “Alligator Alcatraz,” some detainees have been in solitary confinement for more than 100 consecutive days;
Inadequate/ill-maintained plumbing results in toilets overflowing and flooding cells;
Detainees are allowed one five-minute shower per week;
Mold, insects, and rodents abound;
Food is often spoiled or maggot-infested;
Medical and mental health care are often withheld;
At least four detainees have died due to medical neglect;
Detainees are effectively dropped from the immigration court system because ICE and GEO Group refuse to report them to other government authorities;
Guards have used pepper spray in closed cells and then denied decontamination;
Sexual assault is occurring;
Detainees are punished if they complain about conditions;
Force-feeding has been used without proper medical oversight
There are 1,400 detainees being held there now at a facility built for 700;
ICE renewed GEO Group’s contract to operate the facility inspite of all the evidence that the company is not maintaining current standards of incarceration in the United States; and
The Department of Human Services Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties has not inspected “Alligator Alcatraz” since July 2025.
My thoughts
Call me a “bleeding heart liberal” if you wish, but I would ask you if this is now the acceptable penal standard in the United States of America? Do we aspire to be a “Third World” country?
Is anything on the above list making “America Great Again” or did I misunderstand Trump’s campaign promise?
If you are all right with our country treating detainees horribly, then you and I have fundamental differences in how we interpret the teachings of Jesus Christ as well as the letter and spirit of the United States Constitution.
The sobering lines of Martin Niemoller’s much-quoted “First they came” statement/poem come to mind.
They haven’t come for me yet, but I feel compelled to speak up for the least of these among us and alleged atrocities committed by the United States Government or its private contractors such as GEO Group.
I love my country. That is why it hurts so much when we fall short of our potential and our history.
Today I am introducing you to the main character in “You Couldn’t Help But Like Bob,” the second story in my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories.
Genealogy has been a hobby of mine since I was a young adult. Robert Dooling is the most colorful of my ancestors that I have found so far. He immigrated from Ireland to America in the early 1700s and settled in Virginia.
Some people would be embarrassed at discovering one of their great-great-great-great-great-grandfathers was on the wrong side of the law in Colonial Virginia, but that just made Robert Dooling that much more interesting to me. To my way of thinking, that’s a lot better than just knowing an ancestor’s birth and death dates.
I devoured the colonial court records, eagerly searching for every tidbit or reference to Robert. As far as I know, he never did anything too serious. Perhaps his worst offence was “abusing” a Justice of the Peace. (I’m not clear on what constituted “abusing” a Justice of the Peace in Tappahannock, Virginia in the early 18th century.
I had fun creating a fictional story about this man I only know on paper, but his blood runs through my veins and I’m grateful to know more about him than just his name.
Here are the opening lines in the story:
“You couldn’t help but like Bob. Unless he owed you money. Unless you were a Justice of the Peace in Essex County, Virginia in the early 1700s.
“Even so, you just couldn’t help but like Bob.
“To say Bob was irritating would be an understatement, but you couldn’t stay made at him for long. Unless he owned you money or tobacco. Unless you were a Justice of the Peace, tired of seeing him dragged into your court room.”
I hope you will enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
After you read “You Couldn’t Help But Like Bob” in Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, you’ll know more about him. I hope you will like him, too!
When I blogged on November 7, I had no idea I would not blog again until November 22. My sister is recovering nicely from her surgery. The jury is still out on the condition of her sole caregiver. (LOL!) The main reason I haven’t blogged in 15 days is that my desktop computer went rogue on November 11. I did not have time to call for help for it until late yesterday. My new best friend/computer guy came today and I am now back in business as a blogger and a writer.
The timing couldn’t have been worse for computer problems with my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, just being released. All the publicity memes and ads I created in advance on Bookbrush.com (I love Bookbrush!) could not be accessed and posted on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, or Bluesky. I can still use them, of course, but the dates I labeled many of them with have now passed. I’m living in a time warp of sorts.
Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, by Janet Morrison
I have not been able to mail 85 book publicity postcards in the metro area because the local independent bookstore has not received her shipment from IngramSpark yet. Another case of hurry up and wait.
I’m not one to always look for the silver lining in a black cloud, but (1) my sister is improving each day and (2) I’ve gotten some much-needed exercise putting ice packs on her wound every 20 minutes all day every day. I’ve averaged walking more than three miles-a-day, which is probably 2.5 miles more than my usual.
All of this came at an inopportune time. Some of you have, no doubt, missed my daily political rants. Others of you have probably thanked God for the absence of them.
“Let them eat cake!”
During my absence from the blogosphere this month, President Marie Antoinette ordered the U.S. Border Patrol to leave Chicago and descend upon us here Charlotte. I watched local and national news programs as the masked and heavily armed Border Patrol Agents roamed Mecklenburg County and beyond (including very small mountain towns more than 100 miles to the west) and randomly round up anyone who looked or sounded Hispanic — regardless of their citizenship status.
They came without coordinating or communicating with the Sheriff of Mecklenburg County or the Charlotte Chief of Police. Standard protocol is that a federal law enforcement agency alerts local law enforcement of their operations so local police do not interfere with the operations. It just helps for local police to be aware of what the feds are doing, but that’s not how U.S. Border Patrol works.
