The Importance of Marbury v. Madison Today

This is a timely anniversary date that landed in my lap!

The US Supreme Court heard the arguments for the Marbury v. Madison case on February 11, 1803, and handed down its decision 222 years ago today on February 24, 1803. That’s a quick turn around compared to today’s Supreme Court!

A photo of the US Supreme Court building. — The US Supreme Court Building.
(Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash.)

It isn’t often that one hears a reference made to this US Supreme Court case, but a news commentator on TV mentioned it just 11 days ago and another one mentioned it four or five days ago. I chose Marbury v. Madison for today’s blog post when I created my 2025 editorial calendar last year. Talk about serendipity! Little did I know last fall what a place we would be politically today.

In a nutshell, Marbury v. Madison established the right of the courts to determine constitutionality of the actions of the Executive and Legislative branches of government in the United States.

The three branches of the federal government are equal; however, the Judicial branch has the authority to rein in the other two branches when they take actions deemed to be in conflict with the United States Constitution.

Photo of a top spinning in perfect balance. — And image of what balance looks like. (Photo by Christophe Hautier
on Unsplash.)

Until January 20, 2025, I took Marbury v. Madison for granted. I will never take it for granted again.

When I started writing today’s post a week ago, I copied what the National Archives website said about Marbury v. Madison and saved it as a Word document in case the National Archives website disappeared. (The USAID website disappeared for a while before being moved to the US State Department website. Incidentally, as I wrote this paragraph on Friday afternoon, a judge ruled that the Trump Administration can proceed to dismantle USAID.) Trump fired the National Archivist about 10 days ago. We historians fear that he or Elon will torch the National Archives. That’s one way to erase history, but I digress. (It is a real fear, though.)

Back to Marbury v. Madison

Quoting the National Archives website (https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/marbury-v-madison) because I cannot state the case’s background any better: “In 1801, outgoing President John Adams had issued William Marbury a commission as justice of the peace — but the new Secretary of State, James Madison, refused to deliver it. Marbury then sued to obtain it. With his decision in Marbury v. Madison, Chief Justice John Marshall established the principle of judicial review, an important addition to the system of “checks and balances” created to prevent any one branch of the Federal Government from becoming too powerful.”

Photo of the National Archives building in Washington, DC — US National Archives, Washington, DC. (Photo by Juliana Uribbe on Unsplash.)

Also, quoting from the National Archives website: “‘A Law repugnant to the Constitution is void.’ With these words written by Chief Justice Marshall, the Supreme Court for the first time declared unconstitutional a law passed by Congress and signed by the President.”

I think some folks living and working on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. need to read up on this. We now have a US President who wrote on social media nine days ago, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” It’s up for debate whether he is doing anything to save our country, but the frightening thing is that he has put in writing that he is above the law.

He also said that when it comes to agencies of the Executive Branch only he and the US Attorney General can interpret laws. That might be in conflict with the principle established by Marbury v. Madison.

It is the US Supreme Court that will ultimately decide if the US President does anything that is unconstitutional.

The US Constitution gave the President the power to veto an act of Congress and appoint federal judges with the advice and consent of the US Senate, and it gave Congress the power to impeach the President or a judge. The powers of the Supreme Court were not spelled out in such detail. When Marbury v. Madison came along in 1803, Chief Justice Marshall – who strongly believed that the Supreme Court was equal in power to the Executive and Legislative branches – led the court in seizing the opportunity to establish the principle of Judicial Review.

The US Supreme Court’s authority to declare federal or state laws unconstitutional has never been seriously challenged. I hope that will still be true in 2029.

In case you’re wondering what happened to William Marbury…

With the decision made in the Marbury v. Madison case, the Secretary of State was directed to deliver to William Marbury his commission as a justice of the peace for the county of Washington, in the District of Columbia.

In the big scheme of things, I wonder if the parties involved in this case had any idea going into it that it was destined to be a landmark decision.

In conclusion

I still have freedom of speech and I will continue to use my blog as a platform to share my opinions and my research into the US. Constitution. Those of you who have been reading my blog for more than 10 years know that is nothing new. I just feel more compelled now to blog about the US Constitution.

The words of the preamble to the US Constitution with a slightly blurred image of the American flag in the background. — Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America

My college major was political science, and I regret that I only took one Constitutional Law course. In fact, I was so intimidated by the subject that I procrastinated taking the required course until my final quarter. (The university was on the quarter system then instead of the semester system.)

As it turned out, the course was fascinating and I wished I’d taken it earlier so I would have had time to take more constitutional law courses. I readily admit that one constitutional law course does not a constitutional law expert make, but I’m trying to shine a light on the document.

Hurricane Helene Update

As of Friday, 155 roads in North Carolina are still closed due to Hurricane Helene, including Interstate 40 near the Tennessee line. That is a decrease of 14 in the last week, inspite of snow and some sub-zero wind chills. This week’s count consists of 1 interstate highway (I-40), 11 US highways, 17 state highways, and 126 state roads. (To give some perspective, it has now been five months since the hurricane.)

I failed to report in last Monday’s blog post that Eric Church’s foundation, Chief
Cares, has purchased land in Avery County, NC and hopes to place 40 modular homes to house families that lost their homes due to Hurricane Helene. A road must be built and water and sewer lines installed. Church and his foundation hope to secure land in adjoining counties so they can provide more housing for hurricane victims. Church and fellow-country music singer Luke Combs organized and spearheaded a concert at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte last October to raise money for hurricane relief.

The work of Brother Wolf Animal Rescue and The 21^st Century Packhorse Librarian continue and will appreciate your support for the foreseeable future.

Jake Jarvis of Precision Grading in Saluda continues to work in the area every day free-of-charge with his heavy earth-moving equipment. He has built bridges, reconstructed driveways and private roads, and excavated places for homes to be rebuilt. The last couple of weeks have been challenging due to ice, snow, and high winds.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read. Next Monday I plan to blog about the books I’ve read in February.

