The Immigrants 

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I had planned on a more frivolous entry for today, but Monday I read Barbara Shelley’s commentary on The Missouri Independent website and I think it is far more important than anything I could offer.  She was an respected reporter with the Kansas City Star in my reporting days and remains a respected observer of our times. In this entry, she puts human faces onto the victims of President Trump’s vicious immigration policies that show no concern for who is hurt by them—people or our nation.

Once in America, immigration was a sign of our greatness, of our country’s promise, and our ancestors (yours and mine) came here to seek it. Now those people are villainized with lies from our President.

It is heart-breaking for one who memorized in his school days Thomas Wolfe’s Promise of America to read Barbara’s description of what President Trump has brutally cancelled in our national character. Perhaps you memorized it, too:

” So, then, to every man his chance—to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining, golden opportunity—to every man the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him — this, seeker, is the promise of America.”

Here’s her commentary about the crushing of that promise:

Friends and family arrived bearing flowers. Smiling volunteers pointed the way to seats.

Everyone loves a naturalization ceremony. I attended one recently at a branch of the Kansas City Public Library and watched 71 new American citizens swear allegiance to the Constitution of the United States. Even more immigrants had taken the oath earlier in the day.

“This room is full of the most brilliant minds that the world knows,” Wasim Khan, a cultural leader, told the group. “You guys are the teachers. You know what it takes to be here.”

After the ceremony, as League of Women Voters volunteers swooped in to invite the new citizens to register, I asked a few people how long they have been in America.

Eight years, 12 years, too many years to count.

Naturalized citizenship is a long, expensive process and everyone who achieves it does so through a combination of grit and good fortune.

I’ve attended several of these ceremonies over the years to cheer on people I’ve had the privilege to know.

One was a piano teacher who came here from Kyrgyzstan to study at American universities. Several others arrived as refugees. They overcame language barriers and all the hardships of poverty to arrive at their naturalization ceremonies as educated, hardworking contributors to their communities.

The recent ceremony was no different from others I’ve witnessed, but I couldn’t summon the usual measure of joy.

Rather, I kept wondering what a naturalization ceremony will look like once the xenophobic policies of the Trump administration have been fully brought to bear.

Last year, I signed up to participate on a team that would sponsor a refugee family, in cooperation with a resettlement agency. I told myself that it would be a satisfying act of resistance in case Donald J. Trump won the presidency.

Along with others, I welcomed a family of eight at Kansas City’s airport on a snowy evening 12 days before Trump’s inauguration. They were exhausted and one person was ill but they were here and we were ready to introduce them to America.

We had no idea how difficult that was going to be.

Within a week of taking office, Trump had slammed the door to new refugee admissions and cut off funding for the families who had recently arrived.

The resettlement community had anticipated the first move. It was gobsmacked by the second. With an executive order, Trump wiped out money that was supposed to pay for rent and utilities, medical screenings and other services for hundreds of people who had entered the United States legally in the last 90 days.

Agencies went into emergency fundraising mode, but Trump’s action was crippling. The agency I volunteer for lost nearly $1 million of federal money it had counted on. Part of that amount was already spent in rent deposits and other costs.

It’s nearly impossible to cover a gap like that through donations. Within weeks two agencies in Kansas City laid off close to half their staffs. A smaller nonprofit laid off its entire refugee services staff. A mid-Missouri agency shut down its resettlement program.

My role in the resistance now includes scanning job ads for something that might work for adults who speak only a little English and will have to ride to work on the bus. I’ve become familiar with the difficulties of booking an appointment at the local Social Security office — and good luck once Elon Musk gets through with that program.

The family that my team works with was routed from their ancestral home and spent years in limbo in a neighboring country. The adults are fully aware that the leader of the United States does not want them here.

Their status is legal, but they are afraid. They grieve family members left behind in a refugee camp, clinging to hopes of a reunion that may not happen in this lifetime.

In my head, I construct sentences that begin with “at least.”

At least they aren’t here on humanitarian parole status — a category of immigrants more endangered than refugees.

At least they have a place to stay, a small rental house in a hollowed-out part of Kansas City. A recent New York Times story reported on newly arrived refugees in St. Louis languishing in motels on highway interchanges because the resettlement agency there was unable to pay apartment leases.

At least members of my family have friends. Immigrants from their home country have sought them out and embraced them.

The situation could always be worse. But it is bad enough.

Refugee resettlement is a way of participating in the global good. Therefore, it is not a priority in Trump’s “America First” agenda.

The immigrants whom I witnessed as they became naturalized citizens last month represented 36 nations, including some of the most troubled, like Haiti, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

They had cleared a high bar to get to the ceremony. All of them passed a civics test that most Americans would find daunting. They were deemed to be of “good moral character,” a standard that we don’t necessarily demand from our nation’s leaders.

