Category: #YouCan’tMakeThisStuffUp

Abrego Garcia, Student Visas, DOJ Weaponization, & What Else Happened This Week

As we near the end of another week of governmental and stock market chaos, today I’m writing about various things happening in the United States. As I finished drafting this blog post at 7:45 last night, I hoped we would have an uneventful news evening so I wouldn’t have to edit it.

We didn’t. I could have added to it, but I chose not to. It will be published at 5:00 a.m. on April 10 without any more additions or edits. I’m sorry it is 2,400 words long. Keeping up with what the Trump Administration is doing is now a full-time job and it is exhausting.

President Trump wants $92 million four-mile long military parade from the Pentagon to the White House on his 79th birthday on June 14. It just happens to also be the 250th anniversary of the US Army and Flag Day, but we all know the real reason for the parade. He begged for one during his first term until people who had some sense told him the city streets of Washington, DC would buckle under the weight of missile launchers and such. He really, really wanted a military parade like they have in Beijing. I don’t know what will happen when he finds out his birthday falls on a Saturday this year. He’s usually in Florida playing golf every Saturday.

How many little blunders will the Executive Branch make before they get their act together? On April 3, Ukrainians who have sought legal safety here during the war in their homeland were told by the US Department of Homeland Security that they had seven days to get out of the United States. The next day they received emails telling them to disregard the earlier notice. Can you imagine the anguish they experienced overnight thinking they had to return to a war zone this week?

In US Senate hearings for her nomination to be US Attorney General, Pam Bondi firmly answered, “No, Senator, not unless they change the Constitution” when asked if President Trump could run for a third term; however, Forbes quoted her as saying in a Fox News interview on April 5, 2025, “We’d have to look at the Constitution” and “it would be a “heavy lift.” I’m not a Constitutional scholar and I know it is possible to repeal an Amendment (i.e. 18th Amendment about prohibition), but it seems clear to me…

Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the U.S. military representative to the NATO Military Committee in Brussels, was fired last weekend. She is at least the ninth senior US military officer to be fired by the Trump Administration, four of them being women.

After slashing National Park Service personnel numbers, Secretary of the US Interior Department Doug Burgum has ordered all national parks to remain open regardless of severe staffing shortages this summer. That’s good news for those of us hoping to visit a national park this summer and support small businesses outside the park that have had a horrible time getting back on their feet since Hurricane Helene, but not such good news for the remaining park rangers and support personnel.

With promises of selling off the timber in our national parks, I don’t know what will be left of any of them if Trump clear cuts them. Maybe he won’t, but there is no one stepping up so far to stop him. Would someone please tell him that the lumber from the northern forests in Canada is stronger wood and less likely to warp than our pine trees? That’s why we buy lumber for construction from Canada. It takes the fir trees in Canada longer to grow than in most of the US. The slower a tree grows, the stronger the wood.

And would someone please tell him how many decades it takes to grow a pine tree or a hardwood tree? He probably doesn’t know, but the worst part is that he doesn’t care. He only sees dollars signs when he sees a tree. I feel sorry for people who have no sense of a forest’s true worth. It’s not measured in dollars.

Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, was awarded a $5.92 billion contract by the Pentagon to conduct Space Force rocket launches. No conflict of interest there!

Yesterday afternoon, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer learned about the 90-day pause in all tariffs except those against China while he was appearing before a Congressional committee. In other words, while he was on Capitol Hill to explain his president’s tariff policies, he learned about Trump’s about-face at the same time the rest of us did.

Anyone who agreed to work for Trump should have known from history, though, exactly what level of chaos they were signing up for. All they needed to do was see how he went through top officials during his first term. To work for Trump is to have your desk anchored to a revolving door.

The National Weather Service (NWS) will no longer provide any weather alerts in any language other than English although nearly 68 million people living in the US speak a language other than English in their homes. Of course, with so many firings in the NWS, extreme weather alerts will probably soon be a thing of the past. Who needs tornado warnings anyway?

The president now takes his human resources advice from Linda Loomer, a conspiracy theorist who says the attack on the US on September 11, 2001, was “an inside job.” After a meeting with Loomer, Trump fired two top national security advisors because they weren’t loyal enough to him. He said she didn’t tell him who to fire – she just told him who to hire.

US Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he might cut US military personnel by 90,000 because we’re turning our attention to Asia and away from Europe and we’ll rely more on technology than people in uniform.

Trump talked again about Gaza on Monday, calling it “real estate,” and casually saying “we’re” going to “own it” and the Palestinians will just be moved into other countries… other countries that are going to welcome them. Does that sound like a good plan to anybody? Just shove the people around like you’re playing chess but, if you were playing chess, you would give more thought to your moves. In Trump’s eyes, these aren’t human beings. Plain and simple.

What kind of person refers to part of another State (in this case, part of the State of Palestine) as “real estate” as if it is a parcel of land that’s for sale on the open market? Only a person who is up to no good and only looking out for himself.

In the midst of the stock market jumping all over the place and retirees seeing the value of their 401K accounts being jerked around yesterday, it was reassuring that President Trump was signing an Executive Order that removed limitation on water pressure from shower heads and household appliances. We each have priorities.

Trump saw on Monday how the stock market reacted from a rumor that he was going to lift tariffs. The market shot up for a few minutes until the Trump Administration denied that tariffs were going to be paused. On Tuesday he said a tariff pause was not being considered. Wednesday morning, he got on social media and told people to buy stock, but not just any stock. He ended his advice with “DJT.” He never does that. Those are his initials, but “DJT” is also the ticker symbol or stock symbol for his Trump Media & Technology Group Corporation. That stock opened at $15.52 per share Wednesday morning. A few hours later Trump suddenly paused all the tariffs except the 125% tariff on goods from China. DJT closed at $20.27.

On Tuesday, Trump said, “We’re making a fortune with tariffs. $2 billion a day, do you believe it? I was told $2 billion a day.” Who told him that? Probably one of his “yes men.”

As this week progressed, Trump has played with tariffs like a yo-yo. No one knows from one hour to the next where any of the tariffs stand. It’s just a game for him to play and he delights in the power he has. Americans and everyone around the world are left not being able to trust the President of the United States. There is no credibility. There is nothing to trust. There is nothing to rely on.

Irreparable damage has been done to America’s standing in the world.

As I write this at 3:15 (ET) on Wednesday afternoon, April 9, Trump is taking questions from reporters on live TV. His responses to questions go seamlessly from tariffs to gangs cutting off the fingers of people who call the police to Liberation Day to the various geniuses who work in his Administration to Joe Biden’s incompetence to other countries sending us their prisoners to the “good old days” when Trump was young and already thinking about tariffs to the need for flexibility to walls to NASCAR and Indy race “champions” to China ripping us off to people “getting yippy”….

We’re left to wonder if the people “getting yippy” are the same people he called “panicans” earlier in the week. My dictionary is inadequate.

Trump’s press conferences and speeches are “word salads” (Trump calls it “weaving”) of endless incomplete sentences and nonsensical trains of thought in which no rail car is connected to another rail car and there is no locomotive leading the way. No one knows where the train is going or why it left the station.

Update on Abrego Garcia

On April 4, a district court judge gave the Trump Administration until 11:59 p.m., Monday, April 7 to return Abrego Garcia to the US after he was mistakenly shipped off to a prison in El Salvador. Trump was so concerned about this “administrative error” that he had to fly to Florida and play golf to deal with his stress. (Forgive my sarcasm.)

The White House line maintains that Mr. Garcia is now in the custody of El Salvador and the US must honor that diplomatic principle. That seems like a lame excuse to me while at the same time Trump is literally threatening to take Greenland away from Denmark by force if he has to. Where is the diplomacy?

On April 5, the immigration lawyer fighting for Mr. Garcia was fired by Attorney General Pam Bondi because he wasn’t toeing the Trump line. In other words, he argued that there was a court order allowing Mr. Garcia to stay in the United States and he should not have been deported to a prison in El Salvador.

Later Monday afternoon, April 7, the US Supreme Court “paused” the Monday night deadline so they could take more time to consider the case.

As far as I have been able to find, that’s where Mr. Garcia’s case sits. Why does everything have to get so complicated? He was sent to El Salvador in error, and he should be returned to his wife and son in Maryland.

Trump’s Treatment of Universities & Student Visas

Add Brown, Cornell, and Northwestern to the list of universities being threatened with loss of funds if they don’t cease the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio bragged that he had revoked the student visa for 300 international students in the United States. He said they were “lunatics” and that they had come to our country under false pretenses. He said they planned to do us harm. We were led to believe it was because 300 specific international students had either broken US law or posed a threat to US security

Now, we’re learning that student visas are being revoked to punish the governments of their home countries. How sad is that? How cruel to the students! For the most part, these young people have excelled in their studies and wanted the opportunity to pursue university degrees from some of the most respected institutions of higher learning in the world.

I’m beginning to wonder about the numbers. At least six visas have been revoked from students at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, at least two from North Carolina State University at Raleigh, at least six from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and two Duke University graduate student and an alumnus on Optional Practical Training.

That’s 17 revoked student visas at just four universities in North Carolina. Why would six percent of the 300 revoked student visas target four campuses in North Carolina? Or is the total more than 300?

Weaponization of the US Justice Department

Late yesterday afternoon, Trump ordered the US Justice Department to investigate Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor. Investigate them for what? For using words? For having the audacity of thinking they had freedom to criticize the US President under the First Amendment to the US Constitution?

Chris Krebs was the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency during the first Trump Administration. Trump is accusing Krebs of being part of an effort to steal the 2020 election for Joe Biden just because Krebs repeatedly said he could find no evidence of election fraud.

Miles Taylor was chief-of-staff at the US Department of Homeland Security when he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times about the resistance he was witnessing within Trump’s first term as President. Taylor wrote that op-ed anonymously but later revealed in 2020 that he had written it. He had resigned from the Trump Administration the year before. He has written two books and has a podcast, “The Whistleblowers.” Trump is accusing Taylor of treason.