They pointed high-powered weapons at unarmed men, women, and children, broke out car windows, and detained people for days without their families knowing where they had been taken. I understand some were taken hundreds of miles away to Georgia.
Skyline of Charlotte, North Carolina. Photo by Daniel Weiss on unsplash.com.
The general terrorism in sections of Charlotte with high Hispanic populations resulted in Hispanic- and Latino- owned businesses closing shop all week in an effort to keep their customers safe. Grocery stores and other businesses offered home deliveries to customers who were afraid to leave their homes.
Some 30,000 Charlotte-Mecklenburg school students stayed home from school out of fear of either being picked up in transit or out of fear that if they went to school their parents would be arrested and taken away before they got home from school that afternoon.
A teacher at East Mecklenburg High School was interviewed. She eloquently described what last week was like in the school system with 21 percent of the students being afraid to go to school. She did not use the word “terrorized” lightly. She spoke of teachers making home visits to their scared students to reassure them and to deliver food and toiletries to their homes.
What we have now in America is students not only having to worry that a shooter is going to come into their school and murder students and teachers, they also have to worry that the United States Government is going to send men in unmarked vehicles and wearing full military garb plus masks and sunglasses that completely hide their identities to harass them and possibly zip tie them and haul them away to parts unknown as they just attempt to attend school.
It did not help the situation for Assistant White House Chief-of-Staff Stephen Miller to announce that those 30,000 school students stayed home this week because they were all illegal aliens. Stop lying, Mr. Miller! Most of those students are American citizens. They just don’t have a white face like you have, Mr. Miller. That’s all they are guilty of. Since you don’t appear to be Native American of indigenous ancestry, Mr. Miller, I assume that you have immigrants in your family tree. Most Americans do.
When all was said and done in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, in less than a week, more than 370 individuals were arrested out of a population of 1.2 million. President Antoinette enjoyed his Great Gatsby-themed party in Florida as he sent Border Patrol Agents here under the guise of arresting “the worst of the worst.” The final report isn’t out yet, but the last I heard only two gang members were arrested. Of the first 170 people arrested, only 44 had police records (including such things are parking tickets and speeding tickets.)
At least one U.S. citizen’s truck window was broken out by Border Patrol. He was taken miles away. Border Patrol kept his truck keys. At least two women from Puerto Rico were accosted, questioned, zip-tied, and led away to an unmarked vehicle. The Trump Administration hasn’t learned yet that Puerto Rico is a U.S. Territory. Its residents are U.S. citizens. I can’t un-see the video of Trump throwing paper towels at Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria in October 2017. It was when Hurricane Maria hit that Trump told us that Puerto Rico is an island surrounded by water. Duh!
Before I close, I want to emphasize how the U.S. Border Patrol Agents are dressed. The word “mask” is woefully inadequate to describe what they are wearing. These so-called masks are heavy knit fabric. It reaches from their throats to their eyes and encircles their heads. Dark sunglasses cover their eyes. They wear hats. (I can’t help but compare them to the Ku Klux Klan… cowardly white people afraid to show their faces.)
They are dressed in fatigues with bullet-proof vests. Wads of zip ties hanging from their belts or one of their numerous pockets. They are heavily armed. They appear to be very short on patience and totally void of empathy for their fellow American citizens. They have been filmed stopping in the street in a residential neighborhood, jumping out and accosting two Hispanic-looking men who were hired to put lights on a resident’s outdoor Christmas tree.
It has come to this: random racial terrorism being practiced by the United States Government at the direction of the United States President.
They seem to have left Charlotte, although the website of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security indicated they would be here until December 4. Is that a trick?
New Orleans, apparently you are next on Trump’s hit list. Remain calm and vigilant. Remain calm and vigilant. Be on the lookout for unmarked SUVs bearing Illinois license plates.
Update from Chicago
Marimar Martinez, the teacher in Chicago who was shot five times by U.S. Border Patrol, is recovering from her injuries and is returning to the classroom. She had been called a “domestic terrorist” by Border Patrol after she blew her vehicle’s horn to warn residents that the agents were in the neighborhood, but all charges against her were suddenly dropped this week.
Border Patrol accused her of ramming their vehicle, but video of the incident proved it was their vehicle that sideswiped her care. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security continues to publish falsehoods about her though, even as the department has dropped all charges after their case fell apart in a hearing.
Trump calls for execution of lawmakers
In other news here in America, when six Democrat lawmakers dared to make a video to remind all U.S. citizens that members of the U.S. military are not required to obey an illegal order, Trump called for the six to be arrested and executed.
Republicans told us that Trump did not mean it, and that’s supposed to make it okay.
As a writer, I know that words are more powerful than the sword. It is frightening and embarrassing that we have a U.S. President who is reckless with his language. It is also frightening that no one in a position of authority is holding him accountable for anything he says or does.
Resignation of U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene
Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia surprised everyone last night when she announced her resignation from the U.S. Congress as of January 5, 2026. Trump calling her a “traitor” was a bridge too far for this staunch ex-supporter of him and his administration. Perhaps other politicians who have sold their souls to the devil should take note. When he turns on you, you are dead to him.
This gives me a glimmer of hope that there are cracks in Trump’s armor.
Mozambique
It is being reported that ISIS has quickly gone into Mozambique since USAID has halted. ISIS is not filling the gap in aid. They’re filling the gap of influence. They’re recruiting the young men. They are beheading people who don’t comply with their demands.