Value your freedoms, family, and friends.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

The Amazing Dr. Nicholas E. Lubchenko

Plan A: The Ida Nicholson

I wanted to blog about the sinking of the Ida Nicholson, a schooner that sank off Ocracoke Island, North Carolina in 1870, but I was unable to find sufficient information about the incident. It was hauling 101,600 of the one million bricks needed for the construction of the Hatteras Lighthouse when it went down in a gale in the infamous “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” The entire cargo was lost.

Plan B: My chance to introduce you to Dr. Nicholas E. Lubchenko

The amazing Dr. Nicholas E. Lubchenko was a topic I kept on the backburner to use when I didn’t have another blog subject calling my name. Today is that day!

In case you’ve wondered why I end my blog posts by asking you to remember the people of Ukraine, in addition to my heartfelt belief that Ukraine deserves to remain an independent nation, it is my small way of honoring the memory of a country doctor who served so many in my community for decades, regardless of their ability to pay the small fee he charged.

A black and white photo of Dr. Nicholas E. Lubchenko — Dr. Nicholas E. Lubchenko

Those are Dr. Lubchenko’s people in Ukraine, and they yearn to remain a free nation not under the thumb of Vladimir Putin.

Dr. Lubchenko’s Early Years, Military, and Medical School

Nicholas E. Lubchenko was born in Bulai, Zerkov, near Kiev, Russia (now, Ukraine) in 1882. One of ten children of a leather worker, he graduated from an agricultural college in Kharkov. Kharkov, Ukraine is familiar to us now since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war.

By 1906, Lubchenko was in the Russian army. His dream was to get to America, which he called “the greatest country in the world.” He concluded that if he did not escape from the army, he would never make it to America.

Quoting from my book, Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1: “One day in 1906, while still in the arm, he walked out of Russia and crossed into Austria, with a ‘samovar (a Russian urn with a spigot made for boiling water for tea) under his arm and one change of clothing.’ He could speak French and German but not English.

“He got a job working on a ship bound for New Orleans. After he arrived in America in November of 1906, an eastern Louisiana family helped him until he saved enough money to travel to South Carolina where his brother, Alexis, lived.”

He worked on a cotton farm in Ridgeway, South Carolina, saved his money, and after five years was able to borrow money to attend the North Carolina Medical College in Charlotte, NC. He had $69 when he arrived in Charlotte.

He put himself through medical school by working for various doctors in his spare time. During World War I, the North Carolina and Virginia Medical Schools had to merge due to the economy, so Lubchenko moved to Richmond, Virginia, and graduated in 1915.

Dr. Lubchenko’s Medical Career

Dr. Lubchenko served as a medical officer in the Merchant Marine on a transport ship in World War I and then started his medical practice in Newell, NC. He married a nurse from Cabarrus County, NC.

During the 1918-1919 Spanish Influenza Epidemic, Dr. Lubchenko made house calls from morning and into the night.

Dr. Lubchenko became a naturalized American citizen on April 2, 1923. He moved his family to Anson County, NC, but then they moved to Harrisburg and he resumed serving the people of eastern Mecklenburg County and western Cabarrus County.

He tried unsuccessfully to enlist in the US Army when World War II started, but age and the vital medical service he was rendering in the Harrisburg area prevented that. It is said that he stayed angry about that for a long time.

Dr. Lubchenko operated his medical practice out of his home in Harrisburg, NC, but the majority of his work was probably done through house calls. He practiced medicine in Harrisburg until his death in 1960.

Dr. Lubchenko, the Humanitarian

In a 1989 newspaper interview, one of the Lubchenkos’ daughters said he did not send bills to his patients. As stated in my book, “She quoted him as saying, ‘If they don’t want to pay, they won’t. If they do, they will, and if they want to pay and couldn’t, it would embarrass them.’” A 1944 ledger indicates that his usual charge for services was $3.00.

In addition to being a physician around the clock, 365 days a year, Dr. Lubchenko loved his adopted community and worked to make life better for the residents. Harrisburg was a small community of just 300 people in 1950, but Dr. Lubchenko wanted the best for the wider community.

He donated the land for and was the driving force in establishing the Harrisburg Volunteer Fire Department in 1954. It was the first volunteer fire department in Cabarrus County and served a wide area. For instance, we lived five miles from Harrisburg, but my father was a charter member of the fire department.

In 1955, Dr. Lubchenko helped organize a post of the Ground Observer Corps in Harrisburg. These were the days of the Cold War before radar was in place to detect enemy aircraft.

Reflections

As a child, I was scared of Dr. Lubchenko. I could not understand his heavy Russian accent and he was somewhat gruff. It was only as an adult, many years after his death, that I gained a true appreciation for him.

Although Harrisburg started growing rapidly a few years after Dr. Lubchenko’s death, it would be 30 years before the town had another doctor. His death left a great void in the wider Harrisburg community.

You can read all about Dr. Lubchenko, his medical practice, his house, the Harrisburg Volunteer Fire Department, the Ground Observer Corps, and many other aspects of local history in Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1. The book is available in paperback at Second Look Books in Harrisburg and in paperback and as an e-book from Amazon.com. (By the way, Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2 is also available.)

Hurricane Helene Update

As of Friday, 169 roads in North Carolina are still closed due to Hurricane Helene, including Interstate 40 near the Tennessee line. That count consists of 1 interstate, 11 US highways, 20 state highways, and 137 state roads. That’s a decrease of two roads over the report two weeks ago. More heavy rain, wind, and icy conditions hit over the weekend with more of the same predicted for midweek. Repairs are made slow under such conditions.

There has been some good news about I-40. It is thought that by March 1 one lane of I-40 in both directions will open. The speed limit will be 40 mph on that stretch just east of the TN-NC line. I have not read whether commercial vehicles will be allowed, but my hunch is that they won’t.

News about the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina is not good. The flooding and wind from Hurricane Helene last September caused 48 landslides in one 38-mile section of the parkway. There are no estimates for when those 38 miles will be completely rebuilt or if all of it can even be rebuilt. That section between Asheville and Linville will not reopen in 2025.