Congratulations to the new Americans. May we always find a path for them.

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Or, may we rediscover the greatness that provided a path for them and have the courage to admit the disgrace we have allowed our President to bring to the Promise of America.

Sports:  Two New Seasons; Robin Finds a New Roost; and Another Porter Comes Home

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BASEBALL)—-The Cardinals and the Royals games count for something now.  The Cardinals, a team with low expectations by their fans, swept the season-opening series.  The Royals, whose fans expect a World Series contender this year, stumbled  and lost two out of three to start their official year.

(ST. LOUIS)—The Cardinals polished off the Twins Sunday 9-1 With Victor Scott clubbing a three-run home run, Padro Pages doing the same thing and Nolan Gorman ripped one that traveled 409 feet to give the Cardinals their first season-opening sweep since they swept the Phillies on the road to start the 2006 season.

Few fans expected the team to go 3-0 to start the season for only the 17th time in 134 seasons.

St. Louis ripped Twins pitchers for thirty hits, nineteen runs and five home runs in the three games, and they did it with no offensive help from their leading hitting in Florida, Wilson Contreras, who was 0-9 with five strikeouts in the first two games.

Too bad that a lot of people missed all of that.

(CROWDS)—The St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals saw thousands of fans disguised as empty seats in their opening three games at home last weekend. The Cardinals averaged 35,010 fans per game, tenth best in baseball with only 26.923 watching them complete their sweep of the Twins.

The Royals were even worse—averaging 25,608, ranking 13th in both leagues.

(KANSAS CITY)—The Royals dropped two of their first three at Kauffman Stadium, although first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino pronounced it a “good weekend other than losing two.”

The team they have to beat to get to the top of the division in October, the Cleveland Guardians, beat Kansas City in extra innings Friday. KC was down by six runs and couldn’t catch up. They came from behind on Saturday and won but dropped the finale Sunday.

The offense is shaky at the start of the season. The Royals got only ten runs in the series and had only five hits in Sunday’s loss. The bottom half of the lineup was pretty miserable going 10-59 with eleven strikeouts in the three games. Starting pitching was not sharp with Cole Ragans giving up three runs in a little more than five innings, Seth lugo allowing three runs and walking three batters in his five innings Saturday, and Michael Wache leaving after just four innings after throwing 87 pitches and walking four.

(FOOTBALL)—If the United Football League didn’t have the St. Louis Battlehawks’ fans, it almost could hold all of its friends in a high school field’s bleachers.  The ‘Hawks started the season last weekend with a win over the Houston Roughnecks, 31-6, in front of a typical Roughnecks crowd of 7,321 (last year the team averaged 7,056).

St. Louis quarterback Manny Wilkins hit 17 of his 22 passes for 189 yards and ran for 43 yards and two  TDs. Jarveon Howard gained 115 yards on 13 carries against a Houston team that was 1-9 last year and showed little indication it would be better in 2025.

Thus opened the second season of the UFL, a league with critics who wonder how long it can hold out with that kind of fan support.

(CHIEFS)—The Athletic is running a free agent tracker to help us keep track of who is staying and who is going or is already gone, and who is coming on board.

Here’s what it’s showing so far:

They have re-signed Punter Matt Araiza for one year; Linebacker Nick Bolton for thee years and $45 million. Punter Matt Araiza, WR Marquise Brown,  running back Kareem Hunt, defensive Charles Omenihu, DT Mike Pennel, receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, long snapper James Winchester, and Guard Mark Caliendo have re-signed for one year each.

Winchester, the team’s oldest player at 35, will get $1.65 million for his eleventh year.  He’s played in all 189 games during that time.

They’ve signed free agent cornerback Kristian Fulton for two years and $20 million, plus quarterback Gardner Minshew (one year), RB Elijah Mitchell ( one year, $3.5 million), OT Jaylor Moore (two years, $30 million), and DL Jerry Tillery (one year).

They’ve lost WR Mecole Hardmann to the Packers, DT Derrick Nnadi to the Jets, WR DeAndre Hopkins to the Ravens; Safety Justin Reid to the Saints; DT Tershawn Wharton to the Panthers; and WR Justin Watson to Houston.

They traded their all-pro guard Joe Thuney, who shifted to tackle this year to try to get more protection for Patrick Mahomes, to the Bears in a move to free up about $16 million in cash. Thuney has the distinction of playing in three straight Super Bowls—twice. He was with the Patriots before moving to the Chiefs. The Chiefs get a fourth-round draft pick next year.

