I write southern historical fiction, local history, and I've written a devotional book. The two novels I'm writing are set in Virginia and the Carolinas in the 1760s. My weekly blog started out to follow my journey as a writer and a reader, but in 2025 it has been greatly expanded to include current events and politics in the United States as I see our democracy under attack from within. The political science major in me cannot sit idly by and remain silent.
When the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) bends a knee to Donald Trump, we should all sit up and take notice.
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It came to my attention this afternoon that BBC Radio 4 censored a sentence out of a Reith Lectures presentation by Rutger Bregman. The BBC invited Mr. Bregman to give a series of lectures in the highly-touted Reith Lectures. The Reith Lectures have a 77-year history and have been known for being champions of free expression.
“John Reith maintained that broadcasting should be a public service which enriches the intellectual and cultural life of the nation. It is in this spirit that the BBC each year invites a leading figure to deliver a series of lectures on radio. The aim is to advance public understanding and debate about significant issues of contemporary interest.”
Writer and historian Rutger Bregman was invited to deliver a series of four lectures for the 2025 Reith Lectures in London, Liverpool, Edinburgh, and the United States. Under the umbrella theme of Moral Revolution, his four lectures were “A Time of Monsters,” “How To Start a Moral Revolution,” “A Conspiracy of Decency,” and “Fighting for Humanity in the Age of the Machine.”
On November 25, 2025, Mr. Bregman (@rutgerbregman) posted on Instagram his shock that BBC Radio 4 removed a sentence from the broadcast of a lecture he delivered a month ago.
I quote from @rutgerbregman on Instagram
Mr. Bregman wrote on @rutgerbregman on Instagram: “The BBC has decided to censor the opening lecture of a series they invited me to deliver. They removed the sentence in which I describe Donald Trump as ‘the most openly corrupt president in American history.’
“This line was taken out of a lecture they commissioned, reviewed through the full editorial process, and recorded four weeks ago in front of 500 people in the BBC Radio Theatre.
“I was told the decision came from the highest levels within the BBC.
“This has happened against my wishes, and I’m deeply troubled by it. Not because people can’t disagree with my words, but because self-censorship driven by fear (Trump is threatening to sue the BBC) should concern all of us.
“This isn’t about left or right. It’s about the health of our democratic institutions. For decades the Reith Lectures have been one of the BBC’s most important platforms for open debate and free expression. That’s why this really matters.
“In this video, I explain what happened, why it’s important, and why we should remain calm but clear-eyed about the pressures facing our public institutions.
“I share this with respect for the many excellent journalists at the BBC. And with the hope that transparency helps strengthen, not weaken, our democratic culture.”
In Mr. Bregman’s Instagram video clip
In Mr. Bregman’s video on Instagram, he explains that the irony is that the title of his lecture was “A Time of Monsters.” The lecture was about the cowardice of today’s elites and elitist institutions – “bending the knee to authoritarianism.”
In the video on Instagram, Bregman said, “They deleted the sentence in which I said, ‘Donald Trump is the most openly corrupt president in American history.’”
He said, “It was a defensible and plausible statement. It’s well known that Donald Trump and his family are personally profiting from the presidency to a degree we haven’t seen before. According to a major investigation in The New Yorker published last August, the total gain, the personal gains, already exceed roughly $3.5 billion from real estate deals to meme coins.”
Mr. Bregman went on to say that this isn’t about him – “It’s about something much bigger. When institutions start censoring themselves, because they’re scared of those in power, that is the moment we all need to pay attention. Democracies don’t collapse overnight. They gradually erode in acts of fear. Let’s not be afraid to name what’s happening, and let’s not be afraid to tell the truth.”
In closing
I couldn’t have said it better myself, so I’ll just leave it for you to draw your own conclusions about the state of the world.
I wish my fellow Americans a Happy Thanksgiving Day tomorrow.
I have followed John Pavlovitz’s blog for years. He is a pastor whose church left him. Notice my phrasing. In these times of evangelicals blurring the lines between church and state and morphing into what resembles a political party, Mr. Pavlovitz found himself out of step with his congregation.
Mr. Pavlovitz now writes on Substack. Like me, he is worried about the state of things in America and is baffled over how people who profess to be Christians think all the chaos, name-calling, lying, and destruction of our democracy that have taken place since January 20 are just fine. They say they would vote for it again, if given the opportunity.
On April 25, Mr. Pavlovitz wrote an excellent piece on Substack titled, “Do You Miss Who You Were Before All This? I Do.” Reading that article prompted me to write today’s blog post.