Until my next blog post

I believe most people want to see a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine, but I don’t want Ukraine to have to do all the compromising.

I hope you have a good book to read.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

25th Amendment Ratified, 1967

Is that date correct? Yes, it was 1967. Since this is the US Constitutional Amendment about presidential succession, it begs the question, “What procedure was in place before February 10, 1967?”

Prior to Enactment of the 25^th Amendment

Prior to the enactment of the 25^th Amendment, it was up to each presidential administration to set its own plan to deal with presidential and vice-presidential vacancies.

Yikes! Can you imagine that today?

It would be disastrous today and it was not good in 1841 when President William Harrison died in office. Harrison’s cabinet gave Vice President John Tyler the title “Vice President Acting President.” Tyler moved into the White House, assumed all presidential powers, and gave an inaugural address, all before being confirmed by Congress.

And we all know how in 1919 First Lady Edith Wilson and her husband’s doctor, Cary Grayson, banded together to keep President Woodrow Wilson’s massive stroke a secret.

After his mild stroke, President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote Vice President Richard M. Nixon a letter with instructions on what to do if he became incapacitated. He gave Nixon the authority to determine when and if that incapacity began.

Again, yikes! All that was needed was a power-hungry vice president put in charge of determining when the president should no longer serve!

Nixon did step in as acting president when Eisenhower had a heart attack in 1955 and in 1956 when he had surgery. Nixon was not sworn in as president either time.

Part of the time in our history, the Speaker of the House was considered to be next in line after the Vice President, while in other times in our history the President Pro Tempore of the Senate was considered to be next in line after the Vice President. It wasn’t always clear.

What brought things to a head

As you might guess, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 put more focus on presidential succession. What if Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson had also been severely wounded or killed that day?

There was no protocol in place to handle such a situation.

A Constitutional Amendment was needed

On January 1, 1965, joint resolutions were introduced in the House of Representatives and in the Senate recommending a succession amendment. Both chambers approved their versions by April.

A committee was created to iron out differences in the two bills, and the joint resolution was passed by Congress on July 6, 1965. It was sent to the states for ratification, and that requirement was met on February 10, 1967.

The 25^th Amendment was signed into law by President Johnson on February 23, 1967.

The text of the 25^th Amendment

In case you’ve never read it or want to refresh your memory, here is the text of the amendment:

Section 1

“In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2

“Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3

“Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4

“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

“Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.”

What the 25^th Amendment accomplished

Section 1 was already the law.

Section 2 of the 25^th Amendment finally addressed how a new Vice President would be chosen in the event the elected Vice President had stepped in as President.

Sections 3 and 4 of the amendment spell out the nitty-gritty of how a case of a President’s incapacitation shall be handled, including a time frame.

The Presidential Succession Act of 1947

The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 set the order in which elected officials and cabinet members would be in line for the presidency. It was decided that the cabinet members should be in the order in which their position was created. As new cabinet departments are created, they are added to the list. (And as existing federal departments are eliminated by Elon Musk… they will disappear from the list and from our lives.) There were just 11 cabinet departments in 1947 when The Presidential Succession Act was adopted.

This might be good for members of Congress to keep in mind when holding confirmation hearings for cabinet appointees.

The full order of presidential succession is as follows:

1. Vice President

2. Speak of the House

3. President Pro Tempore of the Senate

4. Secretary of State

5. Secretary of the Treasury

6. Secretary of Defense

7. Attorney General

8. Secretary of the Interior

9. Secretary of Agriculture

10. Secretary of Commerce

11. Secretary of Labor

12.Secretary of Health and Human Services

13. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

14. Secretary of Transportation

15. Secretary of Energy

16. Secretary of Education

17. Secretary of Veterans Affairs

18. Secretary of Homeland Security

Until my next blog post

Thank you for reading my blog. I hope you occasionally find it helpful, educational, or entertaining.

I hope you have a good book to read.

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

Janet

Books Read in January and Hurricane Helene Update

January turned out to be a good reading month for me, and I have much to report on Hurricane Helene recovery in western North Carolina. I’ll jump right in and tell you about some of the books I read.

The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon

My sister recommended that I read this historical novel. Finally, when it was chosen as the January read for the book club we’re in, I checked it out. I immediately fell in love with the way Ariel Lawhon writes.

The novel is set in Maine in the 1700s. The story switches from one decade to another, not necessarily in chronological order. That’s not my favorite way to read a story, but this one worked better for me than others I’ve read.

The story is inspired by Martha Ballard, a real-life midwife in Maine at that time. As Lawhon explains in her author’s notes at the back of the book, she did take creative license in some areas to make it a more manageable story. That said, the book is well-researched and in the author notes Lawhon explains why the book sometimes deviates from the facts. After all,… it is fiction!

The novel includes murder, rape, attempted rape, young love, vengeance, lying, under-handed business dealings, the unique lifestyle along a river that freezes over in winter, and the birth of numerous babies. There is conflict between Martha Ballard and a young, inexperienced physician who moves to the town. There are court cases, and there are judges of questionable character. There is a lot going on in this novel!

As an aspiring novelist, I plan to read The Frozen River again just to study how it is written.

I highly recommend The Frozen River to anyone who likes to read historical fiction set in 18^th century America.

The Lion Women of Tehran, by Marjan Kamali

This novel follows the friendship of two people through the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s against the backdrop of what was happening in Iran. Iran went from being under the rule of the Shah to being under the rule of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

For those of you who might not have lived through those three decades… It was under the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that women lost all their rights. The radical Islamic view that women are put on earth for one purpose – to wait on and obey men and bear their children – is what Iran has turned into. They are not to be seen. It wasn’t enough that they had to wear the hijab in public. As of a couple of weeks ago, windows in their homes through which it would be possible for a man to see them were outlawed. Let that sink in!

Back to the novel… In The Lion Women of Tehran, we see two young girls become friends although Ellie is from a privileged family and Homa is from a poor family. Ellie, in fact, defies her mother’s wishes that she not befriend someone from the poor part of town.