What will US Attorney General Pam Bondi do with this order? In her hearings before Congress, she said in no uncertain terms that she would not weaponize the Justice Department against Trump’s political enemies.

Two months in, what will Pam Bondi do? Will she stick by her words or will she make a farce out of her earlier words? Will she cave in to Trump’s rein of tyranny? What will the US Congress do?

What we have here is a Constitutional Crisis. It’s time for members of the US Congress and the American people to stop looking the other way. Stop thinking or saying anything about this is normal.

Who is Trump’s next target?

Until my next blog post

I apologize if I didn’t catch all my typos.

My planned blog post for tomorrow is an open letter to Trump supporters, but you’re welcome to read it, too.

I hope you have a good book to read.

Keep paying attention.

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

Janet

They’ve gone too far, Harriet Tubman!

NOTE: At 2 a.m., just three hours before this blog post was scheduled to be published, I learned that the Harriet Tubman/Underground Railroad webpage on the National Park Service website had been restored! Rather than cancel today’s blog post, I will go forward with it because the only thing that has changed is that for whatever reason that one webpage has been restored.

Nothing else has changed, though. The Trump Administration continues to recklessly… and intentionally… try to erase and destroy American history and democracy. Whether they justify it under the guise of getting rid of “waste and fraud” or eliminating “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” it is all part of this sham racist and misogynist Administration.

What has taken place regarding Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad since January 20, 2025, is a prime example of the incompetence and insidious hate held by members of the Trump Administration.

It offends me when I hear people say that all government employees are corrupt and incompetent. That is the mantra of the Trump Administration. Trump and the people in his inner circle despise federal employees. They are perfectly happy to collect government paychecks and benefits, but no one else working in the government deserves anything but ridicule. Think about that for a minute.

If you want to see corruption and incompetence, you need look no further than the Trump Administration. It is made up entirely of businessmen. Businessmen are never corrupt or incompetent, are they? But evidence to the contrary lies in the fact that almost on a daily basis since January 20 this Administration has made an announcement then had to retract it, has fired federal employees and then had to try to re-hire them, has erased information from a website and then had to restore it. Not to mention high level national security people conducting business on a less-than-secure app, first denying it, then halfway owning up to it, then proclaiming it was no big thing.

The Administration’s total disregard for truth, transparency, and the rule of law and never taking responsibility for mistakes is on display daily for all to see.

It astounds me how the businessmen who are running the federal government have a total lack of knowledge of what government’s purpose is. They only think in terms of profit and loss, but that’s not what government is about. Government is about serving the people, and that’s why Trump and the people in his Administration have it all wrong. Serving the people is a foreign term for them. They only think in terms of making money from the people, and running over anyone who gets in their way. What a pathetic way to see the world!

They delight in firing employees willy-nilly. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. They don’t consider what anyone’s job is. They don’t consider anyone’s expertise. They just conduct wholesale firings.

Hours or days later, when someone has the courage to point out to them that some of those employees helped planes land safely, or some of them were conducting research into cancer treatments or possible cures, or some of them risk their lives to fight wildfires… then a handful of them might be re-hired. That is, if they can locate them, because in the name of anti-waste, anti-fraud, anti-diversity, anti-equity, and anti-inclusion, they erased all the fired employees’ contact information.

I guess that’s the business mentality. After all, more than one person said to me before Trump ran for office the first time, “We need a businessman in the White House.” And that’s supposedly what we got.

What follows is my original blog post scheduled for April 8, 2025:

Until around 9:30 Sunday night, I planned not to blog again about politics until Thursday. That’s when I learned that sometime between January 21 and March 19, 2025, the National Park Service removed all references to Harriett Tubman from its “Underground Railroad” webpage.

Yes, THAT Harriet Tubman! The Harriet Tubman who was the most famous “conductor” on the Underground Railroad.

That’s the Harriet Tubman whose image appeared on a 13-cent first-class postage stamp in the United States in 1978. If you weren’t born until the 1990s, you probably can’t truly appreciate how difficult it was to get the United States to honor a non-white person on a postage stamp. She was the first woman of color (almost any color!) whose image was chosen for a US postage stamp. (Here’s a list of them, if you are interested in digging deeper into that aspect of American history: https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/african-american-stamp-subjects.htm.)

If you don’t know what the Underground Railroad was, please look it up somewhere while you still can. It was not an actual railroad, but it operated like one in many ways except in secret.

Apparently, the “Underground Railroad” webpage’s lead story until the Trump Administration decided to erase all history except that of white men!

Not only did they remove Harriet Tubman and her photograph, they removed references to “enslaved” people and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

Harriet Tubman, enslaved people, and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 have been replaced on the webpage with… and you aren’t going to believe this… or I guess you will if you are a person of color or a female… “Black/White Cooperation.”

The webpage used to (until a matter of weeks ago) open with FACTS about slavery, how slaves struggled to gain their freedom, how the Underground Railroad came about after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

Now, the page’s first two paragraphs emphasize “American ideals of liberty and freedom” and slavery isn’t mentioned.

There is a separate National Park Service webpage dedicated to Harriet Tubman. It has not been removed… yet.

The name “Harriet Tubman” is was synonymous with “Underground Railroad.” Her name will continue to be synonymous with the Underground Railroad until her name is wiped from the entire internet and all books about her or the Underground Railroad are destroyed… and after that, her name will still be whispered and kept alive through oral history.

The Trump Administration has also targeted the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Smithsonian American Art Museum for having exhibits and using language he doesn’t like… or someone has told him he shouldn’t like. After all, we all know what a limited vocabulary he has.

The Administration continues to threaten universities, libraries, museums under the guise of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), but if Trump and his minions were truthful they would just admit that they are racists, bigots, and mysogenists. We all know, though, the truth is not in them. They are small, fearful, hateful bullies.

I believe God is weeping. He gave us freewill, but it must grieve him to see what so many Americans have done with that freedom and responsibility.

In case you can’t see the forest for the trees…

Before you jump on me for making a mountain out of mole hill… for getting all bent out of shape over “just” the removal of Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad, and slavery from a US Government webpage, I’m worried about the big picture. Yes, I’m upset over those specific things being scrubbed from a government webpage, but I’m more concerned over what this portends.

I’m 72 years old and I NEVER thought the United States Government would erase our history. It has taken hundreds of years for indigenous peoples and Americans of African descent to get their stories – their history – in the history books. All that progress is under siege and threatened today.

Where do we go from here?

It falls on each of us to learn as much history as we can… while we still can… and commit it to memory so we can tell future generations the truth.

It falls on us to protest any way we can. It you are fortunate enough to be represented on any level of government by someone not affiliated with the Republican Party, call them, write them, encourage them, support them in their efforts to stop this madness.

If you are represented by Republican politicians, your have your work cut out for you. They have been advised not to hold town hall meetings. I know from experience that when you write them (letters or email) if you get a response it might not be on the topic you wrote them about.

The response you receive will quickly descend into a regurgitation of the usual Republican talking points singing the praises of Trump and how we all need to just be patient because great wealth is going to come to each of us and it is coming quickly.

On the other hand, we’re told it might take years for us to realize that prosperity because it took decades of our allies taking advantage of us to get us in the dire economic situation we were put in by the Democrats.

In other words, if we live long enough, this great American nightmare might end.

Make a sign and join a non-violent protest. Respond to hecklers with “Bless your heart!”

We must follow the example set by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and protest peacefully. Only the other side storms Capitol buildings and attacks police officers.

If need be, we can protest and wait patiently to vote in the mid-term election on November 3, 2026, when every one of the 435 seats in the US House of Representatives will be up for election and 33 US Senate seats will be up for election.

One thing I hope to live to hear

I hope to live long enough to hear a sane future US President speak the words that President Gerald Ford uttered to the nation after President Nixon was forced to leave the White House in shame: 

“My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. But there is a higher Power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy. As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate, more painful and more poisonous than those of foreign wars, let us restore the golden rule to our political process, and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate.” ~ newly-sworn in US President Gerald R. Ford, nationally televised from the East Room of the White House on August 9, 1974.

I heard President Ford say those words, and I desperately want to hear a future US President say them, substituting “the Trump Administration” for “Watergate.”

Until my next blog post, probably tomorrow

I hope you have a book or something to give you a few minutes respite from what’s happening.

Janet

Authoritarianism does not happen overnight. It happens over 74 days.

In my March 24, 2025, blog post I said “no one wants to read a 3,000-word blog post.” I hope I was wrong, because today’s weighs in at 3,096 words, if you don’t count the words on the memes I created.

I’ve written more than 10,000 words in my four blog posts this week. If I could have added 10,000 words to my historical novel manuscript this week, I would be on Cloud 9 and much closer to publication than I am today. I didn’t work on my novel at all.

Unfortunately, I have “bigger fish to fry” now than completing my novel or my historical short stories. My country is in dire danger from within.

If you disagree with me or don’t know what I’m talking about, you are not paying attention.

My blog post today might make you mad and I hope it does!

The actions and inactions of the Trump Administration delineated below are just “off the top of my head.” It might look like I’ve been keeping a list since Inauguration Day, but I have not.

The most frightening part of this is that there are, no doubt, literally thousands of actions being carried out in locked-up government offices, museums, and libraries all over our country that I haven’t heard about… that have not been leaked out… that reputable news organizations have not been privy to or uncovered yet… that our President does not want us to know.

What has happened since Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025… in no particular order

A word here. A word there. A government agency here. A government agency there. Lies repeated ad nauseam.

Muzzle public television by cancelling their funding. Muzzle radio and television stations by reminding them that you can take away their broadcast licenses. “Plant” people in a press conference to ask ridiculous and programmed questions while banning certain reputable news organization such as the Associated Press from the room. My “favorite” so far was the “plant” who asked you on March 28, 2025, “What is a woman?” Your response made me want to vomit.

