Category Archives: crime

Need Your Trash Hauled?

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Maybe the Mayor of Chicago and the Governor of Illinois should not object so much to the President’s plan to  deploy National Guard troops to the Windy City.  Ditto folks in Memphis, the next American city in line to be invaded by the United Stats Army.

Based on the experience in Washington, D. C., the National Guard is making streets safer by picking up trash and doing gardening duties at national monument sites. One doesn’t want a tourist to trip over something or to be horrified by a wind-blown hot dog wrapper.

The National Guard reported during the Labor Day Weekend that its 2,000 troops had collected more than 500 bags of trash and cleaned more than 3.2 miles of roadways.

They’ve been doing a lot of the work that National Park Service workers would be doing if the Trump administration hadn’t fired thousands of them. One-fourth of the NPS workers were axed by enthusiastic DOGE-oriented actions. National Guard members, trained to fight on foreign battlefields and to serve in domestic disaster areas have instead helped with forty “beautification projects” in D.C.

Those National Guard troops also have disposed of three truckloads of plant waste.

It’s costing one-million dollars a day for the National Guard to serve as gardeners and garbage men in our nation’s capital.

As for fighting crime in one of the most crime-ridden cities in the world, there are a lot of places in the world, and even in red states with far higher crime rates than D.C.  Or Chicago. Or Los Angeles.

The Guard reports it made 1,369 arrests in the first three weeks including one guy who threw a sandwich at a member of the Guard. But Trump’s choice for the district’s prosecutor, former FOX news host Jeanne Priro, reportedly hasn’t been able to get a grand jury indictment in a couple of high-profile cases, not even against the deadly sandwich thrower.

Numerous studies indicate many more cities are more “entitled’ to National Guard protection (or                                       trash collection and gardening) than D. C., LA, or Chicago, based on crime. Many of them do not have Democrats as mayors so they apparently will just have to let the garbage pile up and let the weeds grow in their parks and around their monuments.

There’s a lesson here.  If you don’t want the president to order the National Guard to invade your town and pick up your trash or spread mulch in your beautified public places, elect a Republican mayor.

Too bad, though. Your high murder rate will stay high and your city will not be cleaner and more beautiful.

If you want your low murder rate to stay down, but you don’t want to hire extra people to clean up your streets and your parks so that the President will send inexperienced trash-hauling soldiers to do that, elect a Democrat, especially a black one.

It’s not about crime. It’s about cleanliness.

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“Those who live by the sword—–”

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The New Testament book of Matthew recites the story of Jesus and the disciples going to Gethsemane after the Last Supper where Roman soldiers came to arrest Jesus.  Peter struck one of the soldiers, cutting off his ear, prompting a rebuke from Jesus, “Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”

Through the centuries, that admonition has become, “Those who live by the sword die by the sword,” or in a more contemporary setting, “Those who live by the gun die by the gun.”

As a general public, we have a tendency to compartmentalize violent gun incidents, such as the murder of Charlie Kirk, to treat them as tragic events, and then move on to the next one and the next and the next. But Kirk’s assassination is not a stand-alone event.

We present to you today without comment what we think is a brutally honest commentary by Brian Kaylor on Charlie Kirk’s death. Rev. Kaylor is a Baptist minister from Jefferson City whose “Public Witness” can be read on his webpage, publicwitness@substack.com. 

Brian argues that putting Kirk’s assassination in context, rather than compartmentalizing it, helps understand the ongoing and growing tragedy of which it is a part and should motivate us to seek solutions.
NOT WORTH IT

“It’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment.”

That’s what conservative pundit and activist Charlie Kirk argued in 2023. I disagree. I don’t think it’s worth it. Kirk shouldn’t be dead. He shouldn’t have been shot to death while exercising his free speech rights to talk about mass shootings during an event at Utah Valley University yesterday (Sept. 10). His two young children shouldn’t be fatherless. His wife and other loved ones shouldn’t have their lives wrecked by this violence. Not worth it.

The two children of Melissa and Mark Hortman shouldn’t be orphans after their parents were assassinated in June as Melissa was among Democratic lawmakers targeted by a conservative, anti-abortion man connected to the New Apostolic Reformation movement that Kirk at least partially embraced. Not worth it.

David Rose, a police officer guarding the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, shouldn’t be dead because a man fired more than 180 shots at the building to protest COVID-19 vaccines (after Kirk and others spent years pushing anti-vax politics). Not worth it.

Multiple students shouldn’t have been shot in a Colorado high school yesterday (Sept. 10) close to the same time as the killing of Kirk. Not worth it.

And two young children, Harper and Fletcher, shouldn’t have been killed during a Catholic Mass last week while attending their school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Not worth it.

The more than 300 people killed and more than 1,350 people injured in mass shootings in the U.S. just so far this year shouldn’t have been subjected to such violence. Not worth it.

To think all of the deaths to gun violence can be shrugged off as insignificant collateral damage suggests a broken morality. A misguided ethic that rejects empathy for the victims and their loved ones. Like when Kirk declared in 2022, “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that — it does a lot of damage.” Maybe that’s why he said a “patriot” should bail out the man who brutally attacked then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband in their home while looking for her. Not worth it.

Such a misguided morality also ends up remodeling Jesus into a gun enthusiast. Like when Kirk brought Kyle Rittenhouse on stage to prop up as a hero for killing two people and wounding another at a Black Lives Matter demonstration. After Rittenhouse was acquitted, Kirk featured the vigilante at a conference.

“We brought Kyle Rittenhouse to front stage. That’s a win,” Kirk claimed. “It’s a win for due process. A win for constitutional order. It’s a win for presumption of innocence — all biblical values, by the way. Plenty of people were wrongfully accused all throughout the Bible, especially the Old Testament, including Jesus Christ himself.”

Kirk apparently thought the answer to the question “What Would Jesus Do?” was travel across state lines with an AR-15 to gun down protesters. Not worth it.

In life and in death, Kirk represented the worst of American politics. He stoked dangerous conspiracies, attempted to silence voices he disagreed with, and utilized violent rhetoric mixed with a godly veneer. Then, someone decided to respond with evil by picking up a gun to silence a life.

While Kirk refused to give empathy to Paul Pelosi or the numerous victims of senseless gun violence, many people who were targets of his political attacks gave it to him and his family in the hours after yesterday’s horrible shooting. Democratic politicians — some of whom were endangered by the deadly 2021 insurrection at the Capitol that Kirk cheered on with violent rhetoric — put out statements of condolences and strong condemnations of political violence. And many college professors — who Kirk’s organization targeted on websites to squash their free speech rights — issued similar rejections of violence and expressions of concern.