Ellie and Homa share their dreams of attending college and becoming professionals in a modern Iran. Homa even aspires to get a law degree and someday be a judge. This is a reasonable aspiration for a girl in Iran at that time. Girls are seeing women have jobs they\ had been excluded from until the somewhat enlightened time of the early 1960s.

The book follows the ups and downs of Ellie and Homa’s friendship and the challenges of the cultural and governmental restrictions on women and free speech.

Spoiler Alert: When the novel comes to an end, one of the two – women now – has escaped to the United States. The aspiring lawyer has been raped in prison for protesting injustice and she reaches out to her now-estranged friend in America to help her get her teenaged daughter out of Iran.

The Lion Women of Tehran had an especially chilling affect on me because I was reading during the first week of Trump’s second administration when we were witnessing what it looks like when a country’s leader daily pushes the limits of the power of the office he or she holds – even in a democracy.

This is the second novel I’ve read by Marjan Kamali. In October 2019, I read The Stationery Shop. (See my November 4, 2019 blog post, A New Favorite Novel? in which I told how impressed I was with Marjan Kamali’s writing.)

How to Stand Up to a Dictator, by Maria Reesa

Photo of the front cover of the book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future, by Maria Reesa — *How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future*, by Maria Reesa

I wish I could take credit for reading I Was Anastasia and How to Stand Up to a Dictator in the same month, but I was at the mercy of the waitlists at the public library. Sometimes things just fall into place through no effort of our own!

After hearing Maria Reesa interviewed on NPR and learning that she had written a book, I immediately got on the waitlist for it at the public library.

Maria Reesa is from The Philippines. She was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for her courageous work at a journalist.

In her book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator, Reesa writes from her own experience. She was arrested for reporting the truth – a truth that ex-President Rodrigo Duterte of The Philippines did not want people to know.

Meticulously written, the book points out how in many ways what happens in politics in The Philippines eventually happens in politics in the United States. That was a revelation for me, but the examples she gave painted a compelling picture.

Near the end of the book, Reesa gives the 10-Point Plan to Address the Information Crisis that she and fellow-2021 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Dmitry Muratov presented at the Freedom of Expression Conference, Nobel Peace Center, Oslo, Norway, on September 2, 2022.

In a nutshell, points 1-3 call on transparency and a consideration for human rights by tech companies, right to privacy of citizens to be beefed up, and public condemnation of attacks on journalists.

Points 4 through 9 are directed at the European Union, and point 10 calls on the United Nations to “Create a special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General focused on the Safety of Journalists (SESJ) who would challenge the current status quo and finally raise the cost of crimes against journalists.”

Reesa calls on young people to put their phones down and focus on the people they love. She writes, “You find meaning by choosing where to spend your precious time.” We can all benefit by taking that to heart. She told a high school audience that they can’t find meaning on social media.

She writes about how social media can easily be hijacked by individuals and elected officials with ill intent, and how misinformation spreads like wildfire while fact-checking and retractions never spread as quickly or easily as lies.

Reesa says if the rest of the world wants to know what unbridled social media will do to their country, all they need to do is look at what happened in The Philippines.

In 2012, Reesa cofounded a digital only news website in the Philippines called Rappler. Rappler has exposed corruption and manipulation in government and in technology companies.

She warns, “the Philippines is ground zero for the terrible effects that social media can have on a nation’s institutions, its culture, and the minds of its populace. Every development that happens in my country eventually happens in the rest of the world – if not tomorrow, then a year or two later.”

She goes on to say, “This book is my attempt to show you that the absence of rule of law in the virtual world is devastating.” She warns us, “Don’t become a Monster to Fight a Monster. Embrace Your Fear.”

Blogging for Authors, by Barb Drozdowich

Reading this book made me aware of some ways I’m falling down on the job when it comes to my blog. The author says that an author’s blog is “… by far the most important method of communicating with your readers.” She also says, “… you want readers to be able to Google the genre they read and find your site in a search.”

Since I write local history and historical fiction, there’s a slim-to-none chance someone will find my blog by typing either of those topics in a search engine. Just for fun, I tried.

I have tried to blog about historical events to convey my lifelong foundation in the study of history and my ability to do historical research. I’ve blogged about the craft of writing as I continue to learn more about it every day. I hope I’ve been successful, but now I might need to consider how to express how those things are converging in my effort to write my first historical novel. Stay tuned!

Hurricane Helene Update

As of Friday, 171 roads in North Carolina are still closed due to Hurricane Helene, including Interstate 40 near the Tennessee line, but that’s a decrease of 12 since the Friday before. That count consists of one interstate, 12 US, 19 state highways, and 139 state roads. There is no estimate for when the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina will be fully reopened.

WLOS in Asheville reported that the Biltmore Estate donated at least 40 hotel rooms of furniture to the Habitat for Humanity Restore to resell. All proceeds from items sold at a Habitat for Humanity Restore, of course, funds new home construction.

WLOS is also reporting a new partnership in Haywood County between Mountain Project and Habitat for Humanity as others to build 10 homes specifically for families impacted by Hurricane Helene.

Verizon has partnered with ForgiveCo, a public benefit corporation, to pay off $10 million in debts owed by 6,500 people in the 39 North Carolina counties impacted by Hurricane Helene. A Verizon spokesperson said the company thought they needed to do more than restore customers’ telephone service. The debt forgiveness recipients were randomly selected.

The newspaper in Boone, The Watauga Democrat, reported that NC Gov. Josh Stein announced a joint $30 million small business grant program with Dogwood Health Trust to support small businesses affected by Hurricane Helene.

Businesses with annual revenue up to $2.5 million are eligible for grants up to $50,000 from the Western North Carolina Small Business Initiative Grant Program. Dogwood Health Trust, a private foundation, created the Western North Carolina Small Business Initiative last fall in response to the Hurricane Helene disaster.

Businesses in the 28 counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians covered by President Biden’s federal disaster declaration or in Dogwood Health Trust’s 18-county footprint and that meet revenue requirements are eligible to apply for a grant.