Your US Department of Agriculture orders 21 tractor-trailer trucks hauling nearly $1 million worth of food (more than 377,000 pounds) to turn around and not deliver the food to Tennessee food banks. The same thing happened in Ohio. How many other states? A US President has to be a certain level of evil to prefer to let tons of food rot than to be delivered to food banks for distribution to people who need that food to supplement what they’re struggling to pay for at the supermarket or corner store. Mr. Trump, you’ve not only never missed a meal, you’ve never had to give a thought to how to pay for the food you have eaten every single day of your life! You are literally taking food out of the mouths of children and old people in the name of “Make America Great Again.”

You shut down Voice of America. It was silenced for the first time in 83 years. It was broadcasting in 49 languages across the world – in accordance with Congressional funding — so people could hear the news in their own language and compare it to the propaganda their own governments were telling them. You claimed that Voice of America was “horrible.” You criticized it for reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic and for quoting people who disagree with you. Voice of America was also broadcasting what you were saying, Mr. Trump. It was telling people living under repressive regimes that in America it was okay to criticize the government. Oh… since it’s no longer okay to criticize the US President, I guess that message is no longer something we should brag about.

Ignore court orders day after day. Go after any judge, law firm, or attorney who dares to make a ruling or file a law suit not to your liking. Then have the Speaker of the US House of Representatives float the idea that US courts can be defunded and, therefore, shut down.

Put a host of incompetent people on your Cabinet, then fire thousands of government employees without regard to merit or risk to public health or safety.

Pardon 1,500 insurrectionists who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, chanted “Hang Mike Pence” broke windows, assaulted police officers, defecated on the floors and walls, broke into and trashed offices, and tried to prevent the certification of the November 5, 2020 Presidential Election results. Say they were “treated unfairly” and call them “patriots.” Say they were just a bunch of grandmothers touring the Capitol.

Grant clemency to people like Jason Galanis – you know, the guy who was sentenced to 14 years and five months in prison back in August 2017 for his role in a bond scheme that defrauded the Oglala Sioux tribe and pension fund investors out of tens of millions of dollars. Such notices of clemency take place in quiet, so how many have taken place since January 20th?

Shut down the United States Agency for International Development, which was the bastion of goodwill for us throughout the poorest parts of the world. Turn the US Departments of State and Defense into bully pulpits to intimidate and threaten our long-time allies.

Declare an invasion when there wasn’t one. Invoke war powers in a time of peace. Imprison peaceful protest organizers on university campuses. Turn professors and medical researchers away at the border.

Pay El Salvador millions of dollars to take your prisoners without due process. Some are dangerous gang members, but some… well, we just don’t like what they look like or their accent. Even when your spokesperson admits at least one of them (that father from Maryland) was sent to El Salvador due to an “administrative error” you claim there is no way to bring him back to the US? Until January 20th, we were the most powerful country in the world, but ten weeks later we can’t ask El Salvador to release someone from prison? You paid El Salvador to imprison these people. We don’t have to ask for any of our money back, Mr. President. Just ask for the prisoners we sent down there who aren’t guilty of any crimes and are not members of a gang to be released. The next plane load of gang members and collateral damage you send down there should be able to bring back the ones you shouldn’t have sent there. If you don’t have a phone, I believe your Secretaries of Homeland Security and Defense have cell phones and know how to text on Signal.

Arrest university students from other countries whether or not they participated in a protest against the genocide taking place in Gaza. Hurrah for the Columbia University students who chained themselves to locked campus gates on Wednesday to protest the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil! You renew my faith in today’s college students! The US Constitution protects the freedom of speech of everyone here – citizen or foreign student. Why were two students at North Carolina State University at Raleigh sent packing because Secretary of State Marco Rubio cancelled 300 student visas? One of them was a fourth-year chemical engineering student from Saudi Arabia who had never participated in a protest or written anything on social media or otherwise apparently said anything against Trump or the US Government. He has to complete his degree online from Saudi Arabia. I want to know what about that will “Make America Great Again” or anything else other than ensure that America will be hated by other countries.

Tell citizens the words they cannot put in writing or on government websites. Then tell them they cannot talk about things that are being discussed in Congress or on certain news networks. We’ve learned about 373 words, word combinations, and topics just this week.

Send masked ICE agents out in unmarked vans without identification or warrants to kidnap people walking their children home from school and take them away to who knows where. And at North Harbor Dairy in Hounsfield, New York, a third grader, a 10th grader, and an 11th grader were kidnapped by ICE agents in the same manner on March 24, 2025. There is speculation that they were taken to a detention center in Texas. Is this how you’re “making America great again” or “making America rich again” or “making America safe again” or “making America healthy again.” Call me dense, but I’m having trouble figuring out what kidnapping/arresting third graders is supposed to do for the United States. Instead of ICE making me feel safe, they are scaring the heck out of me!

Go after the National Park Service and world-renowned museums such as the Smithsonian Institution and tell them what they can and cannot exhibit.

Blackmail universities into caving to your racist whims in order to not lose federal grants. It seems you have a total lack of understanding of what a university is supposed to be. First, Columbia University. Now, it’s Harvard and Princeton under scrutiny. If professors, students, and researchers flee to other countries, it’s no skin off your teeth. After all, you told us years ago that you “love the uneducated.”

Appoint yourself as Chair of the Board of Directors of a beautiful facility such as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and dictate from the Oval Office which artists should and should not be allowed to perform. You say it’s in bad shape. Please don’t tacky it up like you have the Oval Office!

Pick fights with long-established allies. Threaten to take other countries by saying you will use “any means necessary” to get control of them. (Sounds sort of like Russia invading Ukraine, doesn’t it?)

Tell the American people that they will not pay higher prices for goods and materials due to tariffs because the tariffed countries will pay the bill. (Does “Mexico will pay for the wall” ring any bells?)

Call Americans who attend town hall meetings held by the few members of Congress who are brave enough to face voters “paid troublemakers.” You simply cannot imagine that a citizen of the United States would do ANYTHING without being paid! On a basic level, that’s related to your comment about the soldiers who gave their lives fighting the Nazis and Japanese in World War II. You asked, “What was in it for them?” You were incredulous!

Have the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, launch an investigation into ABC (the American Broadcasting Company) and its parent company, Disney, because you think they’ve hired too many minorities and women? Or perhaps you’re mad because Disney is making children’s movies that feature princesses of color? (Carr wrote, “While Disney started as an iconic American company, it recently went all in on DEI.”)

Post on your Truth Social account on March 28, 2025: “People that get caught sabotaging Teslas will stand a very good chance of going to jail for up to twenty years, and that includes funders. WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOU!!!”

Excuse your Cabinet members and top security advisors for taking part in a text exchange about the impending bombing of the Houthis in Yelen on a less-than-secure app (Signal) while reminding us that Hillary Clinton used an insecure server for some of her emails as Secretary of State. Now we learn that Michael Waltz, national security adviser to the White House, and staff members were using gmail? If Hillary was wrong, why aren’t your people wrong?

While we were distracted by “Signalgate,” there was also another breakdown in security. Two spreadsheets detailing work down by the US State Department and USAID were sent to Congress and leaked online. This put workers operating under repressive regimes at danger after they had been assured their work and identities would be protected.

And you remained silent while First Buddy, Elon Musk – who is maybe in charge of the not-authorized-by-Congress Department of Government Efficiency, or maybe he’s not… no one seems to know – offered to pay two voters in Wisconsin $1 million each for signing an online petition promising to vote a certain way in the April 1, 2025, election of a hotly-contested State Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin. After the public started raising illegality issues, Musk took down his original online offer and posted different wording to make it sound not-quite-so-illegal. I’m sure votes have been bought before in the United States, but I don’t recall that it was publicly advertised in advance like Musk did this time. To announce such payments out loud for all to hear is a new low in American politics. He seems to work for you, but you couldn’t bring yourself to tell him not to pay voters? Or were you enjoying another $3.2 million weekend at Mar-a-Lago at taxpayers’ expense and didn’t hear about it? A judge tried to stop this before the $1 million payments could be made on Sunday night but, an hour before the payments were being issued, the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted unanimously to allow the payments! I would like to think that some people who voted for Trump would even think this isn’t right.

While countries around the world immediately sent teams of rescuers and aid workers to Myanmar and Thailand after last week’s devastating earthquake, the New United States of America sat idly by. The US “plans” to send three people to Myanmar. By the way, the tiny country of Vietnam already has 100 people helping in Myanmar. It is appalling that the Trump Regime is demonstrating on the world stage that they absolutely don’t care.

Before the election last November, you told us that if people voted for you “this time” they would “never have to vote again.” That was chilling to those of us who were paying attention. Even though the US Constitution bars a person from serving more than two terms, as a wannabe dictator, you said some interesting things on Sunday in an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker. The Washington Post quoted you as saying, “there are methods which you could do it.” Also, “A lot of people want me to do it.” The newspaper reported, “Welker then mentioned a hypothetical plan where Vice President JD Vance would run in 2028 and ‘pass the baton.’ ‘Well, that’s one. But there are others, too,’ Trump responded. ‘I’m not joking,’ Trump said.”

Threaten to bomb Iran if it doesn’t adjust its nuclear program to your liking. (In our arrogance, Americans think that only America should have nuclear weapons, but look who has our nuclear codes: the insecure bully in the White House!)

With a strike of your pen, put tariffs on 185 countries (including a couple of uninhabited islands) and tell us the money from those tariffs will start pouring in and will quickly “Make America Rich Again.” I thought our nation was already rich. And why did you not raise tariffs on goods coming from Russia and Belarus?