While there are, like after any tragedy, some people cheering the outcome, the prominent voices have been condemning it. Unlike what we’ve seen in past cases, like when Donald Trump repeatedly mocked Paul Pelosi for being attacked or when Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah advanced conspiracy theories about the shooting of Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota to falsely blame the violence on liberals. (And since we don’t yet know who killed Kirk, anyone telling you why he was targeted is adding to the problem.)

We should condemn all violence, not just when it’s against those we like. All who suffer deserve empathy as everyone is created in the image of God. Losing sight of our shared humanity is not worth it.

We need less hate in our public discourse and an abandonment of the win-at-all-costs mentality. Voices across the political continuum have been part of the problem — and, sadly, much of the violent and hateful rhetoric has been mixed in with references to God and quotations from the Bible. But we need more than just a recommitment to avoiding violent rhetoric and demonizing those with different politics. We need a recognition that the guns are not worth it.

The inability to tackle the real problem is literally killing us. There’s simply no other high-income nation that sees anywhere near as many gun deaths as the United States. Consider the differences with the United Kingdom. The U.S. has five times as many people but 692 times more gun homicides per year. And just so we’re absolutely clear, the U.K. doesn’t have more prayer than the United States. Largely secular nations across Europe have gun rates similar to the U.K.’s. So if they don’t have more prayer (in schools or even their empty cathedrals), then why the difference?

Guns.

We have many, many more guns than are found in other nations. There are literally more civilian-owned guns than people in the United States. The second-place nation is the warzone of Yemen (and even then, the U.S. has more than twice as many guns per resident). It turns out that loose gun control laws and an abundance of guns are directly correlated with lots of mass shootings.

It’s simply not worth it. We should vote against any politician or not trust any pundit who says it is worth it. We don’t have to live like this. We don’t have to subject our kids to gun violence at their schools, at their college campuses, at their churches, at concerts, at parades, at movie theaters, at restaurants, at grocery stores, and pretty much any other place. Not worth it.

As a public witness,

Brian Kaylor

                                    

T&P

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We’ve been thinking more about this “thoughts and prayers” thing and we decided to look up a time when a political leader offered more than a trite phrase.

Abraham Lincoln’s letter to the Widow Bixby is considered a classic although it is surrounded by controversy. The supposedly had lost five sons in the Civil War (she lost three) and there is considerable evidence the letter was written by Lincoln’s Secretary John Hay. The original does not exist.

“I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which would attempt to beguile  you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming,” the letter said. “But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly father assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.”

Thoughts, yes he had them for her. Prayers, yes, that she be comforted.

The letter is noted for its sincerity, its realness, its tenderness. It is a stark contrast to the cold thoughts and prayers message that has been sucked dry by repeated use after repeated tragedies.

There are many versions of an old saying and many reported originators of it.  But it is useful for us to ponder it today in light of the defense by some prominent Republicans that “thoughts and prayers” is somehow adequate, even sacred.   The operative quotation that applies to this phrase is, “The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.”

Substitute  “piety” for “success” in this instance and you’ve nailed their defense for mouthing words but showing no interest in doing anything meaningful to those who are suffering, have suffered, or will suffer.

Here’s the thing about “thoughts and prayers:”

The phrase has been used so often that it long ago lost any personal sincerity.  The people who fall back on this hackneyed expression have well-paid public relations staffers who surely could come up with something far better and more personal than the cold, tired, “thoughts and prayers” thing.

Using it is fake sincerity and suggests the people who have fallen back on it don’t really feel sorry for those who are suffering. The fact that there’s no follow-up action or even discussion of what can be done to combat repeated tragedies renders T&P even more hollow, even more nothing but fake sincerity. Put out the statement and then move on.

Making things even worse are the political attacks on those such as Psaki who come right out and describe what the statement really is.

House Speaker Mike Johnson had a typical response: “It’s incredible to me that Jen Psaki, Gavin Newsom and others would attack religion, diminish the faith of millions of Americans at a time of such great tragedy. There are a lot of common-sense things that can be done to protect children at school. This is not a time to politicize these issues.”

The National Rifle Association has had absolutely nothing to say but former Congressman Trey Gowdy, a favorite of the NRA when he was in the Congress told his FOX News viewers, “The only thing that can give us any modicum of peace at all, is those two children are with the person who loved them the very most, the person who created them, that being Jesus.”

At least he didn’t say thoughts and prayers. We wonder if his “us” includes the parents of the dead children or their classmates, or the children of families, wounded or unharmed except for the emotional damage of the event. Right now the idea that the two children are with “the person who loved them the very most” doesn’t mean much to the parents who loved them more than anybody in this life.

This is where Johnson and the others who have turned the overdue discussion about sincerity into a personal attack have it all wrong. Psaki wasn’t disrespecting religion or anyone’s faith. If anything she was challenging those who loudly proclaim their piety but do not demonstrate it in their actions. Her comments seem rooted in the admonition from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

Thoughts and prayers has become the “resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”  And assurances that their children are now with Jesus likely has limited comfort value to their parents. Pious assurances don’t go any farther than worn-out standard responses.

T&P and pious assurances are condescending at a time when condescension means little or less.

The Hill, a D.C. political newsletter quoted a national Democratic strategist who said last weekend,  “On this, Republicans are trying to own the space of faith just like they do patriotism. Scripture says faith without works is dead. The difference between us and them is we follow our thoughts and prayers up with action and they do not.”

Whether the Democrats follow through is questionable given the paltry record of really meaningful accomplishment, but Johnson was correct when he said, “This is not a time to politicize these issues.” It is, instead, a time for a meaningful reaction that seeks to help. There are plenty of people in times such as this who think, “Is that all they have to offer?”

Unfortunately, for Johnson and his cohorts including Tulsi Gabbard who charged Psaki is not someone who believes in God or His love, that IS all they have to offer. And to be honest, Democrats have very little to justify crowing.

Faith without action.  Professed faith without action. Clang, Clang, Clang.

Once you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made.

There was nothing fake about the shootings and the deaths and Jen Psaki’s reaction. It’s clear where and who  the fakes are.

Hey, Donnie!!!! 

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We’re feeling left out, here in Missouri.

Don’t you realize the mayor of our largest city is black? Shouldn’t we have National Guard soldiers on every street corner there protecting everybody from the major crime wave that you claim is rampant in cities run by African-American Democratic Mayors?