Governor Stein announced that the State of North Carolina is awarding $3 million to Baptists on Mission and $3 million to Habitat for Humanity NC for their housing repair initiatives in the western part of the state.

Photo of a man using a power saw to cut a piece of lumber — Photo by Greyson Joralemon on Unsplash

The Boone newspaper reported stated: “In the wake of Helene, impacted businesses lost $13 billion in revenue. These grants will help businesses make payroll, pay operating expenses, and stabilize the local economy as tourism slowly ramps up again.”

The work of Brother Wolf Animal Rescue and The 21^st Century Packhorse Librarian continue and will appreciate your support for the foreseeable future.

It is said that no good deed goes unpunished. After doing what he thought was due diligence, Mr. Jarvis was scammed out of $77,000 he paid for a bulldozer in Texas. He wanted a larger bulldozer so he could help more people. A friend of his has set up a GiveSendGo fundraiser to help Mr. Jarvis replace the money he pulled out of savings for the bulldozer which never was delivered.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read. If you’re a fan of historical fiction, I highly recommend The Frozen River. If you are concerned about the role of social media in our world and particularly in our politics, I highly recommend How to Stand Up to a Dictator.

It has been a tough week since last Monday’s blog post. The airplane and helicopter collision in Washington, DC; the Medivac plane crash in Philadelphia; wildfires in some of the Hurricane Helene-ravaged parts of western North Carolina;….

Remember the people of Ukraine and all the places where people are suffering through no fault of their own.

Janet

One Decision Changed the Course of History

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

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

Statue of Liberty Photo by tom coe on Unsplash

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

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

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

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

Some reflections

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Decisions.

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

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

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

Hurricane Helene Update

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until my next blog post

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

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

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

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

Janet

Inauguration Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

Sometimes what I want to say in a blog post flows smoothly from my brain, through my fingers, and onto the keyboard. Other times, I struggle. I have struggled with today’s post. I have lost track of how many edits and rewrites I’ve done over the last couple of weeks.

Photo of a pair of hands typing on a laptop computer keyboard — Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash

Today’s post is a bit long, but please bear with me and read it to the end.

A blog isn’t a monologue. A blog is meant to be a conversation. It is a way for the blogger and the reader to connect.

Common Ground

You and I might not agree on some things. We might not agree on many things. I hope we agree on the most important things. When we disagree, I hope we can find that common ground.

I assume we all love our families, we want the next generation to have a happy and peaceful life, we want the best for all people, we want the best for whatever country we live in, we want a roof over our heads and enough food to keep us healthy, and we want to find and fulfill our purpose.

Photo of a blue metal cargo container with the words Common Ground printed on the side in white letters — Photo by Hill Country Camera on Unsplash

I assume we all want to know the truth. Lies being spread at lightning speed across the internet and social media platforms serve no constructive purpose. Lies told by either side of the political spectrum or by foreign entities undermine the common good and the very fabric of our society.

Hail to the Chief

I have watched every US Presidential Inauguration since 1961 except the one in 2017 and today’s. I was in the second grade when John F. Kennedy was inaugurated in 1961. Tim Jenkins’ mother brought a small black-and-white portable TV to our classroom so we could watch the festivities.

I was too young to grasp or understand President Kennedy’s speech, but I still remember being in awe to see Presidents Kennedy and Eisenhower wearing top hats! Those hats told my seven-year-old brain that I was seeing something very important take place. The images that day made a lasting impression on me!

In case you don’t know what a top hat is, here’s the best free image of one that I could find to include in my blog post. The statue has nothing to do with Presidents Eisenhower or Kennedy. It is merely to illustrate the top hats like they wore for the 1961 Presidential Inauguration.

Black-and-white photo of the statue of a man wearing a top hat — Photo by Remy Gieling on Unsplash

It’s time to have a difficult conversation.

The person I voted for didn’t always get elected, but I accepted the results of every election. I wasn’t afraid that any of those US Presidents would do irreparable damage to our democracy until the 2016 election.

I respect the Office of the United States President; however, I do not automatically respect the person who holds the office. Mr. Trump has shown us what he is.

I do not think a person who treats people with disrespect, who goes out of his way to spread untruths, who brags about sexually assaulting women, who has paid off a porn star with whom he had an affair, and who makes fun of disabled people should have been under consideration for US President.

I do not think a person who belittled John McCain’s more than five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam and said, “I like people who weren’t captured,” who tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election, who wants to be a dictator today (but “only for one day,” so he says), who admires and praises dictators, who said there were “good people on both sides” in Charlottesville should have been under consideration for US President.

I do not think a person who encouraged his supporters to go to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 to protest the verification of the November 2020 election, who sat idly by for hours before telling the rioters to go home, who was convicted of 34 felonies should have been under consideration for US President.

I do not think a person and who appears to base most decisions either on revenge or how he and his friends can benefit financially should have been under consideration for US President.

Photo of a scattered pile of various political party campaign buttons — Photo by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash

It grieves me that this is the best the Republican Party – “the party of family values” — could do, but it grieves me exponentially more that this is the best half the voters could do in November. They might be disappointed tomorrow when the price of eggs doesn’t plummet. That seemed to be what the majority of voters based their choice for US President on.

The most baffling part for me is that some Christians seem to believe that Donald Trump is almost the second coming of Christ. When I hear him talk and see his actions, I do not hear or see anything that remotely reflects the teachings of Jesus Christ.

I have tried to understand why anyone would vote for Donald Trump over a black woman who has seven years of experience as a District Attorney, has six years of experience as a state attorney general, has four years of experience as a US Senator, has four years of experience as US Vice-President, and speaks in complete sentences.

I’m left to assume that there were three qualities that she could not overcome: She is black, she is a woman, and she speaks in complete sentences. Her opponent has no such resume, although his companies have filed for bankruptcy six times.

Surely, that’s not it

I must have misread the American people. Surely, they did not vote for Donald Trump just because he is white, male, and rarely speaks in complete sentences. Surely, they voted for him in spite of his deeply flawed character. But why? I sincerely want to understand what happened in November.