You are so completely self-centered that you fire medical researchers and employees who quite possibly saved your life when you had Covid-19 and were whisked away via helicopter to Walter Reed Medical Center. Dr. Peter Stein approved the monoclonal antibodies treatment that just might have saved your life, Mr. President. How do you thank Dr. Stein four-and-a-half years later? You fire him. He was the Director of the Office of New Drugs at the Federal Drug Administration, and you just fired him in the name of “waste and fraud” in the Department of Health and Human Services.

You take advice from conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who said that the terrorist attack on the US on September 11, 2001, “was an inside job.”

Until Trump came along

Until you came along, we were one of the richest countries in the world. Until you came along, we were rich in things like readily coming to the aid of other countries. Until you came along, we were rich in allies and friends. Until you came along, other countries held us up as a beacon of freedom and the greatest democracy the world had ever know.

Until you came along.

Remind us every single day that everything that is wrong in America today is the fault of your predecessors, and only you can save us.

Sit in the Oval Office that you have tackied up (Southerners know what I mean!) to look as gaudy as your Mar-a-Lago resort and laugh. (Will we ever be able to repair its walls from all those nail holes? You’ve made the Oval Office look like a Frame shop!)

You have no sense of humor, but I imagine you are laughing with your minions and rich friends while this 249-year-old experiment in democracy called America disappears into the pages of history as a failed experiment that only children in other countries will read about years from now.

Whine, and tell the American people that we are victims. Tell us that the entire world has taken advantage of us and cheated us… even though America has been showered with blessings and resources and decades of peace on our soil that most people in the world can only dream of.

Has it only been 74 days? It seems like 74 years.

It is exhausting… and that’s what you want. You want us so tired that we can no longer speak out against your policies. You want us so distracted by a crumbling economy that we stop listening to you because we’re spending all our time wondering how to pay for groceries or car repairs. It’s easier for you to do your dirty work if we are too tired or distracted to keep up with the news.

People who know early- and mid-20th century world history know what comes next.

Mr. Trump, you might not get your comeuppance here on earth, but I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes on Judgment Day!

To my blog readers, until my next post and beyond

Pay attention, no matter how painful it gets. Get your news from a variety of reputable sources.

Don’t compromise your principles.

Read the US Constitution. It is a constitution, not a list of suggestions.

It’s time to stop agreeing to agreeably disagree when it comes to our American democracy. Right is right and wrong is wrong. It’s past time for us to be polite.

My next anticipated blog post will be on April 7 about the books I read in March along with a brief report on Hurricane Helene recovery in western North Carolina.

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

Janet, a disgruntled political science major

Just when you think things can’t get worse in America & fires in NC & SC

I hope you read my March 31, 2025, blog post. It was about the 298 words that The New York Times published on March 4, 2025, that the Trump Regime does not want US Government agencies to use.

The words on that list were a gut punch.

But then, on March 212, 2025, PEN America published an updated list or words and topics. (https://pen.org/banned-words-list/).

PEN Americais a nonprofit organization that works to defend free expression in the United States and around the world through the advancement of literature and human rights. The PEN America list repeats most of the words on The New York Times list.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

My blog post today draws your attention (I hope!) to the words and topics from PEN America that were not on the New York Times list. Here they are:

abortion

accessibility

autism

Black and latinx

Cancer Moonshot

continuum

Covid-19

definition

dietary guidelines/ultraprocessed foods

disabled

discussion of federal policies

diversity and inclusion

diversity/equity efforts

EEJ

EJ

entitlement

elderly

equitable

equitableness

evidence-based

fetus

fluoride

gay

H5N1/bird flu

hate

hispanic

ideology

indigenous people

inequity

intersex

issues concerning pending legislation

male dominated

marijuana

measles

minority serving institution

MSI

NCI budget

obesity

opioids

peanut allergies

promote

science-based

self-assessed

socioeconomic status

special populations

stem cell or fetal tissue research

topics of federal investigations

topics that have received recent attention from Congress

topics that have received widespread or critical media attention

understudied

vaccines

vulnerable

woman

PEN America’s comments

PEN America’s article, “Federal Government’s Growing Banned Words List Is Chilling Act of Censorship,” is self-described as “most assuredly incomplete.”

The article goes on to say, “These policies’ tentacles already extend beyond government websites, though removing HIV resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, regardless of whether they mentioned ‘gender ideology’ or other banned terms, is bad enough. Reports say scientists are self-censoring in hopes of improving their chances of getting government grants.

“That’s exactly the sort of response the administration is hoping for, and it will immeasurably limit the research and other work supported by the federal government, universities and more, on the public’s behalf.”

The PEN America article said these restrictions on words “represent a dystopian effort to control what Americans think and say, despite President Trump’s lip service to ‘freedom of speech and ending federal censorship.’ There’s nothing ‘free’ about banning words or ideas.”

Some of the abbreviations are elusive

I had to look up EEJ, EJ, MSI, and NCI budget. In case you’re not familiar with them either, I’ll save you the trouble.

EEJ is, apparently, electroejaculation. EJ is, apparently, environmental justice. MSI is either Microsoft Installer or Micro-Star International Co., Ltd, a Taiwanese multinational information technology corporation. NCI budget is the US National Cancer Institute budget.

My two-cents’ worth

I won’t take time to comment on each word, word combination, or topic, but the following from the list leave me gobsmacked, to borrow a British word:

autism – This is a real thing. Thousands of children and adults (and their caregivers) deal with it every day. You can’t erase it by erasing the name.

Cancer Moonshot – President Biden’s plan to try to find cures for cancer

Covid-19 – Outlawing the name of a pandemic doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

dietary guidelines/ultraprocessed foods – So how are you going to “Make America Healthy Again” without dietary guidelines?

disabled – Sort of like autism… You can’t erase it, although Nazi Germany tried to.

discussion of federal policies -This just defies reason! Does it mean I can no longer blog about federal policies?

diversity and inclusion – Dog whistle for hiring people of color and women.

diversity/equity efforts – Ditto.

elderly – Okay. I’m 72 years old. That makes me a “baby boomer,” but doesn’t it also make me elderly?

evidence-based – Another one that defies reason.

fetus – Ditto!

fluoride – I know RFKjr. doesn’t want cities to put fluoride in their water, but come on!

gay – Please don’t outlaw this word. I have a friend whose name is Gay, and we’ve already found out voters didn’t like it when you had references to the Enola Gay taken down from the Department of Defense. Give it up!

H5N1/bird flu – So what are scientists and physicians to call it if not H5N1?

hate – I’m sorry, but some people are full of hate. Some of them live and work on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.

hispanic – I’ll let people of Spanish descent handle this one.

indigenous people – I guess I should let indigenous people handle this one, too.

issues concerning pending legislation – What are you thinking?

male dominated – No, we wouldn’t want anyone to say that any levels of government or business are male-dominated, would we? (By the way, you forgot the hyphen.)

marijuana – What word are we supposed to call this plant?

measles – Been there, done that in the second grade. Wish there had been a vaccine then. I know researchers and physicians know it as rubella, but what’s wrong with laypeople calling it measles?

obesity – We have an obesity epidemic in America, so maybe you need to rethink banning this word.

opioids – We also have a opioids epidemic in America. Fentanyl is a synthetic piperidine opioid. Isn’t that the root of the President’s attacks on Mexico and Canada?

peanut allergies – Peanut allergies are a real thing.

science-based – Here we go again down the same path as evidence-based.

topics of federal investigations – Does this just apply to government employees or does it also apply to reporters?

topics that have received recent attention from Congress – Ditto.

topics that have received widespread or critical media attention – Does this just apply to government employees or can regular citizens no longer discuss amongst ourselves things we heard on the news or read online?

vaccines – I think I know who we have to thank for this one. After dedicating your entire adult life to outlawing vaccines, at least now you’ve convinced the powers that be to ban the use of the word.

vulnerable – The way things are going, I feel like most people living here now are vulnerable. When it applies to the majority of a population, does it qualify for a new word. “Vulnerable” is starting to lose its punch.

woman – I don’t know what to say about this one. First you ban the word, then it makes it easier to ban the woman.

If today’s list and the list I shared on March 31, 2025, don’t send a shiver down your spine, you must not have a spine.

Some of you are, no doubt, laughing at these lists and at me for being concerned about them.

Some of you are, no doubt, in denial. (“Surely, a United States President would not encourage or instruct US Government employees to “limit or avoid” these words or topics. That’s just silly!”)

Keep in mind that censorship was an important weapon in Nazi Germany before and during World War II. Censorship is not laughing matter. Censorship is not silly.

A brief message about western North Carolina and South Carolina fires

I failed to mention in my blog about Hurricane Helene recovery in western NC on March 26, 2025, that firefighters had poured in from across the United States to fight the numerous wildfires in our mountains. Some of the fires are in the exact areas that were hit so hard six months ago by the hurricane.

I understand that firefighters from Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming have come to help North Carolinians fight these fires!

Thank you, each of you!

I learned on Sunday that FEMA had awarded Polk County a Fire Management Assistance Grant. It will cover up to 75% of eligible firefighting costs.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (I’m glad we still have one of those on the state level!) issued a Code Red Air Quality Action Day for Henderson, Transylvania, and Polk counties on Sunday due to extreme smoke.

Much-needed rain fell over the area on Sunday and Monday, alleviating the fire situation and allowing some 300 firefighters to take a break. The terrain is challenging and most of it is still littered by the millions (yes, millions!) of trees that came down during the hurricane. In addition to hampering firefighters in gaining access, the downed trees are feeding the fires.

As of yesterday afternoon, the Table Rock Fire in South Carolina was only 30% contained. Arson charges have been filed by the SC Forestry Commission against two 18-year-olds and a 19-year-old who were smoking cigarettes and, through their negligence, started the 13,000-acre Table Rock Fire. A juvenile suspect in the case has been charged and released into the custody of his parents. It is the largest fire in South Carolina’s history.

It renews my faith in some of my fellow Americans to know that in times of trouble, there are still people who will go to another state’s aid not caring whether most people in that state voted for a Republican or a Democrat.