Drawing new congressional district maps to exclude one of our two African-Americans in Congress won’t end all that crime, you know, although you may get some jollies by making a red state less black by redistricting one of our African-American districts.. He’s from our largest city so you could accomplish a lot by making that city safer. Double your pleasure!

Think about it, Donnie.  MMSA.  Make Missouri Safe Again.  Camo Caps with those letters sewn in black would really make our Guard members look spiffy, don’t you think?

And don’t forget, those Guard members would make the streets safer so your ICE goons will be safe when they go out and kidnap brown people.

Think how much better your poll numbers will look if you can coordinate your attacks on Black- run cities that have brown people in them?

And did you know that Kansas City has a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce?  Better keep a close eye on them, too.

We’re worried that you think Kansas City is a second-rate city that doesn’t deserve protection by our military.

By the way, have you thought about drafting homeless people as a way to end homelessness AND provide extra security forces for our crime-ridden Democratic-run cities?

Do not leave that stone unturned as you make sure crime is eradicated in our crime-overcome metro areas.

We’re counting on you, Donnie, because we know you are deeply concerned for our personal safety and welfare.

This might be flyover country but it’s also Trump Country.

Don’t let all those Democratic criminals take it away from you.

I Don’t Know 

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ne of these days a reporter who has some rare time on his or her hands will compile a list of all of the times a president who has claimed “only I can fix it” doesn’t know anything.

He has said, “I don’t know….” so many times that one has to question, “What DOES he know?”

In 2019, USA Today counted eleven people Trump claimed he never met or didn’t know “despite evidence to the contrary.”

One was Jeffrey Epstein, whose sex trafficking of young girls sent him to prison where he committed suicide. Trump called him a “terrific guy” and someone  he had known for fifteen years who was “a lot of fun to be with. It is even said he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side” in a 2002 magazine article.

But when the fertilized hit the ventilation system it was a form of “I don’t know” when he said, “I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him…I was not a fan.”

Sooooo….Trump didn’t know him after all?

There have been assorted other people, some who have been close to him, that he suddenly didn’t know after they wrote or spoke about him critically.

The latest “I don’t know” moment came last weekend when he was interviewed on NBC’s Face the Nation and was asked on NBC’s Meet the Press if throwing thousands of immigrants out of the country without recognizing their rights to due process is Constitutional, he indicated that his power is greater than the Constitution.

“I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know,” he said.

A little more than 100 days ago, he took the oath for the second time that includes “”I will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Given his recent actions, it appears preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution is beyond his ability, a strange attitude for someone who has had previous experience in the office.

We know he doesn’t read so he must not have read the Fifth Amendment that pretty clearly says nobody will be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

It does not say “citizen.”  It says “person.” The Supreme Court has ruled that people who are not citizens remain people and have basic rights.

But Trump complained that following the constitution would be a nuisance. “I don’t know,” he said again. “It seems—it might say that, but if you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or two million or three million trials.  We have thousands of people that are—some murderers and some drug dealers and some of the worst people on Earth. I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it.

But “some” is unlikely to be as many as three million protected “people.”

He was asked, “Even given those numbers…don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?”

You don’t have to guess at his answer.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said.”

He must not have talked to his brilliant lawyers or his brilliant lawyers lack the ability to read at least three recent decisions that protect due process rights for immigrants.

As far as one to three million trials—-

There would be far fewer “trials” if Trump and his minions obeyed court rulings and acted Constitutionally.  And if they actually did focus on immigrants with serious criminal records. Many of them have fled from countries where it is a criminal offense to try to exercise OUR constitutional rights—that their country does not recognize.

And there would not be full-blown trials. These folks would go before an immigration judge, such judges being employees of the Justice Department, not part of the constitutional judicial branch.

That would not require full trials, as Trump suggested. What it would require is the chance to appear before an immigration judge. Such judges are not part of the judicial branch; they are employees of the Justice Department. Regardless, Trump’s brilliant lawyers would have to prove that these bad people are in fact members of Venezuelan gangs, a legal nicety Trump chooses to ignore.

That might bring about a definition of “invasion,” which Trump too casually claims to justify round up people under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.  It would be inconvenient to have to prove that the chicken plucker, pork processor, roofer, and operator of a restaurant with an international cuisine.

The Supreme Court already has ruled twice that men facing terrorist charges cannot be shipped off to the friendly El Salvador prison without due process, namely a hearing. There has been at least one “administrative error,” but that’s too bad. The victim of it has to say in the Salvadorian lockup.  When asked if anybody in his administration is in touch with the Salvadorian government to secure the mistake’s release, Trump said,

“I don’t know.”

“You’d have to ask the attorney general that question.” He said.  “I’m relying on the attorney general of the United States, Pam Bondi, who’s very capable, doing a great job.”  He then claimed that he is not involved in the legality or illegality of such things.

In other words, we have a president who thinks he is personally above the Constitution and he has no responsibility for illegal acts of his administration.

Moving right along.

He has threatened to take the tax-exempt status away from Harvard University because it refuses to bow to his demands to eliminate DEI on campus. That, he was reminded, flies in the face of federal law that says a resident cannot direct the IRS to rescind the tax-exempt stature of an organization.

This time he did not directly say, “I don’t know.”  He’s just following what his lawyers, hired on the basis of loyalty, say.  The he blundered through, “They say that we’re allowed to do that, and I’m all for it. But everything I say is subject to the laws being 100% adhered to.”

Uh….what?

If being ignorant on so many things or about so many people makes him a “stable genius,” then by comparison the rest of us should be able to go into the kitchen and mix up a brew of cold fusion.

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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.

Hearing a Speech Never Given 

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A few minutes before President Kennedy was to arrive at the Dallas Trade Mart on November 22, 1963, he was murdered.

Some of his planned remarks are useful for us to consider today. The text of the speech is available from numerous sources.

But what if he had lived to deliver it?

Well, we now have an idea of how it would have sounded.

A few days ago, I listened to  John Kennedy deliver that speech, in which he said, among other things::

“Ignorance and misinformation can handicap the progress of a city or a company, but they can, if allowed to prevail in foreign policy, handicap this country’s security. In a world of complex and continuing problems, in a world full of frustrations and irritations, America’s leadership must be guided by the lights of learning and reason or else those who confuse rhetoric with reality and the plausible with the possible will gain the popular ascendancy with their seemingly swift and simple solutions to every world problem.