(TIGER BASKETBALL)—Maybe this one will work out—Jevon Porter is headed to Missouri. The brother of two other Porter brothers whose MU careers were brief—spent his first two seasons at Pepperdine and played for Loyola Marymount this past season. He’s 6-11, 235, averaged 12.5 points and 7.2 rebounds at LMU. He’ll be the fifth member of the Porter family to wear a Tiger uniform. Sisters Bri and Cierra, and brothers Michael and Jontay got there before him. The careers of Michael and Jontay were limited by injuries. Michael was in only three games for the Tigers and averaged ten points per game. Jontay played in 33 games but only seven as a starter and also averaged about ten points per game. Jontay was banned from the NBA for life for gambling. A Judge last July refused to let him play pro basketball in Greece. He was convicted of wire fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced May 20th. He faces 41-51 months in prison.

(ROBIN)—Former Mizzou women’s coach Robin Pingeton has landed on her feet—in Madison Wisconsin. She stepped down after fifteen years at Missouri, the last few being mediocre or losing years.  But for her career she is 585-375 with twenty postseason appearances.

She’ll take over a program that was 13-17 last season, fourth in the Big 10 conference. The Badgers have not had a winning season since 20009-10.

Pingeton takes over a Badgers program that went 13-17 overall and finished 14th in the Big Ten with a 4-14 record. Wisconsin hasn’t had a winning season since 2009-10. Its last winning season in Big Ten play was 2010-11.

(HOCKEY)—We haven’t paid much attention to the St. Louis Blues but their nine-game winning streak makes that impossible.  The Blues try to make it ten in a row tonight in Detroit. The game also could see the NHL debut of the team’s top prospect, Jimmy Smuggerud. He was the Blues’ first round pick in the 2022 draft and has signed a three-year entry level contact with the team.

The Blues, tied for fourth in their division, go into the game at 40-28-7. Detroit is 34-33-6.

Time to get the motor running:

(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin has tied Missouri’s Rusty Wallace for 55th on the all-time NASCAR Cup wins list, dominating the race at Martinsville last weekend. It’s his second win on the “paperclip,” the first in ten years.

He led the last 275 laps of the 400-lap race and beat teammate Christopher Bell by almost five seconds. Bubba  Wallace came home third for the second race in a row.

(NASCAR POLITICAL NOTE)—The company that makes diecast replicas of NASCAR automobiles has implemented a surcharge on its products, which are made in China for Lionel, the people best known for electric trains. Lionel has been in the NASCAR diecast business for several years and has been the NASCAR-licensed producer of diecasts since 2010.

Prices to wholesalers will increase 10%. It’s the first “hit” among NASCAR fans since President Trump imposed a 20% tariff on Chinese-made goods.

(INDYCAR)—IndyCar returns to competition in a couple of weeks at Long Beach.   Drivers have done their first test runs on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Scott Dixon ripped off the fastest lap. Eight drivers took part. The race comes up May 10, part of the run-up to the 108th Indianapolis 500.

(F1)—Formula 1 will be in Japan next weekend.

 

The King of the World

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The big black limousine pulls to the curb and out steps a man in a pin-stripe suit, his shiny dark hair slicked back, a bulge on the left side of his coat indicating there’s something behind the handkerchief poking up from the pocket.

He looks around, warily, the toothpick shifting to the other side of his mouth, as he swaggers inside.

His cold, piercing eyes underline his words:

“Nice little university you got here.  Be unfortunate if something happened to it.”  (The implication is clear that it better toe the organization line or something, perhaps several hundred million dollars worth of business, will disappear.)

Or:

“Nice little museum you got here.  We’d like you to change it for us.” (There is a “or else’’ understood in his request.”)

“Nice little law firm you got here.  You crossed the boss one too many times. We’re gonna shut you down.” (No reason for the boss to be subtle about it.)

With some strokes of his pen that produce an unreadable signature, the boss assumes powers to extort tribute from numerous targets, the congress, the law, and the courts be damned.

One of his biggest a few days ago asserts the power to cut off funding for the Smithsonian Institution if it continues exhibits that “degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy.”

And who decides what those programs are?  Who decides what policies degrade shared American values—values apparently established by one man?

Does this mean closing the Museum of the American Indian? The African-American Museum?  The Holocaust Museum?  And the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art with all of its meaningless modernist stuff?

Maryland Governor Wes Moore, the third African American elected to a governorship in
our country calls the effort “disrespectful” and told an interviewer this weekend, “Loving your country does not mean dismantling those who have helped to make this country so powerful and make America so unique in world history in the first place.” Moore is the third black governor in American history, the first in Maryland.

Trump’s says, “Museums in our nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn instead of being “subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history”

That’s Boss Trump’s job.

He also wants to influence what we can read. He has ordered the Institution of Museum and Library Services to be eliminated. That organization provides support for libraries and museums in Missouri and the other 49 states. Can’t have “divisive” things in our libraries that serve diverse audiences.