The statewide burn ban in NC will be lifted at 8 a.m. today, except the ban still exists for fires within 100 feet of a residence.

Until my next blog post tomorrow

Pay attention to what’s happening.

Watch for my blog post tomorrow about words that the United States Department of Agriculture is not allowed to use now.

Keep reading reputable nonfiction and fiction.

Don’t compromise your principles.

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

Janet, a disgruntled political science major

P.S. No, I didn’t even mention the tariffs that took effect today. I can’t address everything.

Words Trump wants federal agencies to “limit or avoid”

Find a comfortable chair. This is another long blog post.

I’ve been mulling over today’s topic for several weeks. It’s one thing to erase history – and the Trump Administration seems to be doing an admirable job, if that’s what you want done.

And some people do want that done. As I voiced my displeasure with everything the Trump Administration has done in two short months a classmate, whom I’ve known for 65 years, told me “it’s a beautiful thing to watch.” His comment made me nauseous.

Photo of a taxidermied elephant on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC
A taxidermied elephant on display at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Photo by J. Amill Santiago on Unsplash

Several days ago, the Trump Administration (or should I say, Regime?) attacked the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service. Both were targeted for having “divisive” and “anti-American” exhibits. “Divisive” and “anti-American” can be translated to mean that they have some exhibits about people of color and women of any color. It’s feeling more and more like 1931 in Germany around here.

I have a hunch the elephant pictured above that is displayed at the Smithsonian Institution will be safe, though, since the elephant is the mascot of the Republican Party.

Equally troubling to me as erasing history is the Trump Administration’s efforts to limit or perhaps erase perfectly good words from our vocabulary.

Photo of a pencil with an eraser on the end
Photo by Kim Leary on Unsplash

People are disappearing, history is disappearing, and words are disappearing. Our allies are disappearing, and who can blame them?

Several weeks ago, a list of words was cobbled together that the Trump Regime wants US Government agencies to “limit or avoid.” The White House denies issuing a list, but they have left government agencies to use some of their own judgment in erasing specific words from their documents and websites. It seems that the hints they’ve been given are fairly loud as they are supposed to use Trump’s too-numerous-to-mention Executive Orders as their guide.

This is rich, coming from a President who has difficulty speaking in complete sentence. (Before you jump on me… I’m not being disrespectful; there is proof all over TV, video and audio clips, the internet, and the printed word.)

You can’t make this stuff up.

In case you missed it here is the list of 298 words and combinations of words that The New York Times published on March 4, 2025, that US Government agencies are supposed to “limit or avoid”:

  • accessible
  • activism
  • activists
  • advocacy
  • advocate
  • advocates
  • affirming care
  • all-inclusive
  • allyship
  • anti-racism
  • antiracist
  • assigned at birth
  • assigned female at birth
  • assigned male at birth
  • at risk
  • barrier
  • barriers
  • belong
  • bias
  • biased
  • biased toward
  • biases
  • biases towards
  • biologically female
  • biologically male
  • BIPOC
  • Black
  • breastfeed + people
  • breastfeed + person
  • chestfeed + people
  • chestfeed + person
  • clean energy
  • climate crisis
  • climate science
  • commercial sex worker
  • community diversity
  • community equity
  • confirmation bias
  • cultural competence
  • cultural differences
  • cultural heritage
  • cultural sensitivity
  • culturally appropriate
  • culturally responsive
  • DEI
  • DEIA
  • DEIAB
  • DEIJ
  • disabilities
  • disability
  • discriminated
  • discrimination
  • discriminatory
  • disparity
  • diverse
  • diverse backgrounds
  • diverse communities
  • diverse community
  • diverse group
  • diverse groups
  • diversified
  • diversify
  • diversifying
  • diversity
  • enhance the diversity
  • enhancing diversity
  • environmental quality
  • equal opportunity
  • equality
  • equitable
  • equitableness
  • equity
  • ethnicity
  • excluded
  • exclusion
  • expression
  • female
  • females
  • feminism
  • fostering inclusivity
  • GBV
  • gender
  • gender based
  • gender based violence
  • gender diversity
  • gender identity
  • gender ideology
  • gender-affirming care
  • genders
  • Gulf of Mexico
  • hate speech
  • health disparity
  • health equity
  • hispanic minority
  • historically
  • identity
  • immigrants
  • implicit bias
  • implicit biases
  • inclusion
  • inclusive
  • inclusive leadership
  • inclusiveness
  • inclusivity
  • increase diversity
  • increase the diversity
  • indigenous community
  • inequalities
  • inequality
  • inequitable
  • inequities
  • inequity
  • injustice
  • institutional
  • intersectional
  • intersectionality
  • key groups
  • key people
  • key populations
  • Latinx
  • LGBT
  • LGBTQ
  • marginalize
  • marginalized
  • men who have sex with men
  • mental health
  • minorities
  • minority
  • most risk
  • MSM
  • multicultural
  • Mx
  • Native American
  • non-binary
  • nonbinary
  • oppression
  • oppressive
  • orientation
  • people + uterus
  • people-centered care
  • person-centered
  • person-centered care
  • polarization
  • political
  • pollution
  • pregnant people
  • pregnant person
  • pregnant persons
  • prejudice
  • privilege
  • privileges
  • promote diversity
  • promoting diversity
  • pronoun
  • pronouns
  • prostitute
  • race
  • race and ethnicity
  • racial
  • racial diversity
  • racial identity
  • racial inequality
  • racial justice
  • racially
  • racism
  • segregation
  • sense of belonging
  • sex
  • sexual preferences
  • sexuality
  • social justice
  • sociocultural
  • socioeconomic
  • status
  • stereotype
  • stereotypes
  • systemic
  • systemically
  • they/them
  • trans
  • transgender
  • transsexual
  • trauma
  • traumatic
  • tribal
  • unconscious bias
  • underappreciated
  • underprivileged
  • underrepresentation
  • underrepresented
  • underserved
  • undervalued
  • victim
  • victims
  • vulnerable populations
  • women
  • women and underrepresented

Some of my thoughts on the subject

I considered using bold font to highlight my favorites/most angering/most ridiculous words on the list, but that would have been all 298 of them.

As a writer, words are my life. Words help me communicate. I’ll bet they help you, too. Without words, our communications would be extremely limited.

I haven’t read how Trump intends to enforce this or what punishments will be meted out to offenders. And who comes next? Writers? Reporters? Universities? Teachers?

Depending on your background, gender, or ethnicity, there are probably particular words on the list that strike a nerve with you.

Here are 51 that set me off

“Black” (capitalized) — I have Black friends. I don’t see anything wrong with the word “Black.” In fact, my great-grandmother’s surname was Black. My sister and I mentioned her in one of the Morrison genealogy books we published in 1996. I hope the Trump Administration will not ban our book, but we’re on a slippery slope when we start outlawing words.

“female,” “females,” “women,” and “biologically female”– Hmmm. Now those are intriguing words to put on a government’s “limit or avoid” list. I couldn’t help but notice that “male,” “males,” and “men” are not on the list, but “biologically male” is. Surely, it was an oversight on the part of the “biologically male” person who obviously wrote the list to not include “male,” “males,” and “men” on the list.

“mental health” – I have some relatives who struggle with mental health. I’m not sure what to do with this word combination now. Does the Trump Administration think by not using the words “mental health,” mental health issues will no longer exist? How wonderful it would be if we could just use a word and make a whole category of illness disappear!

“belong” – My mind jumped back to a trip to Scotland where I learned that there instead of saying, “She’s Campbeltown,” the locals would say, “She belongs to Campbeltown.” Since the plural form of the word isn’t on the list, maybe that use of it would be legal. Otherwise, Scots might want to think twice before visiting America. Oh… my bad…. They’ve all taken America off their bucket lists since January 20.

“pronoun” and “pronouns” – This is going to be challenging for English teachers, but it will simplify diagramming sentences.

“sex” and “chestfeed” – I don’t know what to say about these. I don’t want my blog to be flagged as obscene, but is “chestfeed” really a word? Is it actually a thing we need to be concerned about?

“systematically” – What?

“orientation” – I guess there will be no more orientation meetings for new government employees or college freshmen at schools that receive federal funds.

“trauma” – Some hospitals are qualified trauma centers, but I guess they won’t be much longer. Heaven forbid if they receive any federal funds.

Photo of a poster with words like trauma, PTSD, and anger on it
Photo by Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash

“environmental quality” – You’ve got to be kidding, Trump! Just because you don’t want the citizens of the United States to have “environmental quality” doesn’t mean that the citizens of the United States don’t want “environmental quality.” Just because you want to drink contaminated water and breathe polluted air, Mr. Trump, doesn’t me the rest of us do. You can’t just outlaw the words “environmental quality” and make the whole concept of a healthy environment go away.

“disability,” and “disabilities,” – I shudder to think what will soon become of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is that act that requires handicapped bathroom stalls, automatic doors to permit easy ingress and egress at government buildings, hotel rooms with bathrooms accessible to people in wheelchairs, etc. Need I keep going?

That leads me to “barrier” and “barriers” – which I think must be on the list because the Americans with Disabilities Act tries to prevent physical movement and communication barriers from remaining in place that make it difficult for blind, deaf, and people restricted to wheelchairs to do what they need to do. Have you ever wondered why you didn’t see many (or any?) ramps into public buildings in the 1950s, but now you do? They didn’t just happen. It wasn’t because architects started adding them out of the goodness of their hearts.

Photo of a really long staircase
Photo by Joseph Akbrud on Unsplash

“race,” “racial,” “ethnicity,” and “gender” – The folks who create US Passports better get busy figuring out how to get around those questions.

“historically” – I assume this is targeting “Historically Black Colleges and Universities.” Take out the words “historically” and “Black” and it is going to be difficult to know which “colleges and universities” one is talking about. Oh… my bad… that’s the point!