“There will always be dissident voices heard in the land, expressing opposition without alternatives, finding fault but never favor, perceiving gloom on every side and seeking influence without responsibility. Those voices are inevitable…

“We cannot expect that everyone, to use the phrase of a decade ago, will ‘talk sense to the American people.’ But we can hope that fewer people will listen to nonsense. And the notion that this Nation is headed for defeat through deficit, or that strength is but a matter of slogans, is nothing but just plain nonsense.”

As he neared the end of his speech he would have cited how American leadership through strength had blunted the Soviet Union’s expansionism.  He would have said:

“. There is no longer any doubt about the strength and skill of American science, American industry, American education, and the American free enterprise system.”

He would have warned, “In today’s world, freedom can be lost without a shot being fired, by ballots as well as bullets. The success of our leadership is dependent upon respect for our mission in the world as well as our missiles – on a clearer recognition of the virtues of freedom as well as the evils of tyranny.”

He would have concluded, “Our adversaries have not abandoned their ambitions, our dangers have not diminished, our vigilance cannot be relaxed. But now we have the military, the scientific, and the economic strength to do whatever must be done for the preservation and promotion of freedom…

“We in this country, in this generation, are – by destiny rather than choice – the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of “peace on earth, good will toward men.” That must always be our goal, and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: ‘except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.’

Artificial Intelligence can be monstrously good and monstrously evil, which is why it is so frightening to many of those who have seen past promises of peaceful and proper use of technology turned inside out by those who have exploited them.  So it can be with AI, which is alternatively exciting and frightening.

But AI also has given us John Kennedy’s voice giving the speech he never lived to give.  You can read how it was done and then hear the speech here;

JFK video: hear Kennedy’s ‘lost’ Dallas speech in his own voice

The technology is remarkable—-and it is just beginning its ascendency.  And while listening to how technology has woven words into speech, it is more important to focus on the words never spoken—

“We in this country, in this generation, are – by destiny rather than choice – the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint,”

AI has given us that speech. Will human intelligence let us appreciate it in these angry times?

 

Anniversary

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I was among those asked to keep a daily journal during the pandemic so that people of the next great pandemic would know how we survived the anxious pre-inoculation months did it, the apprehensions we felt, the isolations we dealt with,  and the things we witnessed from a distance.

This is my lengthy entry for this day, four years ago. I offer it so we can recall the astonishing, abhorrent events and the reactions to them.

This recollection became more poignant when I read the reaction in 2021 of former President Jimmy Carter—-and the contempt for him by the man who will resume power in the White House in two weeks.

Although Donald Trump issued a statement of sympathy after Mr. Carter’s death, he cannot escape history recording that he once called Carter “the worst president” and when Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, Trump reacted in a way that surprised no one:

“Crooked Joe Biden is the worst president in the history of our country. He’s the most incompetent and he’s the most corrupt president in the history of our country. And it’s not even close. In fact, I said, today, the happiest person alive today is Jimmy Carter because his presidency looks brilliant. Brilliant by comparison.”

Historians, on the other hand, who are not as self-absorbed as Mr. Trump, a few years ago ranked the worst presidents as James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Donald Trump.

President Biden has asked that flags be flown at half-staff for a month in honor of Mr. Carter, not an unusual way to recognize the death of a past President—-and Trump has again shown his usual self-absorption and lack of class by complaining that the flags will be at half staff during his inauguration.

Jimmy Carter, a man who lived his faith in word and deed, is being disrespected by a man who borrowed a Bible for a photo op at a church across the street from the White House, someone who worships the putter on Sundays and who will never build a house for Habitat for Humanity.

Remember January 6, 2021? A newspaper article yesterday carried the headline that memories of it  are \fading. If we love our country, love it more than we love ourselves, we cannot let those events “fade” as the  inspiration behind them prepares to move back to the scene of the event. So I have decided today to recall what I—and others—wrote and thought that awful day, four years ago today, even as it unfolded. (I am omitting the pictures from the original entry.)

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

I begin this entry at 1:50 p.m. while watching something happen in Washington that neither I nor my citizen ancestors going back to the days of Washington, Jefferson, and even earlier founders could have imagined—thousands of supporters of our president, egged on by him in an hour-long tirade near the White House—have laid siege to the United States Capitol, interrupting the debate on certifying results of the Electoral College. I am watching FOX, the network that has been uncomfortably friendly with our president for years, as some demonstrators are trying to break through the doors into the House of Representatives.

Reporters just said law enforcement officers are guarding the doors with guns drawn, and another of the reports said moments ago that he’s been getting text messages from ambassadors saying this country would be highly critical of other countries if anything such as this happened there.

What we are seeing is appalling.  One observer calls it “a breakdown of the constitutional process.”  It’s the most significant incursion inside our Capitol since the British attack in 1814.  There is no doubt our president stoked this outrage and has been doing it for months, years. This morning, he and his children and other supporters had a rally near the White House.  His son, Donald Junior—who hopes to become the next national chairman of the Republican Party—told the crowd that their presence should tell mainline Republicans their day is past. “It should be a message to all Republicans who have not been willing to actually fight, the people who did nothing to stop the steal. This gathering should send a message to them: This isn’t their Republican Party anymore. This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party. We’re going to try and give our Republicans the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”  Then his father ranted for about 90 minutes, speaking to a crowd he had been begging for several days to show up in Washington today.  He urged the protestors to go to the capitol.

They did and about an hour after Congress started the process and started dealing with the first protest—of the Arizona results the House and Senate suddenly adjourned.  When I saw that happen (on C-SPAN) I switched to CNN and then to FOX because I suspected there was trouble developing.

FOX reporters are as stunned as anybody on the other (less Trumpish) networks by what is unfolding in front of them. Others got into the hallways and office areas.

Protestors get into the capitol and are shown on video walking through Statuary Hall.

One reporter on Pennsylvania Avenue just reported things are becoming increasingly violent in the streets. Senators and Representatives are locked in their offices. The Vice-President, who was presiding over the joint session, has been evacuated.  The President apparently is in the oval office where he earlier sent a Tweet criticizing the VP for lacking courage to overturn the election results today.  That was after VP Pence told members of Congress he would not try to singlehandedly throw out electoral votes. He had sent a letter to all members of Congress saying, “It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.”

A few minutes ago he tweeted, “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our country. Stay Peaceful!”

One senator just tweeted a picture of protestors in the Senate Chamber.

The Mayor of Washington has instituted a 6 p.m. curfew.