People with decades of experience in the U.S. State Department warned us that in addition to millions of people starving to death, the halting of USAID would result in radical terrorist groups rushing in to take our place. It appears those decades of government service meant they knew a lot more about international relations than Trump and his minions will ever know.
All Trump could see was we were spending money to help Third World countries and he detested that policy. He couldn’t be bothered to understand that much of that food aid was a product of American agriculture. Even in his second term in office, Trump doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.
All those people who thought it was not in our national interest to ship American grain and other agricultural products to other countries, how do you like the prospect of ISIS spreading its hate for America among “the least of these.”
Most Trump supporters pride themselves in being Christians. This continues to baffle me. What version of the Bible tells you to hate the foreigner? I’ve never read that version.
In closing
That’s my rant for today. Maybe it’s a good thing I haven’t been able to watch or listen to as much news this month as my usual! I hope to blog about my new book in a couple of days.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.
When you have a minute, please look for my books on Amazon.
Remember the brave people of Ukraine, as it appears Trump has been played like a fiddle by Putin.
I am fortunate that the U.S. Constitution protects my right to criticize the U.S. President.
The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America
I may as well live in the 7th Congressional District of Arizona.
I’m not represented in the U.S. House of Representatives any more than the residents of the 7th District of Arizona. That’s the district in which Adelita Grijalva was elected on September 23, 2025, but Speaker of the House Mike Johnson refuses to install her because she is a Democrat and she will vote to have the Epstein files released.
Johnson might lose his position as Speaker of the House if he allows the truth to come out. At the very least Trump will have him “primaried” in 2026. But that’s enough about him.
Photo by Kyle Mills on Unsplash
My Representative in Congress
Three weeks ago, on October 10, I blogged about some of my frustration with my U. S. Representative: My Congressman sent a newsletter.
I’m still frustrated with him. I requested a response from him when I emailed him on October 10, but I haven’t received a reply yet. Of course, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson gave my Congressman a nice paid vacation the last week of September, all of October, and the foreseeable future.
My Congressman’s newsletters set my hair on fire. At least I know where he stands. He stands with Donald Trump. And he despises the likes of me because I don’t stand with Donald Trump. No doubt about it.
His newsletter on October 18 opened this way: “Dear Janet, Pro-crime Democrats continue to release dangerous criminals onto the streets to roam our neighborhoods.”
This guy represents me in no way, shape, or form.
Any U.S. Senator or U.S. Representative who spews hate against everyone in their opposition political party has no right to “serve.” Such people have lost sight of their job description and oath of office.
My Congressman went on in his October 18 newsletter to call on the City of Charlotte to ask for the National Guard to descend upon us.
The subject line of his October 25 newsletter was “The Democrats are Using the Troops as Leverage!” That pretty much set the tone for the entire newsletter.
In the meantime, I will not receive a response to my October early October letter to him. My Congressman will keep preaching. (Jesus must be so proud!) After all, that’s his “calling” and I guess he will represent the people of the 8th District of North Carolina in his spare time or whenever he decides to take that $174,000-a-year job which also gives him a $79-per-day food allowance and lifetime retirement and health insurance seriously.
I don’t think the mothers with young children or the elderly individuals who get the equivalent of $6.00-per-day in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits are the problem – especially since SNAP benefits end at midnight tonight, thanks to President Trump refusing to turn loose the $6 billion “rainy day” fund Congress earmarked for SNAP in the event of a government shutdown.
I don’t think the members of Congress know how disgusted Americans are. This “Mexican Stand-off” between the Republicans and Democrats must stop! I think both parties are to blame for the shutdown.
Starting tomorrow, a lot of people aren’t going to have any money for food, here in the richest nation in the world. The “Pro-Life” Republican Party is obviously only interested in babies being born. They don’t care whether they have anything to eat once they exit the womb. We’ve always known that, but starting tomorrow it will be blaringly obvious for the whole world to see.
I wonder what my Congressman and President Trump are eating this weekend.
The Constitution of the United States of America is a living, breathing document. It is at the same time sacred yet amendable.
However, we ignore it at our own peril.
The 2028 Presidential Election
Donald Trump started handing out “Trump 2028” baseball caps a few months ago. His supporters think things like that are hilarious. On Tuesday, he said on Air Force One that he might run again. He claimed he hadn’t thought about it, so what are the “Trump 2028” baseball caps about?
Trump and his supporters have a strange sense of humor. It would be unconstitutional for Trump to be elected three times. Keep in mind, they already think he has been elected three times. He and they are in denial that he lost the 2020 election.
When he took the oath of office on January 20, 2025, he swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, so running for a third term as President would break that oath.
The only ways Trump and his supporters knew to react to more than seven million Americans protesting in the streets on October 18 was the (1) call it “fake” news; (2) claim they were being paid to protest; (3) call them names like “left wing lunatics” and “ANTIFA”; and (4) support an AI-generated video put out by the White House in which a crown-wearing Donald Trump piloted a fighter jet that dumped feces on American protesters.
“No Kings” protest in Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Bradley Andrews on Unsplash
All that was easier than taking the protests seriously. All that was easier than giving just one day of respect for the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. You know the one. It’s the one that gives U.S. citizens the right to exercise free speech. That includes peacefully assembling and protesting. It also guarantees that we have a free press, even though we no longer have a free press at The Pentagon. It also guarantees that we are free to practice any religion or no religion at all and our government will make no laws regulating religion.