“discriminated,” “discrimination,” and “discriminatory” – Are we no longer allowed to talk about or file lawsuits regarding discrimination? This is appalling!

“minority” – Lucky for the US Congress that this list, at least for now, only applies to the agencies in the Executive Branch of the government because, otherwise, they would have to come up with a new term for “Minority Whip” and “Minority Leader” in their official titles.

“expression” – Wipe that silly expression off your face!

“identity” – Seems like a legitimate word to me.

“prejudice” – Since we still have a US Department of Justice, so to speak, I guess the lawyers are going to have to find a new way to label the rulings on certain lawsuits. You see, the term “without prejudice” is a legal phrase. It is used by judges to indicate that a case can be revisited or that the verdict is not final.

I noticed it’s acceptable to use the word “racist,” but it’s not okay to use the words “anti-racist” or “anti-racism.” Interesting.

“Native American” – I think it should be left up to the indigenous peoples of America to tell the rest of us what they want to be called. I don’t think that she be left up to Donald Trump. When I was doing the research to write my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, I learned that the Cherokee Indians in the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina prefer to be called Indians. The official name of the tribe there is Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

“tribal” is also on the list. That’s unfortunate because some tribes, such as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have tribal courthouses and tribal councils. Please don’t tell them they can no longer use the word “tribal.” The US Government has already taken too much from them.

“bias,” “biased,” “biased toward,” “biases,” and “biases towards” are all on the list. I agree with “biases towards” being on the list because “towards” is incorrect grammar in the United States. I have a problem with the other four, though.

“allyship” – I must admit that was a new word for me. I looked it up and discovered that it refers to those of us in relatively advantaged groups who intentionally support or advocate for disadvantaged people. I hope I’m guilty of having done “allyship” in the past, and I hope I will continue to be guilty of it in the future! As a Christian, I am called on to do that.

That leads me to “advocacy,” “advocate,” and “advocates.” – Now that’s just sad. When you are in the hospital or a nursing home, you need an “advocate” to look out for your best interests. That can be a relative or a social worker or… hut oh….

My doctor says if I have osteopenia and I don’t exercise and eat a calcium-rich diet, I am “at risk” of developing osteoporosis. I assume the Department of Health and Human Resources can no longer “advocate” for “at risk” conditions and illnesses. That’s the least of our worries, though, with RFK, Jr. in charge of that department.

“equality,” “equity,” “inequalities,” “inequality,” “inequitable,” “inequities,” and “inequity” – Does anyone else see a blatant pattern here?

I noticed the word “justice” does not appear on the list. That’s nice, because that word is used in the Preamble of the US Constitution. Whew! That was a close call!

You know the words to the Preamble, don’t you, Mr. Trump?

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

I thought about highlighting my “favorite” words on the list, but before I knew it I had pulled out 50 of them. I’ll just leave it at that for today, but my new purpose in life is to make sure I use at least one word on the list every week in my blog. Heck, I might use more than one.

Some of my comments about specific words on the list were tongue-in-cheek, but I assure you that I take this very seriously.

In essence, Trump’s putting out the word that federal government agencies can read his myriad Executive Orders and surmise the words they need to “limit or avoid” pretty much makes their use on government documents and websites illegal.

No, there is no enacted law prohibiting the use of these words. However, one definition of “illegal” is “not sanctioned by official rules.” (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, 2001.)

How do you ban books in the 21st century?

You make your citizens afraid to use words on an ever-growing list.

Just when you think things can’t get worse

PEN Americais a nonprofit organization that works to defend free expression in the United States and around the world through the advancement of literature and human rights. On March 21, 2025, the organization published a growing list of words being singled out by the Trump Administration as words Trumps doesn’t want us to use.

My blog post on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, will list the words identified by PEN America that did not appear on the March 4, 2025, New York Times list.

Arlington National Cemetery

With so much going on, and a couple of long blog posts in March, I waited until today to mention how the US Department of Defense is erasing history specifically on the Arlington National Cemetery website. US history seems to be in Trump’s cross-hairs.

Photo of rows and rows of white grave markers in Arlington National Cemetery
Photo by Janne Simoes on Unsplash

Under the heading, “Arlington National Cemetery removed links to webpages about Black, Hispanic and female veterans,” Snopes.com (published March 14, 2025; updated March 15, 2025) verified that the following links had been removed from the Arlington National Cemetery website:

          African American History, removed from the Notable Graves subsection;

          Hispanic American History, removed from the Notable Graves subsection;

          Women’s History, removed from the Notable Graves subsection;

          African American History, removed from the Themes drop-down menu of the Education section; and

          Civil War, removed from the Themes drop-down menu of the Education section.

This should be no surprise, since Trump has called veterans suckers and losers.

Until my next blog post

What are your “favorite” words on the list of 298 words I shared today?

I hope you have a good book to read.

Nurture your friendships and relatives.

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

Janet

I just wanted a proof copy of Harrisburg, Did You Know? Book 2

This should have been a very short blog post. Two or three paragraphs should have covered the story. Actually, if that had been the case, I would have chosen a different topic for the post. I hadn’t planned to blog about this today.

When I started writing my blog more than 10 years ago, I set out to chronicle my journey as a reader and a writer. It’s been a bumpy ride and there have been detours, successes, and obstacles. I’ve tried to share my ups and downs.

Just three weeks ago in my February 6 blog post, What does a month in the life of a would-be author look like?, I described a particularly trying month I’d experienced. The things I ranted about in that post eventually all worked out.

Today’s post is about last week’s stress. Last week’s stress has lapped right over into this week. I’d like to think there’s light at the end of this tunnel, but after what I’ve been through, it’s hard to be optimistic.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Today’s post falls in the category of “you can’t make this stuff up.”

Here’s the timeline as tracked on Amazon.com:

February 19

Having submitted the formatted copy of Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2 to Amazon for publication, I ordered a proof copy. After having some technical difficulties with several photographs in the book, I especially wanted to be sure they were going to be oriented correctly in the printed book.

I also ordered two paperback copies of Slip Sliding Away: A Southern Historical Short Story, but those two books had to be purchased as a separate order.

Amazon chose to combine the orders and deliver (or attempt to deliver) the three books to me via the United States Postal System, otherwise known as “carrier facility.”

February 21

9:11 pm      Order left carrier facility, Concord, NC.

This is when I had a feeling that things had gone awry. Since Amazon does not print books at its facility in Concord, NC, which is about 12 miles from my house, I wondered why Concord was the first point of transit. The first point of transit should have been Amazon – not the US Postal Service. My books are usually printed either of Columbia, South Carolina or Indianapolis, Indiana.

February 22

Unspecified time   Carrier picked up package in Columbia, SC (about 90 miles south of me.)

8:18 a.m.     Package arrived at Amazon facility, Concord, NC (about 15 miles north of me.) [This is great! Maybe my proof copy and the short stories will arrive today or tomorrow at the latest! Life is good!]

February 23

6:18 a.m.     Package arrived at carrier facility, Walkertown, NC (about 80 miles north of me.) [What?]

6:32 p.m.    Package arrived at carrier facility, Harrisburg, NC (Post office is five miles from me. I live on a Harrisburg mail route.) [I’m not sure how it traveled 75 miles in 14 minutes, but okay. Whatever.]

7:47 p.m.    Package arrived at carrier facility, Greensboro, NC (about 85 miles northeast of me.) [Wait a minute! Something’s not right.]

But I don’t want a refund. I want my books!

You know you’re in trouble when Amazon tells you on Thursday that you can request a refund if your package doesn’t arrive by Tuesday.

A refund won’t do me any good. I need to receive the proof copy before I can give Amazon the go ahead to start selling it. More importantly, I can’t order author copies to supply Second Look Books in Harrisburg until the book “goes live” on Amazon. Then, it takes about four weeks for me to receive the author copies, and my “Meet & Greet” at Second Look Books is scheduled for April 15.

February 24

5:19 a.m.     Package left Amazon facility, Concord, NC (about 15 miles northeast of me.)

9:21 a.m.     Package arrived at USPS distribution center, Charlotte, NC (about 18 miles west of me.)

February 25

3:15 a.m.     After spending 18 hours at the USPS distribution center in Charlotte, the package left.

3:20 a.m.     Five minutes later, it left again. (I’m not making any of this up!)

7:07 a.m.     After traveling about 15 miles, package arrived nearly four hours later at the USPS in Harrisburg, NC.

7:18 a.m.     Package is out for delivery “by 8 p.m. tonight.”

3:20 p.m.    Package arrives at my house! According to the back page, the books were printed in Columbia, SC on February 20, 2023. There was only one 2×4-inch gaping hole in the package right over the cover of the Harrisburg book. These books have seen parts of North Carolina I’ve never seen. As far as I know, I’ve never been to Walkertown. I looked it up. It’s between Winston-Salem and Virginia.

Alas, I had the books in my hands.

I quickly turned to page 465 in the Harrisburg book to make sure Carl Higgins’ B-26 bomber was shown correctly; but, no! In the image, the plane is heading straight up instead of to the left.

Various subheadings in the book appear at the bottom of one page instead of at the top of the next page, although I painstakingly made sure that none of the subheadings were at the bottom of a page when I submitted the formatted manuscript to Amazon. Likewise, all images were oriented in the correct manner when they left my computer.

And did I mention that the cover is dark brown instead of red?

Photo by Taylor Deas-Melesh on Unsplash

I discovered, though, that the errors (except for the color of the cover) were my fault due to my lack of technical knowledge. If I’d been more in tune with general computer technology, I would have realized that I had created a problem… all the problems in the way the book was printed… except for the brown cover on the red book.

I still hold Amazon and the USPS responsible for shipping my book all over North and South Carolina for nearly a week. The best I can figure, the USPS transported it around 425 miles to get it 90 miles from Columbia, SC to Harrisburg, NC. If I could have received it five days ago, I’d probably have all the problems worked out in the formatting by now and would still be on schedule for publication.