So far, Josh Hawley has been silent—and he’s one of those who lit this fire several days ago when he announced he would challenge the election results. He was later joined by a dozen others, and the president who “rallied” his supporters in Georgia Monday and who encouraged demonstrators this morning to march on the Capitol.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, interviewed on FOX “cannot be sadder or more disappointed. This is not the American Way. I’m with capitol police; I’ve heard on the radio shots have been fired.”   (we later learned a woman had been shot, apparently while with the crowd trying to break into the House chamber.) “This is Un-American, what’s going on.” He called on Trump to make a statement.  The president sent out a Tweet shortly after that, about 2:15: “I am asking everyone at the U. S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No Violence! Remember WE are the Party of Law & Order—respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!”

About the same time, Brett Baier on FOX reported Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had asked that the National Guard be deployed to clear the protestors.

2:30—FOX shows protestors breaking windows and climbing into the building.

Fox at 2:50 showed a photograph of a demonstrator sitting in the chair in Nancy Pelosi’s office.

The New York Times reported later that night that he’s from Arkansas, Matthew Rosenberg, who left a quarter on the desk and took a personalized envelope from the office. And he could be in very bad trouble. His Congressman, Steve Womack, tweeted about him, “I’m sickened to learn that the…actions were perpetrated by a constituent. It’s an embarrassment to the people of the Third District and does not reflect our values. He must be held accountable and face the fullest extent of the law. This isn’t the American or Arkansas way.”  And Arkansas Senator Jim Hendren tweeted “Don’t know this guy, but he needs to go to jail.”

Another photo shows a demonstrator sitting in the Senate President’s chair.

Haven’t seen an I-D of this creep yet.

(all Photos in this post are from Getty Images unless otherwise noted)

2:52—Pelosi and Shumer call on president to go on the air and call on protestors to leave.

2:55—DOD mobilizes troops.  A barrier will be set up around the capitol, crowd to be cleared out. And a tight lockdown will be put in place.

2:20—FOX reports at least one person has been shot.

2:20—senate secured and demonstrators are being pushed out of the second and third floors of the rotunda.

3:05—President-elect Biden goes on the air.  He began, “At this hour, our democracy is under unprecedented assault, unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times. Let me be very clear: The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect the true America, do not represent who we are. I’m genuinely shocked and saddened that our nation, so long a beacon of hope and light for democracy, has come to such a dark moment. America’s about honor, decency, respect, tolerance. That’s who we are. That’s who we’ve always been.”

He demanded the president call on his supporters to end an “unprecedented assault” on democracy. “I call on President Trump to go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege.”  He urged the protestors to end their occupation of the House and Senate and blamed today’s violence on Trumps refusal to accept defeat. “At their best, the words of a president can inspire. At their worst, they can incite…This is not dissent. It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition, and it must end now. I call on this mob to pull back and allow the work of democracy to go forward.” He finished, “President Trump, step up.”

A few minutes later the White House released a taped message from Trump encouraging people to go home—-but most of his 61-second message was a whine about the election:

“I know your pain, I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us, it was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side.  But you have to go home now, we have to have peace. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order we have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt. It’s a very tough period of time. There’s never been a time like this where such a thing happened where they could take it away from all of us from me from you from our country. This was a fraudulent election. But we can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens, you see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home and peace.”

We love you. You’re very special. ??????  No condemnation, no criticism.  Whine and pat these domestic terrorists you have encouraged on the heads and tell them to go home.

3:40—FOX shows video of woman shot in the capitol. She’s reported critical at a hospital. This is the only reported shot fired and only reported person injured.

It’s dusk in Washington now and reporters and city officials are worried about what will happen tonight, despite the curfew.  The Mayor and metropolitan police have announced anybody on capitol grounds after 6 p.m. will be arrested.

4:15: Rep. Steve Scalise says he hopes to get the capitol open and continue the debates tonight. Some other members reportedly feel the same way but we haven’t heard from the Congressional leadership yet.

At some point in all of this, this afternoon, the networks proclaimed John Osoff had won the Georgia Senate election although the margin is so thin that a recount is likely. He’s 33 and will be the youngest member of the Senate although not the youngest person elected. That honor goes to Joseph Biden.

About 4:55 it was announced that police think the capitol is secure again.

About an hour ago, Hawley tweeted: Thank you to the brave law enforcement officials who have put their lives on the line. The violence must end, those who attacked police and broke the law must be prosecuted, and Congress must get back to work and finish its job.

He drew three quick responses:

Samuel George

Sir – you inflicted this by rejecting the vote of the people

Your name will always be associated with today. Cool legacy.

Alex Rozar

This was your doing.

Former President George W. Bush released a statement late this afternoon “A statement on the insurrection at the Capitol,” a pretty plainspoken comment.  It’s especially impactful because he has seldom spoken about things since leaving the White House—as past presidents traditionally have done.  But there’s no love lost between the Bush family and Trump.

“Laura and I are watching the scenes of mayhem unfolding at the seat of our Nation’s government in disbelief and dismay. It is a sickening and heartbreaking sight. This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic — not our democratic republic.

“I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions, and our law enforcement. The violent assault on the Capitol — and disruption of a Constitutionally-mandated meeting of Congress — was undertaken by people whose passions have been inflamed by falsehoods and false hopes.

“Insurrection could do grave damage to our Nation and reputation. In the United States of America, it is the fundamental responsibility of every patriotic citizen to support the rule of law. To those who are disappointed in the results of the election: Our country is more important than the politics of the moment. Let the officials elected by the people fulfill their duties and represent our voices in peace and safety.  “May God continue to bless the United States of America.” 

Former President Clinton: “Today we faced an unprecedented assault on our Capitol, our Constitution, and our country. The assault was fueled by more than four years of poison politics spreading deliberate misinformation, sowing distrust in our system, and pitting Americans against one another. The match was lit by Donald Trump and his most ardent enablers, including many in Congress, to overturn the results of an election he lost.”

Former President Obama: “History will rightly remember today’s violence at the Capitol, incited by a sitting president who has continued to baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election, as a moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation. But we’d be kidding ourselves if we treated it as a total surprise. Right now, Republican leaders have a choice made clear in the desecrated chambers of democracy. They can continue down this road and keep stoking the raging fires. Or they can choose reality and take the first steps toward extinguishing the flames. They can choose America.

“I’ve been heartened to see many members of the President’s party speak up forcefully today. Their voices add to the examples of Republican state and local election officials in states like Georgia who’ve refused to be intimidated and have discharged their duties honorably. We need more leaders like these — right now and in the days, weeks, and months ahead as President-Elect Biden works to restore a common purpose to our politics. It’s up to all of us as Americans, regardless of party, to support him in that goal.”