I wanted to address this on April 26 or April 28, 29, or 30, or May 1, 2, or 6, but I had already started writing my posts for those days. I was just trying to keep up with all the craziness going on in the US Government, so I had to plug today’s topic into my first available day… Friday, May 9.
Mr. Pavlovitz wrote eloquently in his April 25 piece about how he misses his former self. He realizes he has been dealing with the growing intolerance for others in our society and in our world for a decade now.
He misses his former self who laughed more easily, who naively thought most people around him had the same worldview, who more easily gave people the benefit of the doubt than he does today.
I can identify with everything he said, and I miss my former self. In fact, I miss the person I was before November 5, 2024.
The me I was before the election was a hopeful me. That me thought that surely there were enough good people in America that Donald Trump would not be reelected.
As the election results came in on the night of November 5, I realized how I had misjudged my fellow Americans.
The night that Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in November 2016 was a huge disappointment.
The night Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris was a gut punch.
In the ensuing weeks, I tried to convince myself that even though the next four years would be bad, we would weather the storm. America was strong. Ultimately, good would prevail.
Then Inauguration Day came and whiplash set in. The Project 2025 playbook we had been warned about, was put into place at warp speed.
I have lost some things, like my sense of humor, joy to greet each new day, anticipating that day will be a good one.
But I have learned a lot about myself.
I have learned that I can speak up for democracy when it is no longer a safe thing to do.
I can speak out against injustice.
Photo by Juliana Romão on Unsplash
I can put myself out there on the internet with my blog and say things that I know some people won’t like. Some of those people are my friends, relatives, and fellow church members.
I have found what I am willing to fight for. It was easy to be patriotic my first 72 years. It is not so easy now to be patriotic in America if you love democracy. The MAGA people have blurred the meaning of patriotism. In their eyes, if you don’t blindly and angrily support Trump, you are not patriotic. It is not so easy when you know that speaking up against the United States President can land you in harm’s way.
The MAGA people have blurred what it means to be a Christian. They seem to have a convoluted belief that God favors America and God wants America to be rich and turn its back on poor people here at home and around the world. They seem to believe that God wants America to wield such a fierce and powerful military that the rest of the world will cower in fear. The fact that they conflate that worldview with believing in Jesus Christ just doesn’t add up in my mind.
Coming to grips with this new Christian Nationalism movement is the most frightening part of our current situation in the United States. So many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ appear to have lost sight of his teachings. Instead of clinging to “Love thy neighbor,” they cling to “An eye for an eye.” Or, at best, they only consider people who are just like they are as their neighbors.
I am momentarily encouraged when I hear things like a US District Court for the District of Columbia granting a temporary restraining order to block Trump’s dismantling of the Institute of Museums and Library Services.
I am momentarily encouraged when I hear that the Voice of America shutdown is moving its way through the court system.
I am temporarily encouraged when I hear that there was enough public outcry and pressure put on by a journalist that the Guatemalan woman who was eight months pregnant and walked through an Arizona desert for two days with just one bottle of water is going to get a chance to tell a judge why she sought safety in the United States because she was scared to remain in Guatemala. If not for the press, though, she would have been deported as soon as her baby was born.
I cringe when Trump says the press is “the enemy of the people.”
It should not take a judge or a reporter to stop the injustices. The injustices should not be happening, but they are happening in such numbers and with such rapidity that there’s no way for the judiciary or the press to catch them all.
When I ask, “How are you?” please don’t say, “Fine.” If you are truly “Fine” right now in America, you’re obviously not paying attention.
Until my next blog post
I hope you have a nice, relaxing weekend.
I hope you have a good book to read.
Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.
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 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 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.
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 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 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 5th 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.
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.
Before I address today’s topic, I need to apologize for an error I made in my January 15, 2024 blog post. I stated that Dr. Gregory Davis was the first African-American president of Central Piedmont Community College. That, of course, is not true! What I meant to write and thought I wrote was that he was the first African-American student body president at Central Piedmont Community College. My eagle-eyed sister, Marie, found the mistake and brought it to my attention. I have corrected that post, but I wanted to make sure those of you who read the original post knew about the error.
Points of View
Before I launch into Roe v. Wade, I will share two quotes I happened upon last night while reading a blog post about how to write a novel with multiple points of view. I had already written today’s post and scheduled it. It was worth opening it up to add these quotes. Although they were intended to help me be a better writer of fiction, they dovetailed nicely with the true theme of today’s post — which isn’t abortion. Abortion is just an example of the issues over which U.S. citizens are deeply divided.