He has set up the Federal Communications Commission to become a censor of news and entertainment programs.  One of the first targets is Disney and its ABC News unit and their diversity and inclusion practices.  Chairman Brendan Carr says he wants to make sure ABC “ends any and all discriminatory initiatives in substance, not just name,” and that he wants to make sure ABC has “complied at all times with applicable FCC regulations.”  And what about FOX and OAN, One America Network, that is known for its fawning over all things Trump while FOX has had the temerity from time to time to challenge him?  Don’t look for Trump’s FCC to censor OAN, but FOX is no longer above suspicion.

ABC has become just another target in his war on the diversity of voices available to Americans. And he has shut down the Voice of America, greatest international representation of American values, especially in countries under dictatorial governments.

We should be very frightened of his belief he can censor or shut down news organizations that don’t buy his lies.

He has taken over the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts so that the only acts it can host are those that fit his definition of “American values.”

He wants to rewrite our history, especially eliminating references to times that non-whites have achieved breakthroughs in a white male-dominated society.

His rabid dog-like attacks on DEI has intimidated NASA into dropping its commitment to flying  the first person of color and the first woman on the moon, had led the Defense Department to eliminate postings about Jackie Robinson’s service during WWII, Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee Airmen, and Pima Indian Ira Hayes, who helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima.

The fact-checking website SNOPES got an email from Pentagon Press Secretary John Ullyot proclaiming, As Secretary Hegseth has said, DEI is dead at the Defense Department. Discriminatory Equity Ideology is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our military. It Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the service’s core warfighting mission. The code-talkers website was later restored to the Pentagon website, as were the stories of Major General Charles Calvin Rogers, 1970 black Medal of Honor recipient and Ira Hayes, who was at Iwo Jima.

And don’t forget the silliness of the removal from the internet of the Enola Gay, the first plane to drop an atomic bomb on Japan===because the word “gay” was used in the plane’s name.

And now he thinks he can order European countries to follow this blatantly discriminatory cleansing of our history. He has sent a letter to some large European companies that supply services to our government threatening them unless they adopt his DEI strategy, says The Financial Times.

Like Jack Dawson standing against the railing on the bow of the Titanic and shouting, “I’m King of the World!” the Don, not content with being the Despot of the United States, is dedicated to running the world.

Give me a major segment of your economy to pay off what I consider loans, he has told Ukraine, and I will make peace—a demand and a boast that must include a willing third partner who is proclaimed as a good friend but who has no interest in a peace.

“Pay economic blackmail,” says the Don, not realizing countries don’t pay tariffs but his own citizens will, “and I will let you do business in this country,” while the other countries are beginning to grow closer together and are beginning to plan for themselves instead of bowing to his demands.

He wants Canada and he wants Greenland, the feelings of the people living there notwithstanding in his quest for domination.

However, the people of Greenland should be breathing easier now that “Little Me” Vance has told them the Don will not use the military, his national muscle, to take over their island. He has urged them to embrace “self determination,” apparently failing to understand the Greenlanders long ago determined for themselves that they want to be aligned with Denmark and they don’t want to be under the Don’s “protection,” when all he really cares about are the country’s mineral deposits. “We think we’re going to be able to cut a deal, Donald-Trump style, to ensure the security of this territory,” said Vance to people who think Denmark has done a pretty good job of protecting them from—-China? And Russia, which is far more interested in restoring the Soviet Union and absorbing all of Europe eventually with little apparent interests in little Greenland?

So there he is, the Don standing on the prow of our Ship of State proclaiming himself King of the World.

We know what happened to Jack Dawson and the ship that was once thought to be unsinkable.

Kind of like our Ship of State.

Others in the world can see the rip in the side of the hull caused by Executive Order icebergs.  Others in the world are seeing our great Ship of State going down by the bow.

Some Republicans are starting to wonder if there are lifeboats enough for them.

There aren’t.

And the water is growing colder.

Spineless

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So they don’t want people such as you and me to tell them face to face what their apparent saint in the White House is doing to the country with no apparent regard for who among us is hurt by his actions.

A few days ago, Congressman Richard Hudson of North Carolina suggested his fellow Republicans avoid holding in-person town hall meetings after some constituents unloaded on some of his colleagues when they did hold one.  One video showed one of those who represents folks like us fleeing from the stage because he couldn’t stand the heat.

Hudson is the Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. He charged, without offering any proof that we have heard, that the town halls are being hijacked by Democratic activists, which seems to imply that there are no Republicans who have been moved to activism because all Republicans think the big guy is doing such wonderful things .

Funny, isn’t it?—that whenever people take to streets with pitchforks that it’s never the local folks who are causing the ruckus. It’s those lousy activists from the other party or other side of an issue who have driven for several hours just to be nasty to those poor elected representatives.

Some of those encouraging our representatives not to talk to us say those troublesome outside agitators are being paid!  How interesting that the Congresspeople seem to think nobody from their districts wants to put in their two cents worth about the events in Washington and wants a chance to be heard without buying anything, or anybody. It’s those well-paid troublemakers from somewhere else. Surely, the home folks wouldn’t be that worked up.