The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America
Everything that’s being said and done is to distract us from the destruction of the East Wing of the White House and the fact that the Epstein files, which were on the desk of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi months ago, have not been released
Then comes Steve Bannon
Last Thursday, Steve Bannon, who likes to think he is responsible for getting Trump elected in 2016, said that Trump will be elected President again in 2028 and will serve a third term. In other words, — the United States Constitution be damned. He said, “We have a plan.”
I guess he had plenty of time to think and make plans while he was in prison for Trump.
You remember Steve Bannon — the Steve Bannon who went to prison for defying a subpoena in the Congressional investigation of the attempted coup on January 6, 2021, and the Steve Bannon who misled thousands of Trump campaign donors into thinking they were paying for the wall along our border with Mexico. That’s not where their contributions went. Bannon got caught and charged, but Trump pardoned him.
That’s what Trump does. We’ve lost count of how many criminals Trump has pardoned and put back on the streets all while accusing other countries of emptying their prisons and sending their criminals to America.
No, Mr. Trump. A lot of those criminals are your friends, and you are a felon.
So now, what better way to get in the good graces of Trump but to start in 2025 proclaiming that he will be re-elected U.S. President in 2028 even though that’s unlawful.
The law means nothing to these people and it, apparently, means nothing to their supporters. Otherwise, their supporters would be up in arms. Otherwise, their supporters would have been demonstrating in the streets. Otherwise, their supporters would be doing something beside happily going along with everything and anything Trump and the likes of Steve Bannon do or say.
Everything that’s being said is to distract us from the fact that the East Wing of the House was demolished last week and the Epstein files, which were on the desk of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi months ago, have not been released.
Then comes U.S. Representative Randy Fine of Florida
Congressman Randy Fine, who represents the 6th district of Florida is calling for the 22nd Amendment to be repealed for Donald Trump because he brokered a peace settlement in Gaza.
I guess any excuse will do.
Everything that’s being said and done is to distract us from the month-long federal government shutdown, the demolition of the East Wing of the White House, and fact that the Epstein files, which were on the desk of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi months ago, have not been released.
Wording of the 22nd Amendment
Section 1 of the Twenty-Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is easy to understand. It reads as follows:
“No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.”
The Twenty-Second Amendment was ratified on February 27, 1951, so it has been the law of the land for nearly 75 years.
Where we are
So here we are. We have a sitting U.S. President talking about breaking the Constitution by running for a third term.
We have a sitting U.S. President who took a wrecking ball to the East Wing of the White House just because he wanted to destroy it.
Everything he destroys is a test. If he gets away with it, he destroys something bigger the next time.
Everything that’s being said and done is to distract us from the month-long federal government shutdown, the bombing of boats in international waters, the demolition of the East Wing of the White House, and fact that the Epstein files, which were on the desk of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi months ago, have not been released. In other words, the men and women in charge of our government couldn’t care less about the trafficking of girls and women by the rich and famous for the purpose of sex.
They are all counting on us not paying attention. They are throwing so much at us every single day that they think we will stop watching and listening. Well, they don’t know me!
Trump is calculating, but he is also a loose cannon. No one knows what he’ll do or say next. It is all a game to him. It is the way he has conducted business all his life. He just runs over people. He makes empty promises.
He says he cares about the poor and the middle class as he laughs all the way to the bank. He says he cares about the American farmer as he slaps tariffs on foreign governments and overnight cut off the farmers’ markets and laughs all the way to the bank.
He sees no difference between business and government – and that, my friends, is the root of the problem. Too many American voters in 2016 and 2024 did not grasp the difference between business and government. They said, “We need a businessman in the White House.” How’s that working for you?
Business is profit driven. Government is not.
Business is by the owner, for the owner, of the owner.
Our government in the United States of America is by the people, for the people, of the people.
Anyone who does not see the difference between business and government in America is woefully uneducated. (Trump famously said, “I love the uneducated!”)
Anyone who thinks the federal government can operate like a business is shortsighted. Show me where in the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution where it says the purpose of government is to make a profit.
Sadly, his followers also see it as a game. They have no respect for the 249 years it took our ancestors to build this nation. No respect.
They value nothing but the laughs Trump can supply them with today. They gleefully repost the ludicrous and disgusting AI-generated memes Trump and his minions post on social media, not caring for one minute the hurt and damage those memes are doing to their fellow Americans. They repeat his lies, never questioning the validity of anything he says.
Little-by-little, our rights are being eroded. Laws are ignored. We have a sitting U.S. President who believes and operates as if he is above the law, and his followers think that’s wonderful. No matter what he does or says, they stand by him.
How they have such little regard for their children and grandchildren is beyond my imagination but, since I have no children or grandchildren, I have been told more than once that I do not understand such things, I have no responsibilities, and I do not have a right to an opinion.
As a single woman with no children or grandchildren, I say the U.S. Constitution was nice while it lasted. I’m really going to miss the 22nd Amendment. I’m already missing the promise of The Preamble, most of the 1st Amendment, and many of the guarantees promised in the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments.
And in my heart, I miss the East Wing of the White House even though CNN Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson has been quoted as saying that CNN viewers like me are not interested in that story.