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” ~ attributed to Harper Lee.
“If there is one secret to success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view.” ~ attributed to Henry Ford.
Fasten your seatbelts. I’m getting ready to step on some toes.
Roe v. Wade
It was on this date in 1973 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the case of Roe v. Wade. It was believed by the Court then that a woman had a constitutional right to obtain an abortion as a protected right of privacy.
In summary, the lengthy Roe v. Wade written decision ruled that in the first trimester a woman had the right to get an abortion and the right to seek advice from her doctor. In the second trimester, the law could impose reasonable restrictions related to the woman’s health. In the third trimester, when the fetus is recognizable as a human being and not completely dependent upon the mother for life, the law had considerable authority to regulate abortion.
Overturning the Roe v. Wade decision became a goal of the Republican Party in 1980. That goal was achieved on June 24, 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court published their six to three decision to reverse the 1973 ruling.
That reversal left each of the 50 states to adopt laws regarding abortion and left women in many of those states once again being relegated to the pre-1973 back- alley abortions in unsanitary conditions that put their future fertility and very lives at risk.
Sadly, some of the new state laws have forced women to continue to carry a dead fetus because the medical procedure necessary to deliver the dead fetus is now illegal. Whether that was a conscious decision made by legislators or due to their ignorance probably varies from state-to-state. There was a case of that in my own family in the 1950s, and the trauma of that experience is still talked about.
It baffles me that “the party of family values” / “the party of ‘Let’s get the government out of the bedroom’” thinks treating American citizens like this in 2024 is just fine and dandy.
A hijacked segment of Christians and a hijacked political party?
It has always baffled me that people who most-adamantly say they are pro-life because they are Christians are against all government programs designed to make sure those babies have sufficient food and basic healthcare once they are born. I think they should more accurately say they are anti-abortion instead of saying they are pro-life.
The Jesus I follow is all about His followers taking care of the poor and downtrodden. The Jesus I follow is all about forgiveness and compassion. The Jesus I follow is all about loving your neighbor as you love yourself.
I don’t see any of that in the people who wear the MAGA caps, so maybe it’s time for the Christians who support the hatred spewed by that segment of today’s Republican Party to be honest with us and with themselves. It appears from the outside that they have lost sight of Jesus in their zeal to crush anyone who gets in their idol’s way.
I don’t understand why they think it is acceptable to be a racist, misogynist, or a xenophobe and would support a politician who proudly falls into all three of those categories. Jesus is certainly none of those things.
There is something very wrong today if Democrats don’t think Republicans can be Christians and Republicans don’t think Democrats can be Christians.
I miss the America of my younger days when most people did not know and did not care about another person’s political affiliation because most people understood that our democracy thrives when we have choices and two imperfect but relatively healthy political parties.
I miss the America of my younger days when in polite society in the United States you did not talk about religion or politics to a stranger, much less threaten to kill another person if they dared to hold opinions that differed from yours.
I miss the America of my younger days when you could have a civil conversation with a friend or relative with whom you disagreed about politics.
I miss the America of my younger days when I did not realize how very fragile democracy is.
My intentions for my blog
I did not set out to use my blog as a political platform; however, I have been blogging for more than a decade and I think God expects me to use my blog and my freedom of speech — which I will have at least until noon on January 20, 2025, when I just might lose all my rights.
Since my last blog post
I have struggled more than ever before with the writing of a blog post because I know some of the toes I’m stepping on are the toes of some close friends and relatives.
The topic of today’s blog post is complex. There are no easy answers, so I pray that both sides on the issue will try to keep their minds open to differing views and scientific facts as they wrestle with the matter.
The overturning of Roe v. Wade is, no doubt, not the last word on this issue. If we are a democracy after January 20, 2025, this matter will continue to be debated in the United States. I just hope it is debated with more compassion and open-mindedness than it was over the last 51 years. I hope people will stop hating the people whose beliefs on this subject and anything else do not match theirs.
Until my next blog post
I hope you have access to the medical attention you need.
I hope you have a good book to read.
I hope you pay close attention to politics on all levels and practice your responsibility to vote, if you have that right.
I hope you and I will continue to be friends, and in the Presbyterian way, “Agree to disagree agreeably.”
Remember the people of Ukraine during their miserable winter and how cherished freedoms can disappear in the blink of an eye.
Janet's Writing Blog 