So they flee, shouting “outside agitators” over their shoulders.

There are two words that are not spoken as frequently as they should be to our political leaders at all levels who make such claims: “Prove it.”

Here in Jefferson City, it’s not much of a problem.  I can’t remember the last time our Congressman even showed a face around here, let alone had the mistaken impression that constituents might not be thankful for the voting record of their representative and what is being done to them. The one time I dropped by our most recent Congressman’s office, I found the door locked and when someone opened it, the attitude seemed to be “Who do you think you are?”

But elsewhere? Activists from the minority party are coming out of the woodwork and they’re not all outside or paid. But if even one insider in the district is asking questions, the Representative for that person should feel obligated to answer. Refusing to do so makes the Representative who lacks the courage to question anything his exalted leader is saying or doing uncomfortable. And what about the good unpaid people of the majority party? Would they never think to complain?

Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee claimed, “It’s pretty clear that they’ve got professional instigators, people that are showing up that are not even constituents,. And it’s getting dangerous. They’re going to people’s houses, they’re putting notices out, where do they live, where do they go to church, where do they eat — they did that on me. That kind of activity … breeds a very dangerous situation for families.”

Nobody in the White House is creating “a very dangerous situation for families”?

Speaking truth to power isn’t welcomed. The big guy in the White House won’t tolerate it from members of Congress or even from world leaders and lately has been denouncing some of his media interrogators as beneath his disrespect.  Members of Congress are upset when their constituents do have the courage to comment, and the constituents aren’t nice about it. They are upset at an obligation they should feel to hear what their people think even if it’s direct.

The big problem is that Republican members of Congress can’t dodge the issues. Or maybe we should say they can’t DOGE the issues.

Get a spine, Congressfolk.  Look at what the impact on the folks back home caused by a little man with a messianic complex. Come home and tell your farmers their markets are going to suffer because of tariffs, that the concerns about the social safety net are not valid, that the dismantling of the weather bureau and the disaster relief agencies  and the air traffic control system—and the price of Mexican beer should not be of concern.

We recall from our history-readings that when Andrew Jackson felt he had been wronged by future Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton and when Jackson was threatening to shoot Benton in a Tennessee hotel confrontation, he sounded at Benton, “Defend yourself, you damned rascal!”

It’s time for the damned rascals who are scared of the man in the White House (whose idol happens to be Andrew Jackson) who places loyalty above service; retribution above public responsibility; and lies above truth to explain themselves to the people who trusted them enough to put them in their offices.

Those who lack the courage to explain to their people why they lack the courage to oppose policies hurtful to the public interest don’t deserve more time to display their spinelessness.

Well—

They can run but they can’t hide.  And when they run again, the voting activists that they did not wish to face where they live might have a more important message than the “outside agitators” they didn’t want to address had.

Cartoon Man/Man as Cartoon

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Editorial cartoonists occupy a unique position in American journalism.  They can comfort. They can interpret. They can inform. They can provoke.

They can capture a moment in our national existence in a way that is memorable. They can show in their work things we mortals grasp for words to express.  Steve Burns, a Pulitzer-Prize winning children’s book author, works for the San Diego Union Tribune.

A few days ago, he captured an image of the American economy that is not what our president promised in his campaign it would be. “Stocks Down,” he called it.

It’s the most creative illustration I have seen of our president and the times he has brought down upon us.

Burns’ cartoons are syndicated nationally by Creators Syndicate.

We hope he can do another portrait someday of our president that reverses the lines, not because we want him to succeed but because we want our nation to prosper no matter what he eventually does to it.

Hats off to Steve Burns who uniquely captures this moment for our nation.

(Image credit: Creators Syndicate March 14, 2025)

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All They Did—-

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It will take a while, maybe several years, before some high school students living in an unincorporated area of 140 people of central Missouri fully appreciate what they have done.

They have won the State High School 2A basketball championship. But it’s more than just a trophy for the town of Eugene.

The exhilaration that comes from championships is a temporary thing. It might linger for several hours or for a few days before life takes over.

But legacies are eternal. And they have created a legacy.

All these students did was to give their little community where the number of students in the Cole R-V School District outnumbers the population of the community by more than four to one, the first state championship in community history—in any category.

The best at something in the entire state of Missouri, population 6.2-million.

It was not exactly a “Hoosiers” moment because they did not beat the dominant big-city team for the title, but to Eugene, Missouri, it IS a “Hoosiers” moment because it is the first time the school has won a state title in anything.

For the rest of their lives they will bound together by this historic event, For the rest of their lives they will be remembered as members of the first team in school history that—-

The chance to be a state champion comes rarely. Even if there are more trophies in the future, theirs will be the historic one, the one that says for the first time, Eugene was the best of its kind in the whole state.