I have said it before and I will say it again: I used to wonder how Hitler brainwashed the people of Germany in the 1930s and accomplished what he did. I no longer wonder. I don’t say that lightly.
When late October rolls around, I think of my great-great-great-great-grandfather’s estate sale held on October 29, 1777.
I knew nothing about it until a few years ago, but what a treasure trove of information his estate papers held! If you aren’t interested in history or your ancestors, you probably won’t read this post. That’s all right. Perhaps a few of you will be curious enough to keep reading.
I have a special bond with my fourth-great grandfather because I live on a little sliver of the land he purchased when he got to North Carolina from Scotland in the 1760s. I walk on the same dirt he walked on. I see some of the species of wild animals he saw. I cross the same creeks he crossed. I belong to the same church he belonged to. His blood flows in my veins.
John Morison (he wrote his name with one “r”) was baptized in the Lowland Church of Scotland in Campbeltown on the Kintyre Peninsula in 1726. He and his two younger brothers came to Pennsylvania for an unknown length of time before purchasing land and settling in North Carolina in the 1760s.
John wrote his will on August 30, 1777, “being very sick & weak in body, though in perfect mind & memory.” In his will, he outlined provisions for his pregnant wife, their eight living children, and their unborn child. In less than a week, John was dead.
Although he had left such things as land, livestock, money, some farm implements, and saddles to his wife and children and the spouses of his eldest daughters, there were things that needed to be settled up through an estate sale.
Defying the fact that John’s estate sale was held in the middle of the American Revolutionary War, all the little scraps of paper and receipts from the settling of his estate survived and are preserved at the State Archives of North Carolina.
Along with all those tiny pieces of paper which indicate everything from the purchase of “burial liquor” to the educating of his children, are page after page of the record of his October 29, 1777, estate sale.
It amazes me that when combined, John’s will and estate sale tell us everything the man owned. Being the first person in his family’s history to own a piece of land, it is astounding!
He wasn’t a man of great wealth, compared to the aristocracy, but to have come from where he came from I believe he did quite well for himself and his family. He would, no doubt be amazed to know that some of his 7th-great-grandchildren now reside on some of the land he purchased in the 1760s and 1770s.
I promised you a blog post about his estate sale, so let’s get to it.
The sale
Robert Harris, Jr. served as clerk. Mr. Harris had beautiful penmanship and was meticulous in his duties that day. He wrote down every item, who bought it, and how many pounds, pence, or shillings they paid.
Photo by Sam Carter on Unsplash
Items sold at the estate sale included eight horses; 19 sheep; 25 head of cattle; 17 hogs and a parcel of pigs; three hives of bees; 17 geese and ganders; 25 pounds of wool; a parcel of books; a great coat; two straight coats and jackets; one pair of blue britches; a pair of old buckskin britches; and a fur hat. (Oh, how I’d love to know the titles of that “parcel of books!”)
Photo by Claudia Wolff on Unsplash
Photo by Sies Kranen on Unsplash
Also, four saddles; five bells and collars; five other collars; six bridles; two sets of horse gears; an “M” branding iron; three augurs; a drawing knife; nailing and stone hammers; a broadax; three weeding hoes; two maulrings; a wedge; a clivish; a sprouting hoe; a mattock; two falling axes; three spinning wheels; two horse trees and hangings; a cutting knife and stone; a sythe and cradle; four sickles; a flax brake; a pair of wool cards; and a pair of cotton cards.
Photo by chris robert on Unsplash
Also, barrels for flour, rice, beef, and salt; a tapper vessel; two cedar churns; oak and walnut chests; two smoothing irons; a looking glass; one whiskey keg; and various other tools, household items, and pieces of furniture.
Other items included 6.5 pounds of iron and 14.5 pounds of steel. Steel as we know it today had not yet been developed. In 1777, steel was the name for sharpening rods used to sharpen knives and other cutting edges.
Half a wagon?
The most puzzling record in John Morrison’s estate papers is that John Springs bought half a wagon and half the wagon implements. Since no one bought the other half, it has been speculated that Mr. Springs knew that John’s wife, Mary, needed the use of the wagon but also needed the proceeds from the sale of the wagon and implements. After all, Mary was a widow with seven children still at home and a baby on the way. Perhaps Mr. Springs made a verbal agreement to let Mary Morrison keep the wagon even though he paid half the value of the wagon at the estate sale.
Another possibility is that John Morrison had bought the wagon and implements from John Springs but had only paid half the bill at the time of his death. Mr. Springs, instead of saddling Mary Morrison with the additional debt of the unpaid balance chose to simply pay her husband’s estate the half that John still owed. When Mary Morrison died in 1781, there is no mention of a wagon in her will or her estate sale.
Lots of ammunition!
Other intriguing items sold at John Morrison’s estate sale were the 17 pounds of gun powder and 55.5 pounds of lead. That’s more gun powder and lead than a farmer needed. So why did John Morrison have so much of both?
John wrote his will on August 30, 1777. By September 3, he was dead. It is speculated that he was stockpiling munitions for the patriots’ cause in the American Revolution and that he was shot by Tories, but we will never know for certain.
With President Trump still bombing boats in international waters in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and sending an aircraft carrier to the coast of Venezuela, it was difficult to settle on a topic for today’s blog post.