Jimmy Carter: “This is a national tragedy and is not who we are as a nation. Having observed elections in troubled democracies worldwide, I know that we the people can unite to walk back from this precipice to peacefully uphold the laws of our nation, and we must. We join our fellow citizens in praying for a peaceful resolution so our nation can heal and complete the transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries.”

Twitter has shut down our president’s access for 12 hours because of a message he put out this afternoon.  Facebook took down his “We love you” video and has banned him for 24 hours.

The Kansas City Star tomorrow morning:

“No one other than President Donald Trump himself is more responsible for Wednesday’s coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol than one Joshua David Hawley, the 41-year old junior senator from Missouri, who put out a fundraising appeal while the siege was underway.  

“This, Sen. Hawley, is what law-breaking and destruction look like. This is what mobs do. This is not a protest, but a riot. One woman was shot and has died, The Washington Post reported, while lawmakers were sheltering in place.

“No longer can it be asked, as George Will did recently of Hawley, “Has there ever been such a high ration of ambition to accomplishment?” Hawley’s actions in the last week had such impact that he deserves an impressive share of the blame for the blood that’s been shed.

“Hawley was first to say that he would oppose the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College win. That action, motivated by ambition, set off much that followed — the rush of his fellow presidential aspirant Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and other members of the Sedition Caucus to put a show of loyalty to the president above all else.

“After mayhem broke out, Hawley put out this uncharacteristically brief statement: “Thank you to the brave law enforcement officials who have put their lives on the line. The violence must end, those who attacked police and broke the law must be prosecuted, and Congress must get back to work and finish its job.” So modest, Senator, failing to note your key role in inspiring one of the most heartbreaking days in modern American history. We lost something precious on Wednesday, as condolence notes to our democracy from our friends around the world recognize.

“Among those Hawley got to emulate him was Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, whose very first act as a member of the world’s greatest deliberative body was to sell out his country by attempting to overturn the outcome of a legitimate election.

“This revolt is the result, and if you didn’t know this is where we’ve been headed from the start, it’s because you didn’t want to know.”

“’The Frankenstein just tore down the doors to the palace,” U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Missouri, told The Star. Which happened because, as he said, “One-third of the nation has bought into a bald-faced lie, and they are living in a fact-free America.’

“’I’m currently safe and sheltering in place while we wait to receive further instruction from Capitol Police,’ tweeted U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat from Kansas. ‘Today is a dark day for our country. It’s unacceptable that we have a President who has repeatedly condoned and even encouraged this despicable behavior. It must stop.’”

“We’ll say again what Davids is too polite to say: Trump did not manage this madness on his own. Far from it.

REPUBLICANS KNEW TRUMP’S FRAUD CLAIMS WERE BOGUS

“Just before the putsch began, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said sadly that we need to once again work from an agreed upon set of facts. Only now has he noticed that lying to the public on a daily basis poisons democracy.

“People have taken this too far,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Fox News. Until he had to run for cover, McCarthy was fine with this sick stunt.

“U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky, said in a statement, ‘Today’s events at the U.S. Capitol are tragic, outrageous, and devastating. They are wholly inconsistent with the values of our constitutional Republic.’

“Yes, they are. But they are wholly consistent with Trump’s calls to overturn this election to address nonexistent fraud. And they are wholly predictable, given the willingness of most Republicans to repeat these baseless claims.

“When we wrote that Hawley’s actions were dangerous — and that those of Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt and others were too, in their pretending for far too long that the election wasn’t over — some readers found that absurd. ‘Oh my goodness, how will democracy and our country survive?’ one reader wrote in sarcasm. ‘How will Biden possibly govern? The Star editorial board’s hysteria over nothing is approaching CNN levels.’

“No doubt plenty of Americans will see even this free-for-all in the temple of democracy as defensible. And those of you who have excused all of the brazen lawlessness of this administration can take a little bit of credit for these events, too. They couldn’t have done it without you.

“Hawley, Marshall and other Republicans who upheld Trump’s con about widespread fraud knew all along that his claims were bogus. Now that they’ve seen exactly where those lies have landed us, decency demands that they try to prevent further violence by making clear that Joe Biden did not win by cheating. Please, gentlemen, surprise us.”

(Hawley gestures to the demonstrators this morning as he goes into the Capitol.)

About 9:30 tonight the Senate defeated the challenge to Arizona’s electoral votes 6-93 as several of the original protesting Senators withdrew their support of the challenge after today’s actions.

A TV station in San Diego (KUSI) says it has confirmed the identity of the woman who was shot to death inside the capitol.  It says she’s Ashli Babbit, a USAF 14-year veteran who did four tours overseas. The French news agency, AFP, said tonight that Babbit tweeted yesterday about those going to Washington for the rally, “Nothing will stop us….they can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours….dark to light!”,

I had said right after the election that one of my greatest concerns was how much damage Trump could do before he left.  I’ve written a couple of pretty harsh blog pieces (the most recent one was Monday) about him.  I can’t say I was surprised by what happened today—I was surprised by the scope of the events but not that there was mob violence based on his encouragement of it. Now, with two weeks to go before he departs the White House, there are some concerns being voice in tonight’s news coverage about this deranged man with his finger on the nuclear trigger remaining in his job for those 14 days.

Tonight (it’s 10:15 p.m.) there’s talk about whether steps need to be taken under the 25th Amendment to remove him.  And there are reports of several resignations from his staff and possible resignations from his cabinet or high-level staff.  There are also a lot of questions being asked about how the mob could have penetrated the Capitol security.

I don’t think I would want to be in the White House tonight.  Our president must be in a rage that borders on insanity, not only because Pence hasn’t done his bidding and Congress not only won’t do his bidding and because some of his closest associates are on the verge of bailing out, but because he has no access to s social media, no way to rant and rave at an unprecedented level.

This has been one of those days that will be a “What were you doing when….” question is asked. It’s a landmark day in national memory much as the Kennedy assassinations and the King murder and the Moon landing, and the Twin Towers attack (and in Jefferson City’s case, the 2019 tornado). This one is so special because even the Kennedy and King assassinations didn’t leave people this shaken about the future of our republic.

It’s now after midnight.  The TV nets are reporting the streets of Washington are quiet.  The day’s toll, according to various reports:  Four dead—one shot to death by a police officer and three who had medical emergencies.  Fourteen police injured , two hospitalized, one critical.