Instead of giving Amazon the go ahead on March 1 to publish my book, I’m now working to correct errors. Then, I’ll submit the revised version. Then, with a great sense of foreboding, I’ll pay to get ANOTHER proof copy of the Harrisburg book. And I’ll wait who know how long for it to arrive. Then, if it is in good order, I’ll order author copies. Then, I’ll wait four weeks for them to arrive. Will they arrive in time for the “Meet & Greet” at Second Look Books on April 15th?

If I were a betting person, I wouldn’t bet on it.

Since my last blog post

Besides following the day-to-day saga of the trip the proof copy of my book has been on, I did some yard work. It’s been unseasonably warm here in North Carolina. I was surprised to see two black snakes on Wednesday. I’ve never seen a snake in February (or March!) before. It’s unusual to see one in April.

My email provider is a company called Windstream. There are many things I’d like to say about Windstream, but I won’t. Suffice it to say that on Saturday night, just five hours after I received the awful proof copy of my Harrisburg Book 2, Windstream downloaded into my inbox the last 4,449 emails I had already received. As we say in the South, “Bless their hearts!” Again, you can’t make this stuff up.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read. I plan to write about the books I read in February.

If you’re looking for a good historical short story, just visit https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com and subscribe to my newsletter. You’ll be rewarded with a free e-copy of a short story I had fun writing, “Slip Sliding Away: A Southern Historical Short Story.”

Also, hurry and subscribe before March 1, in order to receive my first newsletter!

I hope to have a corrected copy of Harrisburg, Book 2 completed, submitted to Amazon, and have a new proof copy of it in my hands by the time I blog again on March 6. I can only hope.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Don’t forget the brave people of Ukraine who have been under unwarranted attack by Putin for a year.

Janet

My Brush with Fame

After blogging about a heavy and complicated topic last week – the Wilmot Proviso – I decided to give my readers and myself a break this week. Let’s have some fun today with my brush with fame.

Do you remember a suspenseful television series from a decade ago that was filled with political intrigue? The name of the show was “Homeland.”

Before it was named. I had my brush of fame in it as an “extra.”

Most of the show’s early seasons were filmed in Charlotte. A segment was to be filmed at Avondale Presbyterian Church on Park Road because it resembled a New England church sanctuary.

Photo from Avondale Presbyterian Church website.

The production people wanted a full sanctuary for the filming of a funeral scene. An email went out to the churches in the Presbytery of Charlotte, part of the Presbyterian Church USA. The secretary at Rocky River Presbyterian Church sent out a notice to inform members of the congregation that extras were needed for the filming on August 12, 2011.

My sister and I had never considered doing anything like that, but it sounded interesting and exciting. We were advised to wear appropriate clothes for a funeral. We weren’t going to be paid, but lunch would be available.

We had nothing better to do that day, so off we went. It turned out to be a learning experience and one of those incidents that people who know me would probably be surprised to know.

Upon arrival, we were herded into the church’s fellowship hall. We sat with strangers around round tables. It was immediately time to “hurry up and wait.”

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

After several hours, we were led into the sanctuary. Sound and lighting were tested. I can’t remember now if the stars of that episode of the show, Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, were involved in our first visit to the sanctuary.

We were told in no uncertain terms to memorize where we were sitting because later in the day we’d have to arrange ourselves exactly in the same place and in the same order. That was a bit stressful when you’re sitting on a church pew in a sanctuary you’ve never been in before and all the walls are covered in plastic to control the lighting.

It must have been at that point that we were served lunch. I can’t remember what it was, but I never turn down a free meal.

After that, we were left to just hang out in the fellowship hall. I’ve never had good timing. I took a minute to take a bathroom break. When I came back to the fellowship hall, my sister and a man we’d only met that morning were gone. The remaining extras at our table told me that someone came and asked them to go outside for the shooting of another scene.

This man had irritated us all morning, and now Marie was stuck being with him for filming outside. He was a loud know-it-all and we’d wished we could move to another table. Even so, I was a little envious because Marie was at least getting to do something, but I mostly pitied her for having to spend more time with this obnoxious man.

Marie and her new “husband” eventually returned to the fellowship hall. They’d had to walk together up the sidewalk leading to the church entrance over and over and over and over as if arriving for the funeral. Marie looked shell shocked and feared people would think they were an actual couple.

A little while later, we were instructed to return to the sanctuary. (All this time I’d been playing over in my head the clues I’d tried to detect that would help me sit exactly where I had earlier.)

As soon as everyone seated themselves where they’d sat that morning, members of the production crew started pointing and saying, “You. You, go sit over there. And you. You go sit over there.” This drill went on for a while until I’d completely lost sight of Marie and I was nowhere near where I’d started. I hoped she wasn’t being paired off with “obnoxious man.”

I liked where I ended up. I was near the aisle, and Claire Danes stood just feet away from me while she waited for her cue to walk forward. We even made eye contact while we waited. It was probably because I looked like a deer caught in headlights.

Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash

Filming finally started. Damian Lewis eulogized his deceased best friend from the Army. Over and over and over and over again. Claire Danes eventually got to walk up the aisle (over and over again) to her appointed seat.

In the middle of Damian Lewis’ eulogy, an actor portraying another of their Army buddies as noisily as possible dropped his crutches. The sound was quite startling to those of us in the audience who didn’t have a clue what was happening. That quite loud segment was filmed over and over again.

At one point, they were filming as if we were all sad and talking among ourselves about how sad it was that this Army veteran had died. It was hard to keep from laughing as we turned to the complete strangers sitting next to us and were instructed to quietly make specific comments about how tragic the whole thing was. By then it was late in the day and most of us were a bit sorry we’d volunteered for this unknown television show that probably would never even air.

“Homeland” did air. It was a successful series that lasted eight seasons. Marie and I watched almost every episode. It was fun to pick out local sights in the various episodes during the first several years when it was filmed in the Charlotte area. There was the staged explosion at Marshall Park in downtown Charlotte and even a scene at a small mom and pop motel in Mt. Pleasant here in Cabarrus County. And, of course, there was the episode that included the funeral at Avondale Presbyterian Church.

When the episode aired, we learned that Damian Lewis’ character had in fact murdered the man we heard him eulogizing.

It turned out that Marie and I were both seated so near the back of the sanctuary that we couldn’t even pick out ourselves in the crowd when the episode aired. Much to Marie’s relief, the entire segment of her and “obnoxious man” walking arm-in-arm to the church ended up on the cutting room floor.

Photo by GR Stocks on Unsplash

Nevertheless, we know we were in Season 1 Episode 6 (“Good Soldier”) of “Homeland” and in the process we learned that it can take eight hours to film a two-minute segment of a television show. I don’t know how actors stand it.

We came to like the part Mandy Patinkin played in the series and regretted that we didn’t get to see him during our day of hurry up and wait.

It was more than a bit out of character for Marie and me, but we were glad we did it. It wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, but parts of it were fun and it gave us a whole new appreciation for the tedium actors must endure.

Since my last blog post

I continue to work on the family cookbook, The Aunts in the Kitchen. It’s time to figure out the cover and write the bios for each of the aunts.

I also continue to work on my genealogy.

I hope you have a good book to read. I’m reading The Librarian Spy: A Novel of World War II, by Madeline Martin.

Until my next blog post

Find time for family, friends, and a hobby.

Don’t forget the people of Ukraine, Uvalde, and Highland Park, etc. and the people in Kentucky whose lives have been turned upside down by flooding.

Janet

Who said the world would end today?

Once in a while, someone proclaims that the world is going to come to an end on a certain date. It turns out that today is one of those days.

School attendance and the Miranda Rights

I was on a jury in the early 1970s for a public school truancy case. The case ended up being thrown out of court because it came to light that the county school system’s truant officer (probably called something like “attendance facilitator” today) failed to read the children’s mother her Miranda rights. (Bear with me. This story directly relates to today’s blog topic.)

For those of you in countries other than the United States, in 1966 the US Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v Arizona that a police officer must tell a suspect they’re about to question that they have the right to remain silent, anything they say can and will be held against them in a court of law, they have the right to a lawyer and for that lawyer to be present while they’re being questioned, and the government will provide a lawyer for them if they can’t afford one.

Photo credit: Scott Umstattd on unsplash.com

The mother had kept her children out of school for several months, but now the county had to start over in its effort to get those children back into the classroom. The reason the mother was not letting her children go to school was because she belonged to a religious group that believed the world was going to come to an end on a specific date in the near future and, therefore, her children didn’t need an education.

And then, there was 12:00:01 a.m. on January 1, 2000

Photo credit: Claudio Schwarz on unsplash.com

Those of us of a certain age remember all the hoopla over January 1, 2000. Computers were predicted to crash. Life as we knew it would end because the computers invented in the 1900s weren’t capable of anticipating the year 2000. There would be no electricity. Our phones wouldn’t work. Our clocks would stop. Well, January 1, 2000 arrived with the usual New Year’s fireworks, etc. and life continued.

Photo credit: Sid Ramirez on unsplash.com

Predictions based on Natural Disasters and Wars

The current Covid-19 pandemic has prompted some people to predict the imminent end of the world. They might be right and the joke might be on me, but I’m reminded that there have been pandemics, earthquakes, floods, wars, and hurricanes all throughout world history. Why would anyone think the Covid-19 pandemic is the event that will knock Earth off its axis?

Photo credit: Michael Marais on unsplash.com

In the spirit of full transparency, I’ll start by saying I don’t believe a human being can know the date that the world will come to an end. I believe that only God knows. It’s not something I have to worry about. I don’t want to know the day or the hour. It would make me live my life differently and, probably, not for the good. But I digress.

That brings us to December 21, 2020

It came to my attention early this month that on December 21, 2020, Saturn and Jupiter would be the closest to each other that they’ve been in some 800 years. Cool! I wish I had a telescope to view this with. I’ve been watching those two planets with the naked eye for a couple of weeks, and it’s been interesting to see two such bright objects near each other in the sky.