I decided to blog about President Theodore Roosevelt’s interest in conservation on the 167th anniversary of his birth. You’ll see why later in this post.
Statue of Theodore Roosevelt as a “Rough Rider” at Roosevelt Park in Minot, North Dakota. (Photo Source: Library of Congress)
United States President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858 in New York City. He and his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee, had a daughter named Alice.
His wife and his mother both died on the same day in 1884, and he went to his ranch in the Badlands of the Dakota Territory to grieve for two years. He hunted big game and drove cattle.
He returned to New York, married Edith Kermit Crow, and they had five children together. Roosevelt began his political career being elected mayor of New York City in 1886. He became well-connected in the Republican Party and was appointed Secretary of the Navy.
He left his post to become a colonel in the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, famously known as the “Rough Riders.” He led the Rough Riders in the Battle of San Juan in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
After the war, Roosevelt was elected Governor of New York. He was selected to be William McKinley’s Vice-Presidential running mate. McKinley became U.S. President in 1900.
When President McKinley was assassinated on September 6, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became the U.S. President.
The main thing Roosevelt is remembered for, in addition to being a “Rough Rider,” was his conservation efforts. During his time in office, he set aside nearly 200 million acres of land for national forests, reserves, and wildlife refuges.
Unfortunately, he wanted Native Americans removed from many of their ancestral territories to create those preserved lands. Some 86 million acres of Native American tribal land became national forests.
He was re-elected U.S. President in 1904.
Since Theodore Roosevelt is remembered for his conservation efforts, it is only right to also blog today about current U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to destroy the environment.
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
On Friday, the Trump Administration announced that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska is now open for drilling.
This is what https://www.fws.gov/refuge/arctic said about the Refuge on Oct. 24, 2025. The website had not been updated due to the federal government shutdown, so I decided to cut and paste the following before someone decides to update it and replace all the positive details with glowing descriptions of Trump’s famous mindset of “drill, baby, drill!”:
“Arctic National Wildlife Refuge sustains people, wildlife, and fish in the northeastern corner of Alaska, a vast landscape of rich cultural traditions and thriving ecological diversity. It is located on the traditional homelands of the Iñupiat and Gwichʼin peoples.
“Approximately the size of South Carolina, the refuge has no roads or facilities. The lands and waters are a critical home to migratory and resident wildlife, have unique recreational values, and contain the largest designated Wilderness within the National Wildlife Refuge System. Many people may know of the refuge by an abbreviation: ANWR (pronounced an-whar). The full name reminds us that the refuge is part of our national heritage, designated for wildlife conservation.
“A trip to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge can be an inspiring, life-changing experience. Whether you want to photograph, fish, hunt, challenge yourself with travel in the backcountry, or just spend quiet time in an immense and humbling landscape, this is a truly remarkable place.
“All refuge lands are open to the public, and there are no visitor fees or specific entry points. Visitors plan and arrange their own transportation, trip locations, and itineraries; careful preparation, and self-reliance are a must. There are no roads, established trails, or facilities of any type within the refuge’s 19 million acres. Most bring their own food and gear, and access the refuge by air taxi, flying in from nearby communities. First-time visitors may wish to participate in a guided trip. Even experienced visitors may wish to use the support of commercial recreational services (see Tours for information about authorized recreational guides, hunting guides, and air taxi operators). Although there is no cell phone coverage, satellite phones do work in many areas. Explore the Activities section and see Rules and Policies for additional helpful trip planning information.”
The underlined words are clickable on the website and there is also an interactive map.
I decided to cut and paste so much of the description because it will never be that way again.
With oil drilling taking place all over the place, areas will be closed to the public.
With drilling taking place all over the place, it will no longer be a safe refuge for the amazing wildlife of Alaska.
Shame on Donald Trump and his minions!
I naively thought that once a piece of land was designated as a national park, national forest, national seashore, national wildlife refuge, etc., it was safe from a future President destroying it. Of course, I also thought the East Wing of the White House was safe from destruction by a U.S. President.
This is what the United States Liar-in-Chief said in July about the construction of his $250 million 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the White House: “It won’t interfere with the current building…. It’ll be near it but not touching it — and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of.”
The demolition of the East Wing of the White House started yesterday.
In my search at 7:30 last night for a photograph of the East Wing that was in the public domain so I could share it on my blog, I ended up looking at what Wikipedia had to say about . (By the way, I didn’t find a photo I had the right to use.) I discovered that Wikipedia’s page about the East Wing had already been updates. It was worded in the past tense, as follows:
“The East Wing of the White House was a two-story structure that served as office space for the first lady and her staff, including the White House social secretary, White House Graphics and Calligraphy Office and correspondence staff. On the ground floor, the East Wing included the visitors’ entrance and the East Colonade, a corridor connecting the body of the East Wing to the Executive Residence. Along the corridor was the White House theater, also called the family theater….”
The East Wing of the White House was completed in 1942 to cover the underground Presidential Emergency Operations Center.
I have no words.
Well, actually, I have a lot of words, but I cannot put most of them in print.
Can anyone say, “Madman” or “Dictator?”
Trump has accomplished what the terrorists on September 11, 2001, were prevented from doing.
In case you think this cannot possibly be true, please check out the photographs and reports from six online news resources:
It is time for President Trump’s diehard supporters to honestly listen to the way he talks, and then tell me if you think he is all right.