The joint session re-convened. Two or three protests were offered but none had a Senator’s name on it—the first House member with one protest said the Senators had withdrawn their names. The count stopped with Pennsylvania when several House members and Senators Hawley and Cruz filed a protest.  The Senate dispatched with the Hawley-Cruz part of it 7-92.  The House is voting down the protest on its side of things but it’s time to call it a terrible day and go to bed.

While all of this has been going on, the common folks were dealing with the coronavirus.  MODOH reports yesterday’s positivity rate was 21.5% and hospitalizations just under 2800. Nationally, yesterday was the deadliest day in the pandemic.

MODOH was my shorthand for the Missouri Department of Health.

—A week later, I added to the journal the text of Trump’s remarks so that those a hundred years from now (I hope we don’t have another pandemic for at least that long) will understand how Trump encouraged those events and how stunning it was to watch them.

And how our then-junior Senator fanned the flames.

Jimmy Carter is dead and today the House and Senate will make the electoral college vote official with the same ceremony Trump tried to stop four years ago.

And the flags will be at half staff. Read into that circumstance what you wish.

 

Governor Parson has pardoned my killer.

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I was Robert Newsom, a middle-aged widower-farmer in Callaway County who bought a 14-year old girl slave and raped her whenever I wanted, including in the farm wagon on the way home from the sale.  She had two children with me and was expecting a third when I went to her cabin in June of 1855 looking for more sex.

She beat me to death because I had ignored her protests against my abuse. and had warned me not to come to her cabin. She burned my body to hide what she had done.

This is not a tale of reincarnation. I died in the second act of a three-act reader’s theatre production of Song of the Middle River, written by Thomas D. Pauley III, a longtime professor at Lincoln University that I got to know and appreciate late in his life. He was at the performance, just short of his 90th birthday.

(MU professor and distinguished actor Clyde Ruffin, who played George—the slave in whom Celia sought refuge—and Griot, who told the story; MU Theater student Valerie Raven-Ellen Backstrom* as Celia; and Bob Priddy)

The State Historical Society, produced three readers’ theatre productions that were performed at Boonville’s historic Thespian Hall. This one was performed on February 6, 2009.

Celia was hanged on December 21, 1855 for killing Newsom.  She’s referred to in various accounts as Cecilia Newsom because slaves often were given the last names of their owners no matter what their real names were.  But she was never considered part of the family—just property.

As Newsom, I played someone whose wife had died in 1849. Some say we had fourteen children in the 37 years we were married. Others list ten.  By the time she died, I owned 800 acres of farmland southwest of Fulton. About half of the families in Callaway County owned at least one slave, and about one out of every three people in the county were property then.

Several counties along the river in central Missouri had high percentages of enslaved population, earning the area the title of “Little Dixie.”  Ten percent of all of the people in Missouri were enslaved then; thirteen percent of all families had at least one slave. The slave population was closed to 115,000 and there were 24,300 slave owners. The 1860 census put a monetary value on slaves—$44.2 million. That’s the equivalent of about $1,578,320,000 today.

It was not uncommon for owners of female slaves, even young ones, to define “property” and “property rights” broadly, to say the least. After she beat him to death, she burned his body and buried the ashes and other remains.

Reports indicate her defense attorney used an 1814 law protecting women from sexual assault but the judge ruled that Celia, as a slave was not legally recognized as a citizen and as a slave, her status as a woman was not recognized in the law, a ruling underlined a few years later when the Supreme Court ruled Dred Scott had no right to sue for his freedom because black people would never be considered citizens.

She was hanged. Nobody knows where she’s buried. But now Governor Parson has pardoned her and in doing so has placed a new spotlight on justice for those our society has considered—and in some cases still does consider—different and therefore not deserving of having the rights the rest of us have.

One of her descendants, Alan Turner, said at the recent commemoration of her execution in Fulton, “It’s worth mentioning  that if Celia’s act of self-defense occurred today, she most likely would not have been executed. Robert Newsom would be convicted of a crime instead”

Each year, some of Celia’s descendants gather in Fulton to remember her case. They hope Callaway County will take notice of what happened to Celia and that the legislature will pass a bill requiring schools to make her story part of the learning process.

Legislation has been filed for the session starting soon.  But it might be difficult to pass in an era where many loud voices think the most important this is to post the Ten Commandments in school and teach about the Bible.

They seem to be afraid that they will lose something if their children learn about all of our history.

Despite them, we are slowly being taught about the time when many of our ancestors were not good enough to be considered citizens—-and when some of our residents are deemed not worthy of living here.

The descendants hope a monument to Celia can be erected in Fulton to remind all of us of what our culture once was and to make us uneasy today when it is easy to condemn others as non-citizens or to look at them as lesser than ourselves.

A year or so ago, a monument was erected in St. Louis honoring enslaved people who sued for their freedom and the white attorneys who helped some of them win. It sprang from work beginning more than thirty years ago when the local records preservation program began at the state archives. Then-archivist Ken Winn recalled (Rescuing History – Rediscovering the St. Louis Freedom Suits – FREEDOM SUITS MEMORIAL FOUNDATION (stlfreedomsuits.org) the discovery of the documents involved in 300 lawsuits and more than 350 people:

Unfortunately, the verdicts frequently go unnoted in the case files, but of these 300 cases it would appear nearly half of the enslaved plaintiffs won their lawsuits. This is remarkable because the plaintiffs could not testify on their own behalf and were forced to rely on white lawyers and judges and needed white witnesses to help them. They risked physical harm, harassment, and intimidation from those who wished to keep them in bondage. 

All of these suits did not happen in only in St. Louis. A slave named Sant won his suit in Boone County; we don’t know if there were more filed in other counties but it would be no surprise if some ere.

In Greene County, Millie Sawyers finally won her freedom on a third attempt in 1836.  But after she won her freedom, a mob took her from a home and beat her badly. Some of those involved are considered founders of Springfield.  It’s thought she survived but she disappears from the historical record after that.

A play called “The Milly Project” was created and performed in Springfield a few years ago. It later was turned into a documentary film.

We had an outstanding discussion about the memorial and about The Milly Project in a podcast for the Missouri Bar more than  a year ago. (‘Is It Legal To…?’: Missouri’s Freedom Suits, ‘The Milly Project’ (mobar.org)

Our state and nation are great at building statues to men. We have a few showing women.  But monuments to slaves?  Hardly any. We need them.

In Boonville, a statue of Hannah Cole commemorates her as the first white woman to settle on the south side of the Missouri River in central Missouri.  There probably was a second woman who was with her—a sister-in-law named Phoebe—but she’s overlooked.