I thought enough people would remember the chaos of 2017-2021 and not want that again. I thought enough people would want our country to take the high road and vote for decency. I thought enough people would conclude that democracy is more precious than the economy and that only by everyone having a shot at the proverbial American Dream can our economy thrive.

I was wrong. It all started to make more sense this weekend when I saw people more concerned over losing Tiktok than they are over the risk of losing our democracy.

Photo of a hand holding a cell phone. The Tiktok symbol is on the cell phone's screen. — Photo by Olivier Bergeron on Unsplash

A Glimpse at the future

Brace yourself for the Executive Orders and Congressional actions that will, no doubt, commence today. Pay attention! Stop saying, “I don’t watch the news because it’s too depressing.”

We were given some teasers yesterday about ten Executive Orders planned for issuance today. If you like pollution, you’ll be happy.

Are you aware of what happened on January 3, 2025? A bill (H.R. 191) was introduced in the House of Representatives to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. You can follow its progress and see who sponsored and co-sponsored it at https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/191/all-info.)

Just so you know… it was the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 that enabled Medicare to negotiate the price of drugs in an incremental way over the next years. Did you think in November that you were voting to repeal the law that capped the price of insulin for seniors at $35 per month?

And Virginia Foxx, the US Representative from North Carolina’s 5^th Congressional District, has been rewarded for being a staunch Trump supporter. She is the new Chair of the US House Rules Committee.

If you don’t know her by name, you’ll recognize her as the 81-year-old woman in many of Donald Trump’s photo ops. She’s the one who told a reporter to “Shut up!” when the reporter asked Representative Mike Johnson a question about the part he might have played in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

Virginia Foxx voted not to certify the 2020 election. She called the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepherd “a hoax.” Her spokesperson, Aaron Groer, said in 2009, “Virginia’s not here to become a Washington insider or part of the good ol’ boy network,” but apparently in 2025 she’s been accepted.

The House Rules Committee used to be known as “the Speaker’s Committee” because for a long time the Speaker of the House served as its chair. It is the House Rules Committee that controls which bills reach the chamber floor for consideration.

Nine of its members are from the majority party and four are from the minority party. It seems like the deck is stacked against whichever party is in the minority

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

It is unfortunate that this Inauguration Day coincides with the official Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday. Nothing should overshadow the accomplishments of Dr. King today. His life and values are in stark contrast with those of the man being inaugurated as the US President today.

Photo of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

Dr. King preached and worked for societal change and reform through non-violent means, while the man being inaugurated today encouraged rioters on January 6, 2021, and continues to encourage division and violence through his rhetoric.

Until my next blog post and thereafter

I know you might decide that you can no longer follow my blog due to today’s post. I’ll hate to see you go, but please understand that I feel strongly about the fragility of our democracy, and I believe that God expects me to use my platform – small as it is – to speak out. My parents taught me through their words and their example “to stand on my own two feet.”

I have ancestors who fought in the American Revolutionary War. I owe it to them and to my great-nieces and their future children to stand up for our democracy.

I will continue to pray that our democracy will be recognizable in 2029 and beyond. For the sakes of my future great-great-nieces and great-great-nephews, I pray that my gut inclinations turn out to be very, very wrong.

You know where I stand. It’s your turn, if you want to join in this difficult conversation. Let’s see what conclusions we can draw together.

Support investigative journalists. True journalists are not the enemy of the people even though Donald Trump has called them that. True journalists stand in the gap between politicians and citizens.

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

Janet

What I read in December 2024

After not reading a single book in its entirety in November, I hit the ground running in December. Last month I read a variety of genres and book lengths.

The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust, by Francis S. Collins

To refresh your memory, Dr. Francis S. Collins is a geneticist who has discovered genes that cause various genetic diseases. He was Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2009 until 2021. Prior to that, he headed the NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute.

I had the good fortune to hear Dr. Francis S. Collins speak at Queens University of Charlotte years ago. He was a captivating and down-to-earth speaker. He spoke about how the more he learned about science, the more he believed that God created all things.

It is a point he repeats in this book. He says that there are just too many facets of nature that were created with a degree of precision that could not have happened by chance. Knowing that about him, I eagerly awaited the book to be ordered by the public library.

In the book, he addresses truth, science, faith, and trust individually and how each one contributes to the others and to wisdom. He is concerned about the public’s growing mistrust of science and how scientists and physicians such as Dr. Fauci have become scapegoats for science deniers and far too many politicians.

I highly recommend this book!

“The Answer is No,” a short story by Fredrik Backman

This short story by the author of A Man Called Ove, is in somewhat the same vein as that novel. The main character in “The Answer is No,” just tries to have a quiet day with no contact with other human beings. He experiences one interruption after another and discovers that saying “No” is futile. He gets pulled/pushed into one neighborhood problem after another. You find yourself simultaneously laughing and feeling sorry for him.

Incidentally, the book is free to read through Kindle Unlimited and $1.99 to purchase for Kindle.

Framed, by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey

This latest book by John Grisham along with Jim McCloskey will tempt you to lose all your faith in our judicial system – from corrupt police officers to corrupt lawyers to corrupt judges… one comes away from this nonfiction book of case after case where justice was miscarried.

John Grisham and Jim McCloskey take turns writing the chapters in this book. Each chapter is about a different true example of how corrupt people on various levels have miscarried justice on purpose.

It is a sobering book. The doom and gloom of each chapter had a cumulative effect on me. I recommend you read it, but it is not a pleasant read.

“Bangkok Has Him Now: How Would You Escape?” by Emma Dhesi

“Bangkok Has Him Now: A Short Story,” by Emma Dhesi

This is a short story – a thriller short story – by a Scottish author, Emma Dhesi. I have been fortunate to watch and listen to several online writing workshops conducted by Emma Dhesi. Reading this fast-paced thriller short story was the first time I took the opportunity to read something she wrote and published. It grabbed me by the throat from the beginning and held my interest throughout.