Planet Jupiter.
Photo credit: Michael Sambycwkpo on unsplash.com

It wasn’t until December 10 that I became aware that some people were predicting that this interesting and rare astronomical event was a sure sign that the world would end today. I chuckled about it. If you’re reading this, I was apparently right to chuckle. If I was wrong, …. Poof! It’s been nice knowing you. Thank you for reading my blog all these years. It’s been fun. I wasted my time planning future blog post topics. On the bright side, I’m glad I made that dental appointment for December 23 instead of early December. I saved myself a bunch of money.

If you and I are still here

If you and I are still here, whew! We’re safe until the lunatic fringe chooses the next date for the world’s demise.

I hope you have a good book to read or write.

I hope you have rewarding creative time this week.

Keep wearing your mask.

The Nativity

Merry Christmas to my fellow Christians on December 25th.

Janet

#YouCan’tMakeThisStuffUp Part 5 of 5

Today’s blog post wraps up my recent tale of woe. We pick up the story when the nurse was checking on the status of my shower chair/portable toilet and the woman at the other end of the phone call responds, “I’m on it.”

In case you missed Part 4 yesterday, here’s a link to it: #YouCan’tMakeThisStuffUp Part 4 of 5. ­­­­

Home at last

I’m finally presented with my “throne” and Marie and I leave the hospital. We stop on the way home for some lunch at a fast-food restaurant’s drive-through window since we are now getting very hungry. (My breakfast had been interrupted no less than eight times by various hospital personnel, so I don’t remember what or when I ate it.)

My sister, Marie, is a very resourceful person. Not able to find a bridge threshold ramp that will work with our particular threshold, she goes to the basement and comes back with two wooden planks, a piece of 2-inch wide crown molding, and a piece of slick-backed insulation. She’s a genius!

Her plan works great! When I need to go for a follow-up appointment with my doctor, we won’t have to call the fire department to carry me out of the house! We are proud of ourselves, but mainly I’m proud of Marie. She figured this out!

An outing to see the physician’s assistant

I make an appointment to follow up with my primary care physician. When I explain to the lab technician how I broke my leg, she says, “You’re kidding, aren’t you? How did it really happen?” After I assure her that I’ve told her the real story, she says, “You can’t make this stuff up!”

I agree. I write some fiction, but I lack the imagination to make up the story you’ve read since Monday.

What next?

The other day I texted my friend, Kay, about the latest part of my tale of woe. Kay texted back, “LOL! What’s next?”

Less than an hour later, Marie is pushing me down the hall in my rollator. Suddenly, it becomes difficult to push. I can’t believe it when Marie says, “You have a flat tire!”

Who knew a rollator could have a flat tire?

I texted Kay. She responded, “I’ve used a rollator for years, but I’ve never had a blowout!”

My rollator is old. Marie bought it at a yard sale. It’s so old, replacement tires are not made for it. I could order one on E-Bay that might work, but for an additional $50.00 I could purchase a new rollator.

Since I won’t need the rollator forever, and I have a very resourceful sister, I don’t need to buy a new one. Marie repaired the tire with duct tape! It brought back memories of our father having tires recapped back in the day before the invention of radial tires.

Where things stand today

I can get in and out of the house in my rollator with Marie’s assistance. Of course, now we’re under a “Stay at Home” order in my county due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

I can’t put any weight on my right foot for another three-and-a-half weeks, and it remains to be seen what happens to the physical therapy I’ll need in the coming months. I can’t imagine any physical therapists will be seeing patients in the coming months.

I expect to be on a blood thinner for the next three months, since the pulmonary embolism was the result of an accident and not due to an underlying medical condition. My lung continues to hurt if I lie down flat, so I’m sleeping nearly sitting up. I still run a fever most evenings. I’m trying to learn patience.

The phone still rings and it frustrates me when the caller ID box says, “SPAM” or “Fraudulent Caller” and I wonder why the phone company isn’t filtering such calls.

One caller left a voicemail. She claimed her name was “Sunshine” and that she knew I was an author. She said she represents “a hybrid company that also invests in French National Book Rights.” She asked that I call her at 302-770-____, Ext. 87, but I didn’t. I’m only an author because I wrote a vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and I doubt that anyone wants to translate it into French.

By the way, the burial insurance agent called again yesterday. That recorded caller doesn’t give up easily.

Until my next blog post

Take care of yourself. Stay home, if you possibly can. Listen to the medical experts and other scientists.

Write a note of caring and thanks to someone you know – maybe to the pharmacist, the nurse at your doctor’s office, or the cashier at the grocery store.

Be resourseful! Be like Marie!

Today concludes my tale of woe since fracturing my leg on January 27.. At least, I hope the “woe” part of the tale is over. On Monday I plan to resume my usual weekly blog post.

Janet

A thank-you note
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

#YouCan’tMakeThisStuffUp Part 4 of 5

Part 4 of this week’s blog series, #YouCan’tMakeThisStuffUp, picks up after the construction of our handicap ramp. What happens next has nothing to do with the ramp; that’s just where I ended Part 3 yesterday.

In case you missed Part 3, here’s a link to it: ­­­­#YouCan’tMakeThisStuffUp Part 3 of 5.

I start noticing a slight pain under my left shoulder blade. I figure it comes from using muscles I haven’t been using until I started having to hop on my left foot and get around with a walker. I quickly develop a new appreciation and awe for people who are permanently physically handicapped.

A few days later

I wake up on February 26 with stabbing pains throughout my left rib cage and in my back – under that shoulder blade. I can’t get comfortable. It hurts to breathe. It really hurts to take a deep breath. Marie and I decide this time I need an ambulance.

There’s a whole other story regarding the ambulance, but I’ll spare you the details. It’s my first ride in an ambulance as a patient.

Keep in mind that it’s the middle of flu season and there’s talk that COVID-19 is coming to America. The waiting room at the emergency room is overflowing with sick people. Some of them are very sick. I try to remain calm, not touch anything, and not take a deep breath.

Diagnosis:  Pulmonary Embolism

It’s finally my turn to be seen. I’m sent for a lung x-ray. I’m told I might have pneumonia in my left lung, but a CT scan is needed for a diagnosis.

The diagnosis is pretty quickly made. I have a blood clot in my left lung! A blood thinner is injected into my stomach and I’m monitored. The hospital is full. The hospitalist says I might have to spend the night in the ER.

Much to my surprise, a room becomes available and I’m admitted for observation.

Photo by Martha Dominguez de Gouveia on Unsplash

The next day I start taking a blood thinner in pill form, and will continue to for three or four months.

No, I can’t do that

Physical and occupational therapists come to my room to assess my mobility capabilities. I cannot be discharged before they see me. Hospital rules. We have a ramp at our house now. The only remaining barrier is the threshold in the doorway from the porch into the house. I never should have mentioned it.

One of the therapists demonstrates how I should be able to hop up steps and hop backwards over our door’s threshold. Since the industrial strength leg brace weighs a ton (that’s the only exaggeration in my story) and I’m not a healthy 67-year-old – I have my doubts that I can hop up steps or over the threshold forwards – much less backwards. I can barely get my left foot an inch off the floor when I hop.

When I put all my weight on the handles of my walker in order to hop, it feels like electricity is running through my hands. I’m not having fun with my walker if on a flat surface while going forward. I decline the therapist’s offer to take me to “the gym” where I can learn how to hop up stairs on one foot. (Call me a chicken if you so desire.)

Her next suggestion was that I could sit down on the floor and scoot myself backwards up steps or over the threshold. When I inquired of her how I might get up from the floor, she said I should just scoot over to a chair and pull myself up. She sat on the floor of my hospital room (not to worry… it had been mopped that morning — GAG!) scooted over to a chair and pulled herself up to a standing position.

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Before I could protest, the other therapist in the room pointed out that with a broken leg it was going to be impossible for me to pull myself up using a chair. Neither of them had explained how I was supposed to sit on the floor in the first place. The only way I can see myself sitting on the floor is if I fall backwards while using my walker. That seems a little drastic to me, just so I can scoot over an exterior door threshold.

Not to be defeated, the first therapist said I needed to go home with a shower chair that doubles as a bedside toilet. Not wanting to come across as totally uncooperative, I decided to accept. The chair is ordered. My lunch is cancelled because I’m being released at 10:30 a.m. Trust me, it’s already been a long day.

Marie stops shopping for a threshold bridge ramp and comes to pick me up at 10:30 even though we know this probably isn’t happening. Lunchtime comes and goes. 10:30 release turns into 2:00 p.m. release because the shower chair has to be delivered to the hospital and I, of course, can’t go home without it.

An hour or so before the shower chair is brought to my room, the nurse whips out her cell phone, calls someone else in the building and asks, “What’s the status of Ms. Morrison’s shower chair/portable toilet?” The response on the other end of the line was, “I’m on it.”

Let that settle in for a minute. Marie, the nurse, and I all simultaneously realize how ironic, “I’m on it” sounds and we all have a good laugh.

To be continued . . .

Since my last blog post

Sadly, the first two deaths attributed to coronavirus-19 in North Carolina, have been reported in Cabarrus County.

You’ll be glad to know that we’ve had no calamities at our house in the last 24 hours.

I’ve been listening to The Litigators, by John Grisham and almost finished listening to Long Road to Mercy, by David Baldacci.       

I’ve worked on a historical short story. If I’m ever to have a collection of short stories to publish, I need to start spending more time writing and less time thinking about writing.

Until my next blog post

Take care of yourself and those important people in your life. Seek out someone who might be alone and scared. Contact them in a safe way. Listen to their concerns and try to reassure them. We’re all in this together.

Tune in tomorrow for #YouCan’tMakeThisStuffUp Part 5 of 5.

Janet