They shall grow old, but they will always be young when others look at their trophy decades from now. They’ll be the ones every team to come wants to be like.

All they did was to give a120-year old community —that has never thought itself big enough to incorporate as a real town —the chance to proclaim itself the best of its kind in Missouri.

And these children shall become legends.

 

Sports: Preoccupied Edition

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

We have time just for a few headlines;

Missouri Tigers get Drake in the first round of the NCAA tournament, in Wichita. Thursday night, we’ll see how they do against a 30-win team.

The Kansas City Chiefs revolving door continues to turn with some free agents leaving and others coming in.

The Cardinals and the Royals are running out of time in the sun and they continue to home whatever skills they will have to make the 2025 season live to expectations, which are low for one, higher for the other.

In racing—NASCAR has a first time winner at Las Vegas, Josh Berry, who drives for one of the oldest teams in the sport, the Wood Brothers, that is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.

INDYCAR won’t race again until next month but that doesn’t mean its drivers are twiddling their thumbs. Some of them ran the Sebring 12-Hours this weekend but none went to the winners circle.

The Porsche Penske team did, however, and with another Penske Porsche finishing just 2.2 seconds behind after a half-day of racing. Brazilian Felipe Nasr, Belgium’s Laurens Vanthoor, and Britain’s Nick Tandy combined to get the win, with Frenchman Mattieu, Australia’s Mat Campbell and Kevin Estre of France right behind them.

Formula 1 began its season in rainy Australia with McLaren’s Lando Norris staying on track while others slid around and got the first win of the new season. Defending F1 champion Max Verstappen threatened but couldn’t get the upper hand.  Former F1 champion, Lewis Hamilton, was tenth in his first drive for Ferrari.

Your speedy correspondent hoped to have a more complete report next week after he and his wife have finished their move to a new zip code in Jefferson City.  Things have reached the frantic shoveling stage this week.

Patrick and Volodymyr

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A country facing tyrannical control.  Enemy forces are at the gate. Should an effort be made for a cease fire or even full peace?  How great a price will be paid either way?

The other day I picked up a book containing a speech that might have been given 250 years ago. The style of public speaking has changed a lot in that time. But the situation and he sentiments of he remarks are appropriate for our time.

…The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free — if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained — we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable — and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

We don’t really know how accurate the account of this great American speech is. There was no transcript taken at the time in the Virginia House of Burgesses. .Author Willam Wirt reconstructed it in his 1817 biography of Patrick Henry, leading some historians to question its authenticity.

Whether these words were fully spoken 250 years ago, on March 23, 1775 or whether they were partially made up or completely made up by Wirt 208 years ago, the situation and the sentiment have a certain resonance as the President of Ukraine deals with Russia’s war on his country and the demands by Ukraine’s (former?) ally that it turn over a major part of its economy to the United States and a significant part of its territory to Russia.

We doubt that our president ever read the speech or, if he did, that he ever understood its importance to our nation’s attitude about ourselves or others who share our democratic vision.

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?”

What should be OUR answer in today’s world? We already know his answer. Chains and slavery.

Nick Stays; Robin Goes; Mizzou Men Choke down the Stretch; Three Missouri Teams in D2 Tournament  

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BOLTON—Fears that Nick Bolton would bolt from the Kansas City Chiefs have been laid to rest with a three-year, $345-million deal. In just three years after leaving the University of Missouri, Bolton has become one of the premier line backers in the NFL.

The Chiefs have lost wide receiver Justin Watson to the Houston Texans. Watson’s main value has been as a fill-in when other receivers have gone out with injuries. He might not be the last receiver who becomes expandable. Juju Smith-Schuster, DeAndre Hopkins, and Mecole Hardman are headed toward free agency.

Kansas City is losing Joe Thuney, a mainstay on their offensive line and a guy who moved from guard to tackle to try to provide protection to Patrick Mahomes that had been missing most of the season.  Thuney’s going to the Chicago Bears and is taking his $16 million salary with him, freeing up some cap space financially to let the Chiefs restructure some pieces. Andy Reid says Thuney is one of his favorite guys but he’s a victim of the salary cap, which Reid calls “a nightmare.” The Chiefs hope Mike Caliendo or Kingsley Suamataia will fill the left guard spot next year.

Some of that help might come from two now-ex 49ers, Left tackle Jaylon Moore and running back Elijah Mitchell, whose star has been eclipsed by Christian McCaffery,

The Chiefs got a scare in the last few days with the arrest of star rookie receiver Xavier Worthy on a felony assault charge in Texas. But the prosecutor has refused to press charges after Worthy’s lawyers argued the woman involved was an ex-girlfriend who refused to leave Worthy’s apartment after the pair had broken up, and had filed the complaint after Worthy refused her extortionist demands.