And so is Lucy, a third woman, Hannah’s slave, given to her as a wedding present according to some accounts, who stayed with Hannah until she died and is buried near her mistress in a cemetery south of Boonville although the exact locations are uncertain. She would have been the first black woman in that part of the state (there might have been a male slave but that history is even more cloudy that hers).There’s not statue nor is there any marker nothing that she probably was on the same pirogue that came across the river with Hannah and her sister-in-law, that she braved the hostile conditions of 1810 just as the white women did. But there is nothing either in the city or in the cemetery that says she existed.

On December 1, 1862, Abraham Lincoln told congress, “The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise —with the occasion…”

In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free honorable— alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.

On the larger scale, Lincoln’s words are fitting for our times.  But in terms of today’s discussion, his comment that, “In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free” is particularly appropriate, then as part of s second revolution, and today as a warning against accepting any form of tyranny—within or without.

When I was Robert Newsom that night on the stage of the oldest continuously operating theatre west of the Alleghenies—it opened nineteen months after Celia was hanged—her story became part of my story.  Whether we like it or not, her story is part of the nation’s story.

Alan Turner said in Fulton a few days ago, “There’s a saying that time heals pain, and that is true to an extent, but some pains transcend generations and never completely heal.” Unfortunately, each generation seems to find someone new on whom to inflict the pain of inequality.

So, Justice has finally come for Celia, thanks to Governor Parson. But the search for justice remains for many and for some, the pains and the search are ongoing.  And as long as that is happening, the desire in our Constitution for a more perfect union remains unfulfilled.

*(Photo Credits: State Historical Society of Missouri and The Missouri Bar. Valerie has since 2009 become an award-winning playwright, illustrator, author, and teaching artist. She is based in Chicago)

Let the Ethnic  Cleansing Begin—Part One 

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Our retread President has promised that deportation of 11-millon undocumented aliens will be started on his first day in office. A number of economists or economy-watchers say the consequences could be severe. But that is immaterial to the incoming Commander/Demander in Chief of our country.  Others have raised serious humanitarian questions about the policy. But nobody has ever accused our incoming President of having any humanitarian interests except for his own, which are closely tied to his personal wealth.

Today we are going to start describing a plan that will mitigate any economic or diplomatic damage resulting from this deportation efforts. We expect no recognition from the incoming administration for these helpful ideas. However, if an invitation were extended to attend the State of the Union speech during which it would be announced that our necks soon will be decorated with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, we would not object.  Much. We are offering this advice at no cost, something that will please Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world who seems to have a plan to reduce government spending no matter what the cost.

Some might find this plan slightly off-the-wall. Or entirely so. But somebody has to provide some insight into how to deal with this issue and your faithful scribe will jump into the breach.

Mother Jones magazine, which some people dismiss as a liberal rag, took a hard look at Trump’s proposal a few months ago.  The incoming president has blamed foreign drug cartels and gangs have “invaded” the United States and have established a foothold at an apartment complex in Colorado, a claim contested and/or debunked by the town mayor and residents of the apartment complex in much the same way that leaders of a town in Ohio deny there’s any cat-eating going on there. Regardless, the “invasion” deserves a forceful response from this country.

The incoming President also has asserted that brown people from Venezuela and other countries that have emptied their prisons and lunatic asylums are killers, rapists, fentanyl importers, and probably don’t wear clean underwear every day.

Mother Jones describes a lot of problems with 47’s plan (actually he’s the 45th person to be President. He’s the second one to have two different administrations):

The magazine  says it’s going to take 95,994 chartered flights to get the 11-million people out of the country and going to wherever they will be  unloaded.  Projected costs, spread through 20 years because you can’t do this in two weeks would be $300-Billion.

Who would profit?  Private prison companies such as CoreCivic and the GEO Group were paid $1.5 billion by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to run immigration detention centers in 2022. They’ll improve our economy by building new facilities and hiring a lot of people to guard the women and children—and men—at new lockups.  A GEO Group subsidiary, BI Incorporated, got a five-year deal to produce ankle monitors and phone tracking apps worth $2.2 billion to ICE and will do quite well making 11-million more of these shackles. CSI Aviation has a $128.3 million contract for daily transport flights that they’ll have to increase, again pumping more money back into economy.

And this business expansion will offset the loss of jobs elsewhere in our economy.

There probably will be inconsiderate and ungrateful lawyers who will sue the government if the 1798 Alien Enemies Act is used to justify the deportations.

This might be the time to invest in a critical industry: hardware and home improvement companies. All of those detention camps will require a lot of posts and poles and wire and plywood buildings for the large facilities for undesirable Canadians, Mexicans, etc. A spokesman for the American Immigration Lawyers Association likens such camps to Soviet Gulags.

If there aren’t enough people in our regular military services who are guarding Taiwan, and South Korea and other pressure points in the globe and a decision is made not to lessen those protections, then nationalizing the National Guard is a possibility, he says. Fine and dandy but the Posse Comitatus Law forbids the National Guard from doing civilian law enforcement jobs.

Let’s face it, establishing military guard posts at every road in and out of all of our states is going to take a lot of people making sure no undocumented aliens can seek safety in a different state from their illegal homes here.

The article suggested we brace ourselves for big increases in food costs, decreases in important segments of the workforce, cuts in housing development, and cuts in some health programs.

The magazine quotes an agriculture and economics professor at the University of California-Davis who estimates food prices for hand-picked products will go up 21% because the deportations will eliminate half of the hands doing the picking. The survey also estimates 25% of the people who process our chicken, turkeys, pork, and fish are undocumented aliens. And it says we can look for a doubling of the price of milk if the people doing the milking are shipped out.

Illegal migrants are not eligible to collect Social Security. But they pay about $13-Billion a year into it. Undocumented immigrant households paid $35.1 Billion in state and federal taxes in 2022. That’s a pretty big economic hole. We’re waiting to see the plan for dealing with that.

It’s estimated about 350,000 undocumented immigrants work in health care, two-thirds of them in providers or in supporting positions. Rebecca Shi, who heads the American Business Immigration Coalition says, “They are the people that pick our crops, prepare our foods, clean our hotel rooms and empty our bedpans.”

This roundup also could affect the roofs over our heads. A study indicates one third of the crews that are whizzes at installing new roofs on our homes and businesses are potential deportees.  The construction industry already is short an estimated half-million workers.

But don’t worry.  The incoming President knows who will replace all of these workers.  If he doesn’t, we’re going to tell him in our next installment.

It might seem bizarre and crazy.  It isn’t.  It’s just the new normal.