After being nearly an hour late arriving in Norfolk, Virginia, last Saturday to speak at the 250th birthday celebration of the United States Navy, President Trump rambled through a political and largely incoherent speech. I cringe to think how embarrassing the nation’s 250th birthday will be next year with Trump at the helm.
As far as I know, he is the first U.S. President to treat a gathering of military personnel like a political rally. Of course, this was not the first time he has done that. He does it on a regular basis, including his speech to 800 Generals and Admirals at Quantico, Virginia, on September 29, 2025.
Photo credit: Sven Piper on Unsplash.com
While making a flicking motion with his hand last Saturday, Trump said, “We have to take care of this little gnat that’s on our shoulder called the Democrats.” He said Democrats “want to give all our money to illegal aliens.” I imagine there were some Democrats in his audience that day. His name calling needs to stop. He is 79 years old, not seven years old.
Trump referred to sorties as “sortays.”
Photo credit: Sachin Nayak on Unsplash
He said we would have won the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan “but we got politically correct. We are not political correct any more. Now we win.”
He said the Navy blowing up drug cartel boats in the ocean “is an act of kindness.” He bragged that we’ve been so good at blowing up boats that there aren’t even any fishing boats out there anymore.
Trump told the sailors that he could have prevented the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. I’m quoting part of his speech verbatim, in case there is still any doubt in your mind that our President cannot make a coherent statement. On Saturday, he said,
“I wrote about Osama bin Laden exactly one year ago, one year before he blew up the World Trade Center. I said, ‘You gotta watch Osama bin Laden. And the fake news would never let me get away with that statement unless it was truth but, I said one year before to Pete Hegseth, I said one year before, in the book, I wrote — whatever the hell the title, I can’t tell you, but I can tell you there’s a page in there devoted to the fact that I saw somebody named Osama bin Laden, and I didn’t like it, and ‘You’ve gotta take care of him. They didn’t do it and a year later he blew up the World Trade Center. So we’ve got to take a little credit because nobody else is going to give it to me.'”
I find it hard to believe that Donald Trump discussed Osama bin Laden with the then 20-year-old Pete Hegseth in the year 2000, but that’s what he said last Saturday in Norfolk. Either that, or he thinks the World Trade Center was blow up this year and he talked to Pete Hegseth about Osama bin Laden last year.
Most of his speech last Saturday was inappropriate for a captive audience of U.S. Navy personnel.
Photo credit: Y S on unsplash
To the sailors’ credit, they were silent while the president waited in vain for booing from them when he asked if they had heard of President “Barack Hussein Obama.” He never misses a chance to include President Obama’s middle name as a blatant jab at the name which has roots in the Middle East. The insinuation is always that President Obama is a Muslim, which he is not.
It was jarring, though, to see the young sailors seated behind Trump react with laughter when he called Democrats “gnats.” It is troubling that they have not been trained in the military tradition demonstrated by their Admirals on September 29. Is their training lacking? Were they not reminded in preparation for Trump’s speech to not show approval or disapproval for political remarks he might make.
Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash
We have a U.S. President who regularly treats speeches to our military personnel as a political rally.
The United States military being non-political is a bedrock foundation of our country. If we lose that, the citizens of the United States will no longer trust our military to protect us.
He is abusing the National Guard by sending them from one state to perform law enforcement duties in another state. Surely, the Governor of Illinois and the Mayor of Chicago will win their lawsuit against Trump for sending the Texas National Guard to Chicago this week. If the courts let us down on this case, our democracy is surely doomed.
Some weeks I have blogged on Friday as sort of a catch-up or catch-all about what’s happened over the past week. I do not wish to fall into that as a routine or habit. Too much is happening. I don’t want that self-inflicted pressure.
However, I will take the opportunity today to comment about a few things that stood out to me this week. Most, you have heard about. Others, probably not. No one can read and hear it all. It is not humanly possible as we are traveling through a political and social world propelling us at warp speed whether we want to be propelled or not.
I will not take the blame
According to Trump, it is my fault and the fault of people like me who dare to be critical of the tactics of ICE who caused a snipper – who was a registered Independent — to murder two ICE detainees on Wednesday in Dallas, Texas.
I beg to differ. Is it not Trump who is sending ICE agents out in over-sized face masks, sunglasses, and riot gear without badges or any identification in unmarked vehicles to snatch people off the street?
Perhaps it is the pictures and videos of the ICE agents that have fueled anger in our country.
When the person who has the loudest microphone and biggest name recognition in the entire world uses his platform every single day to call individuals and groups of people ugly names, we have reached a dangerous place not just in the United States but worldwide.
When the President of the United States verbally, in writing, and on social media daily calls people names and makes baseless accusations, does he not need to bear part of the blame for the political violence in our country?
Special Education Grants Cancelled
As the Trump Administration’s ongoing war against diversity, equity, and inclusion, the U.S. Department of Education has cancelled a grant made to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the training of future preschool teachers who want to teach students with disabilities.
Since 2011, the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the university has run the SCRIPT-NC program through which it has contributed to special education training for about 10,000 students taking classes in child care in the statewide community college system.