The prosecutor says the case is still open, though.

(MIZZMEN)—Legendary Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summit once said, “Offense sells tickets, defense wins games, and rebounding wins championships.” The Missouri Tigers sold a lot of tickets but the rest—–

The Tiger basketball team has forgotten how to play defense and in the process has thrown away (another problem) a higher national ranking and a more favorable seeding in the NCAA tournament.

Missouri has allowed opponents to top 90 points in five of their last six regular-eason games. The Tigers go into the post-season on a three-game losing streak, have gone 2-4 to close out the season, and have dropped from fourth in the conference standings to seventh.

Missouri is clinging to the top 25 polls—22nd in the coaches poll and 21st in the AP sportswriters poll. They are a seventh seed in the SEC tournament and play Thursday night against the winner of the Mississippi State-LSU game.

Three Tiger have won some recognition from the conference.  Caleb Grill is the 6th-man of the year. Antony Robinson III has been named to the all-defensive team. And Mark Mitchel is on the Third All-Conference team.

(LADY TIGERS)—Mississippi State scored 31 unanswered points on the way to ending the season for MU’s women’s basketball team. The final margin was twenty—75-55. Missouri missed 18 consecutive shots during that string. They also finishd with 30 turnovers for the game, hardly a distinguished going-away performance for coach Robin Pingeton, who has coached her last game at Missouri after fifteen years.

Her 250 wins are the second most for any women’s coach at MU.

Here’s something that’s been overlooked in the reporting about her coaching career—

She was a fine player.  Her record of 2,502 career points at Saint Ambrose University remains a school record after 35 years. She was an All-American in basketball AND softball and played three seasons in the old Women’s Basketball Association.

A search for a new coach will kick into high gear after post-season tournaments wrap up.

(LADY BEARS)—The Missouri State Lady Bears are wrapping up the school’s last year in the Missouri Valley Conference by being co-champions of the regular season. They’re the number two seed in the conference tournament this week. The winner of the tournament gets the conference’s automatic slot in the NCAA tournament. They went 24-7 in the regular season, 16-4 in the conference regular season.

(LINCOLN)—Lincoln University in Jefferson City is headed to the NCAA Division II tournament for the first time in 44 years.  The Blue Tigers put defensive clamps on Missouri-St. Louis 58-51, holding UMSL to just 18 field goals.to win the Great Lakes Valley Conference crown.  Lincoln (23-8) will play Lake Superior Sate University from Michigan in the first round of the Midwest Regional.

Other Missouri teams will play a few more games. UMSL will face Ferris State in the D-2 tournament’s first round.  Missouri S&T has the top seed in that tournament.

(THE BASEBALL)—A couple of former Cardinals greats are taking headlines away from this year’s players.

(ALBERT)—Albert Pujols has shown he can manage, and how. His first two jobs as a manager have been eye-opening. He won the Dominican Winder League Championship with the Leones del Escongido and then managed the Dominican Republic national team to the Caribbean Series Championship. He’ll manage the Dominican Republic national team in next year’s World Baseball Classic.  But he has his eyes on a Major League manager’s job.

He’s one of two Cardinals greats considered as possible replacement for Oliver Marmol. The other is Yadier Molina.

(MOLINA)—Yadier Molina wants to manage in the big leagues but for now, his focus is on his family.  He has told The Athletic’s Kaatie Woo, “I’ve been away from my family for many years. I decided to take a break and put them as my priority right now.”

He’s been a “special assistant for the Cardinals for a couple of years but hasn’t been active. But for now, he wants to focus on family life, including watching his 16-year old son play catcher on the high school team in Texas, where the Molina family lives.

In 2023, Yadi managed the Puerto Rican national tam in the World Baseball Classic and is considered the likely manager for the team next year. He also has managed in the winter league short season after the regular season for MLB.

He has given a little jolt to Cardinals fans, though, telling Woo he so badly wants to manage that he would take an offer from the Cubs if one is made. But he’s not in any hurry to by in a major league dugout.

(OUR TEAMS)—The Cardinals are 8-9 through the weekend, 2 ½ games behind Toronto in the Grapefruit League. The Royals are 10-7. The Giants lead he Cactus League at 11-7.

(A few brief notes about those who go in circles or run on squiggly tracks, too)

(NASCAR)—Christopher Bell has won his third straight NASCAR Cup race, holding off Denny Hamlin in a two-lap overtime shootout at Phoenix in the second-closest finish in track history  0.045 second.  Bell had the race under control until a crash brought out the yellow and required a restart.

Bell and Hamlin both drive for Joe Gibbs Racing, giving the team its first 1-2 finish of the year.

Kyle Larson finished third, right on Hamlin’s rear bumper with Josh Berry and Chris Buescher rounding out the top five.