Hurricane Helene Update

As of Friday, 184 roads in NC, including a portion of I-40 near the Tennessee line, remained closed due to the damage wreaked by Hurricane Helene. Snow has now been added to the equation and will be a given for much of the next two-to-three months.

Most of the Blue Ridge Parkway remains closed, with no estimate of when it will be fully reopened.

All the people living in temporary housing – in RVs, campers, FEMA trailers, etc. and those still waiting for repairs to the houses they’re still living in are feeling the brunt of the winter cold.

I haven’t mentioned Jake Jarvis of Precision Grading in a few weeks, but that man has hardly missed a single day since September 25 in his one-man effort to help as many people in western North Carolina as possible. He is not charging for his time or materials and he is, no doubt, wearing out his equipment.

I follow Precision Grading on Facebook. The photographs of some of the places he has taken his heavy equipment are astounding. He appears to do all this with a wonderful attitude. Thursday night he posted that it was Day 104 post Helene. That day he had cut a new driveway for a woman in Bat Cave, NC who had only had access through a neighbor’s property until then. Her driveway had been cut in half by landslides and volunteers trying to help her had been scared off by the 100-foot drop off. Jake was able to cut a new driveway for her, so she can now safely access her own home more than three months after the storm. This is just one example of the work Jake has doing. If you wish to donate to help him cover the cost of materials, fuel, and equipment maintenance, his address is Precision Grading, 99 Polaris Drive, Saluda, NC 28773.

The work of Brother Wolf Animal Rescue and The 21^st Century Packhorse Librarian continue and will appreciate your support for the foreseeable future. You can search for them and Precision Grading online for more information.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read.

As western North Carolina and other areas continue to recover from Hurricane Helene, our hearts hurt for the people affected by the wildfires in California. We know recovery will take years and their lives will never be the same. Life is fragile. Everything we know can change in the blink of an eye.

Take care of each other.

Remember the people of Ukraine, too.

Janet

#OnThisDay: 4th Anniversary of the Attempted Coup

What happened in Washington, DC four years ago today is too important for me to overlook for this blog.

Just like September 11, 2001 is forever etched in my mind, so too is January 6, 2021. There are some things you just cannot unsee.

On September 11, 2001 I stood in front of my TV in horror as I watched the second plane crash into the World Trade Center. On January 6, 2021 I stood (yes, stood!) in front of my TV in horror as I watched insurrectionists storm the US Capitol at the encouragement of Donald Trump.

Until 2021, the meeting of the US Congress to certify the electoral votes in the recent presidential election was a mundane, rubber-stamp kind of meeting. Most citizens weren’t even aware that such a meeting took place. It usually received no more than a brief mention on TV news broadcasts.

Until 2021.

I will never forget the images of the rioters storming the US Capitol, bashing in windows, attacking police officers, calling for the hanging of Vice President Mike Pence, breaking into offices to break and steal whatever they could, and eventually breaking into the chambers of the House of Representatives to pillage.

All that at the invitation and encouragement of a sitting US president who could not accept defeat at the ballot box and refused for several hours to call for the rioters to stop.

What a disgrace!

I fully expect the certifying of the 2024 presidential election results to go smoothly and peacefully today. Joe Biden won in 2020. It is a sad truth that Donald Trump won in 2024. I accept the 2024 election results, although my heart cannot accept the fact that half the country wanted a man with such a void of moral character to once again occupy the White House.

Hurricane Helene Update:

Three months ago, I naively thought as time passed my Hurricane Helene Updates in my weekly blog posts would decrease in length. I knew recovery would take years, but I misjudged how many stories of recovery I would continue to read about and want to share with you.

Some updates are daunting, but others shine a light on the undaunted spirit of humanity. In 2025, I will continue to share with you not only how our government agencies but also individual human beings rise to the occasion in the aftermath of disasters.

Today is the 147^th anniversary of the birth of American poet Carl Sandburg, so I’ll take this opportunity to catch you up on what happened to the grounds at his home in Flat Rock, NC during Hurricane Helene in September. The Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site is closed indefinitely except for a hiking trail which reopened on December 23. The trail from the main parking lot to the home sustained severe erosion and damage during the storm. It is my understanding that the house itself is okay, but it will remain closed until the park’s main sewer line and other infrastructure repairs and rebuilding can take place. There is no estimated reopening date for the home. The site averages 150,000 visitors annually.

From a post I saw on Facebook on Thursday: “Boone, NC officials have confirmed that 62 members of the Pennsylvania Amish community have completed the construction of 12 tiny homes in western North Carolina in under 48 hours. The total cost of the project was over $300,000, all of which was donated by the Amish community.” It snowed in Boone on Friday, and much of the mountainous part of NC was under a winter storm warning yesterday and all day today. All this week will be very cold.

As of December 25, Brother Wolf Animal Rescue https://www.bwar.org/had moved into its temporary location, and as of December 30 the 501(c)3 organization which has save more than 100,000 animals since 2007, had raised 91% of the $1.5 million it hoped to raise by the end of 2024 to fund the first phase of rebuilding its facility in a new location in Asheville. Its old facility was completely wiped out in the September flood.

The 21^st Century Packhorse Librarian reported the following for the last three months of 2024: 738 brand new books were donated from the Amazon wish list and “thousands upon thousands” of gently-used books were donated and distributed to the homes that needed them most. The work continues! https://981theriver.com/news/228822-woman-brings-free-books-to-appalachia-as-modern-packhorse-librarian/

As of Friday, 185 roads in NC, including a portion of I-40 near the Tennessee line, remained closed due to the damage wreaked by Hurricane Helene.

Most of the Blue Ridge Parkway remains closed, with no estimate of when it will be fully reopened.

Three inches of rain in parts of the mountains last week caused additional flooding and the washing away of several temporary bridges.

The NC Department of Transportation will use a federal grant to launch a pilot program to strategically place “drones-in-a-box” in preparation for future natural disasters. The drones will be remotely launched after a storm to assess damages and to deliver such emergency supplies as insulin. The program will begin in Lumberton, NC, which is in the eastern part of the state and prone to flooding from Atlantic hurricanes.