The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute announced in the fall of 2023 that it had received a $1 million five-year grant to help fund SCRIPT-NC. With last Friday night’s Department of Education announcement, UNC will lose $200,000 this year and apparently the funding for the remaining three years. The grant to UNC was one of 25 grants for special education teacher training programs that were abruptly cancelled by the Trump Administration last Friday night.
The cancellation notices all cited diversity, equity, inclusion, or race in the grant applications. Each of the cancellation notices concluded with the following words: “the project would be in conflict with agency policy and priorities, and so is not in the best interest of the Federal Government.”
The U.S. Department of Education claims those grants will be repurposed to support special education. Are we left to assume they will be repurposed to only help white children from wealthy families? I don’t know what else we are supposed to conclude.
The grant applications were filed while Joe Biden was President. His administration encouraged applicants to explain how grant money would be used to help underserved populations. The Trump Administration is not interested in the underserved citizens of our country.
How are any of us supposed to function when a new President comes into office and cancels everything the prior President’s administration supported and programs that the U.S. Congress funded? These grant and federal program cancellations are destroying everything from education to infrastructure to our economy.
When you can’t count on what is here today to be here tomorrow, how are you supposed to accomplish anything?
I’m glad Trump has no control over the sun or gravity. We can still count on them being here tomorrow.
I had the opportunity yesterday afternoon to watch and listen to another live presentation online from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. These monthly informational discussions are free to watch on Zoom.
Yesterday’s program was “Unprotected and Under Fire: State Judges at Risk as congress Weighs Action” and the panel was made up of judges from across the country.
If you aren’t aware, you need to be aware that more and more of the 30,000 judges in our country are receiving verifiable death threats. It is estimated that one-third of the state judges and their families have received such threats. This must stop!
If judges are forced out of fear to rule in a certain way on a case instead of ruling based on their interpretation of and respect for the rule of law, our democracy will crumble.
State judges do not have the protections that federal judges have. Senate Bill 2379 was introduced on July 22, 2025, to address this dangerous gap in protection of members of the state judiciaries. The short title is “Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act.”
ABC News reported yesterday afternoon that “President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a promised presidential memorandum implementing an administration-wide effort aimed at alleged ‘domestic terrorism’ and ‘organized political violence.’
“He said it was directed to tackle what he claimed was a rise in ‘bad people’ and ‘anarchists’ from the left and groups that he said funded them.”
He is blatantly only going after “bad people” who oppose Republicans. He isn’t going after “bad people” on the right like the ones who assassinated Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, on June 14, 2025, after attempting to assassinate John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette earlier that morning. Elected officials who are Democrats plainly don’t count in Trump’s book.
Only the people on the left side are “bad people,” according to Trump as he daily refers to us as “left-wing lunatics.”
Free Speech
Photo by Brian Wangenheim on Unsplash
It seems that when it comes down to it, Trump has a corner on the free speech market. Although freedom of speech is guaranteed in the United States by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, we have witnessed an assault on free speech for several weeks.
After a public outcry, ABC put “Jimmy Kimmel Live” back on the air. We won that battle, but the war is not over.
Trump will continue to push the limits of his power to try to quiet all voices that dare to speak out against him. The first group dictators go after are the comedians. We are seeing that play out here. Intimidation. Threats. Naming which comedians are next on his list on social media.
Trump continues to go after universities and journalists. He said this week that it ought to be against the law for a journalist to say anything bad about him. I’m sure writers are on that list. Comedians, writers, and intellectuals are always on such lists. Need I go on?
Now, Democrats are supposed to remain silent as Trump and his supporters spew their hate?
Weaponization of the U.S. Justice Department
The federal indictment of former FBI Director James Comey by a grand jury yesterday afternoon will stand as a stark reminder that Trump will leave no rock unturned as he instructs the U.S. Justice Department to go after his political enemies and people who criticize him.
Trump fired the federal prosecutor who refused to bring charges against Comey. This week he appointed an insurance lawyer who used to work for him and has never prosecuted anyone in her life to prosecute Comey. Reports indicate that she has never even been involved in the prosecution of a case.
Perhaps all this is just to embarrass Comey and cost him a lot of money. If I were pressing charges against a former FBI Director, I would want an experienced prosecutor on the case. But what do I know?
Trump has named Comey and numerous others he wants indicted or arrested and has announced that they are all guilty, corrupt, bad people who should go to prison.
He told U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in a social media post on Saturday to go after Comey, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff, and New York Attorney General Letitia James. As I stated in a blog post earlier this week, Trump hold grudges.
Comey is being charged with lying to Congress five years ago, but what about when Pam Bondi testified before Congress on January 15-16, 2025, that as U.S. Attorney General she would not weaponize the U.S. Justice Department, was that a lie?
In the United States today, we can only pray that the rule of law will prevail and ask God to continue to give us the strength to speak up for the Constitution.
The indictment of James Comey yesterday was shocking but not surprising. Whether Comey is guilty or not, I hope the countless accusations Trump has made in speeches and on social media against Comey will result in the unraveling of these indictments.
The United States Department of Justice is exactly what that says. It is the United States Department of Justice, not the President of the United States’ Department of Justice.
Our democracy cannot stand if we have a U.S. President who can dictate that the U.S. Department of Justice can and must go after his political adversaries. It cannot and will not stand if that is where we are.
At 8:00 p.m., Thursday night, September 25, 2025, as I write this, it feels like we are there.
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