Far back in the field was Katherine Legge (LEG), who was 30th and spun twice as she became he first woman to start a Cup race since Danica Patrick ran the Daytona 500 seven years ago. Legge, who has made several Indianapolis 500 starts and who has won sports car races, is only the eighth woman to compete in NASCAR’s top series in the last 43 years considered the modern era.

The next race is at Las Vegas where Bell hopes to equal Bill Elliott’s 1992 record as the only driver to win four of the first five races of a season.

(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR returns to the rack next weekend at the Thermal Club road course in Thermal, California.

(FORMULA 1)—The F1 season opens next Saturday with the Grand Prix of Ausralia.

Of Mice and MAGA

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The situation would be hilarious if it wasn’t so frightening.

We have a President who daily seems to get more petty, more vengeful, and less understanding of the country he unfortunately was elected to lead.

Example one:  One of the many lies that dominated his speech to Congress last week, lost in the avalanche of other irresponsible claims and accusations, came when he congratulated hit man, Elon, for uncovering a federally-financed program to change the gender of mice.

My friend Derry Brownfield would call stuff such as this, “ignorance gone to seed.” The mental Kudzu that is this administration’s crop is as invasive to democracy as the real weed is to the southern countryside.

The program that produced this totally-undeserved presidential scorn has to do with transgenic mice, which are used in biomedical research to study how human tissue reacts to disease and the cures or potential cures for those diseases. Do not expect Trump to ever correct himself.

In fact, it’s his newest factoid and he’ll beat the blood out of transgender mice.

Second: Trump has cut off $400 million in grants and other federal funds to Columbia University because some pro-Palestinian demonstrations took place on the campus. He also has threatened  cutoffs to other schools that allow “illegal” protests. Forget the First Amendment’s protection of speech and the right of assembly. If Prosecutor, Judge, and Jury Donald Trump decides events or words are “illegal” in his mind, then they’re illegal and he again will demonstrate his capacity for retribution aimed at those who think differently than he does—-assuming he thinks at all.

The third, and far more egregious thought this man had is the late-week decision to erase history from the Pentagon’s records.

That kind of thing usually was a matter for Soviet Premiers in the 20th Century and for conquering tribes thousands of years ago. Chipping off all of the carved words and records of deeds of former rulers was fairly common when their land was conquered. It has continued in a material sense in areas of the Middle East infected with the Taliban and other brutal bands.  Erase the history of a people. Erase their culture. Erase the people.

In his rabid drive to erase anything from the public mind that encourages equal opportunity,  Defense Secretary—Pete Hegseth—has ordered, as the Associated Press says, “tens of thousands of photos and online posts“ that emphasize Diversity, Eqality, and Inclusion removed from the department database.

When the AP published its story last week, and when officials confirmed this looney program, more than 26,000 images had been slated for removal with an outlook that the total removals might reach six figures.

The main priority might be the most childish of all—remove ALL content in that archive that was published during the Biden administration, regardless personhood.

Erasing history—and that’s what this is—has eliminated the stories of a lot of people who overcome the prejudices of their day long before DEI became an epithet.  But they’re being erased because they are not one of “us,” as defined by our President.

By far the most inane victim of this purge of the image files is the elimination of images of Enola Gay. THE Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb in world history in 1945. So far, however, the current administration has not towed the real airplane out of the Smithsonian installation at Dulles International Airport and broken it up. .

The airplane already has survived a decades-long controversy over whether it should be put on public display, not because of it’s “gayness” but because some felt displaying it would glorify the use of nuclear weapons against human beings.

The rabid rush to eliminate images of the first women, the first black person—the first minority of any kind—to achieve something notable in military service has put a spotlight on the bomber which is named for pilot Paul Tibbets’s mother. The spotlight also has been put on people who are committed to narrowness in thought, in speech, and in their corrupted definition of leadership.

One of the targeted photos is of Marine Corps PFC Harold Gonsalves, a Mexican-American who threw himself onto a Japanese grenade at Okinawa to save the lives of others. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. But he has a Hispanic name and that appears to be enough to erase him from that database of history.

Author Richard Cohen comments in his book, Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped History,  observes, “History has ever been a harbor for dishonest writing—a home for forgers, the insane or even ‘history-killers’ who write so dully they neutralize their subjects…

”Most countries at one time or another have been guilty of proclaiming false versions of their past. The late 19th-century French historian Ernest Renan is known for his statement that “forgetfulness” is ‘essential in the creation of a nation’—a positive gloss on Goethe’s blunt aphorism, ‘Patriotism corrupts history.’ But this is why nationalism often views history as a threat. What governments declare to be true is one reality, the judgments of historians quite another. Few recorders set out deliberately to lie; when they do, they can have great impact, if only in certain parts of the world.”

We are seeing the truth of Cohen’s remarks in the lies being circulated in Washington that seek to modify, if not destroy, our past as well as corrupt our present.

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