Until my next blog post

If you visited my blog today expecting to find out which books I read in December, please come back next week for that information.

I hope you have a good book to read.

Hold your family close.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

A Look Back at 2024 & a Hurricane Helene Update

The year 2024 has been a difficult one for many people. It has been stressful for most of us, but I’m better off than a lot of people. Here’s a brief review of 2024 from my viewpoint in North Carolina.

Travel: My sister and I took advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic being over and vaccines continuing to be available – along with relatively good health – and we took trips to Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Cherokee in the western part of NC as well as a long-anticipated return trip to the Outer Banks of NC in the early part of the summer.

Welcome Sign at Great Smoky Mountains National Park

#BlackBears in #GSMNP — Black Bear, perhaps two years old, photographed in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Elk, photographed in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Welcome sign at Cape Hatteras National Seashore

We visited Boone and the campus of our alma mater, Appalachian State University, just two weeks before much of western NC was ravaged by Hurricane Helene. We continue to count our blessings that we did our traveling in the months and weeks before the hurricane.

A view of Rich Mountain from the Appalachian State University campus

Hurricane Helene: September brought a “perfect storm” of days of heavy rain followed by Hurricane Helene to western North Carolina. It is the most destructive storm to hit the state in recorded history. The statistics and photographs are impossible to get one’s head around.

Of the 1,329 roads that were closed due to the flooding and landslides on September 25-26, 183 of them remain closed as of Friday, including Interstate 40 near the border with Tennessee.

I saw a video made on Wednesday of several miles of US-19 in Ramseytown, NC. You can’t even tell there was ever a road there, and it is unimaginable that the little Cane River running alongside it is capable of rising so high and doing so much damage.

Last week, 10,000 tulip bulbs were delivered to Swannanoa, NC – a gift from the head of a bulb company in The Netherlands. Next April, Swannanoa will look quite different than it has since September 25^th!

A hint of what to expect in Swannanoa next spring! Photo by Krystina Rogers on Unsplash

People from all over the US and world have pulled together to help western NC begin to recover from the September storm. I’ve tried to highlight examples in my weekly blog posts. I’m not equipped to show the full picture. I’ve merely tried to keep a light shining on the situation as it disappears from the news headlines.

US Presidential Election: We survived a US Presidential campaign that seemed to last for a decade. Now we’ll get to see if our democracy and our country’s long-standing ties with other countries will survive the results.

Award for my local history books: I received The North Carolina Society of Historians Journalism Award of Excellence for Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 and Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2 in November.

My Writing: I’ve made a lot of progress over the last couple of months on my devotional book, I Need The Light: 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through the Cold Months. Work continues on my historical novel with the working title The Heirloom. Stay tuned!

If you haven’t subscribed to my e-newsletter yet, please click on the “Subscribe” button on my website: https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com. You’ll receive a free downloadable copy of my historical short story, “Slip Sliding Away” and my e-newsletters.

In November I changed my newsletter from a several-page every-other-month format to a short weekly email.

Social Media: Technology is still pulling me into the 21^st century, but I’m kicking and screaming. My new endeavor this year was Instagram. I try to share quotes I like (many of them from books I’ve read), information about my website and blog, as well as publicity for my books. I’m trying not to not come across too salesy.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read.

I hope you’ve had an enjoyable holiday season so far.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina where it is mighty cold for the next several months.

Happy New Year!

Janet

Merry Christmas & a Hurricane Helene Update

In all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, my prayer is that each of us will make room in our hearts for the Christ Child and other innocent refugee children just looking for a safe place to lay their heads.

Photo of the front double doors of Rocky River Presbyterian Church in Cabarrus County, North Carolina — Entrance to the 163-year-old sanctuary of Rocky River Presbyterian Church in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, December 22, 2024

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season no matter what your religion is!

Photo of Chrismon Tree inside the sanctuary at Rocky River Presbyterian Church — Chrismon Tree at Rocky River Presbyterian Church, December 22, 2024

A Hurricane Helene Update

Eighty-eight days after the storm hit western NC…

Roads: Interstate 40 is still closed near the TN line. Last week an additional part of the eastbound lanes collapsed due to a slide caused by wet conditions, freezing, and thawing. This is in an area prone to landslides ever since the interstate was built in 1966, but the washout in September was unprecedented.

Contractors have been working to open a seven-mile stretch of the westbound lanes of the interstate for two-way traffic and had hoped for that to happen the first week in January. Last week’s slide will delay that for a yet-to-be-determine amount of time.

The bridge on US-70 between Swannanoa and Asheville was completed last week, which was a quicker rebuild than had been expected.

As of Friday, of the 1,329 roads that were closed in September due to Hurricane Helene, 184 remain closed.

Blue Ridge Parkway: There is still no estimated date for all the parkway in NC to be reopened.

Housing: Statistics on housing are much harder to find than information from the NC Department of Transportation. From what I can gather – and this isn’t very reliable information – 5,000 families have opted to take FEMA funds to pay for hotel rooms and perhaps rental property. I cannot find a number for how many families and individuals opted for FEMA trailers, nor can I find records of how many people have been housed in tiny homes constructed by the Amish and other volunteers. There are lots of moving parts to this part of the recovery. Due to the terrain, many former homesites cannot safely accommodate a FEMA trailer.

Working in conjunction with BeLoved Asheville (https://www.belovedasheville.com/), Lowe’s Home Improvement, a dozen or so homebuilders (putting together some 400 volunteers), and NASCAR teams are working together to make tiny homes available for displaced residents. Lowe’s supplies the materials, the homebuilders supply the labor, and NASCAR teams furnish their haulers to deliver the tiny houses. The report I read indicated that 100 tiny houses have been/will soon be distributed in western NC by this particular effort.

Retail: The Walmart Supercenter in Boone partially reopened on Friday. The produce, meat, and bakery departments are still being closed. I mention that just as an example of how long recovery is taking even for huge businesses. Imagine how much longer it will take for many small businesses to recover… if they ever do.

Until my next blog post

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

Don’t take friends and family for granted.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

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