little value in
survival if traditions
do not survive

The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings.

We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.

Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions.

Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it.

And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment.

That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control.

And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know.

President John F. Kennedy speaking on The President and the Press, before The American Newspaper Publishers Association at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City on April 27, 1961. (Listen to the full speech on You Tube – from an era when Presidents spoke in complete sentences).

looking where program
was, is, where we want to be
was no other course

“Anything this significant just doesn’t come on a whim,” Kraft said. “You have to have scenarios, and we do. How is this going to go? What if this happened? But looking at where the program was and where it is and where we want to be as a program, I just felt there was no other course.”

Penn State athletic director Patrick Kraft on the firing on the Head Football Coach, James Franklin. (Quoted in the article At Penn State, James Franklin was standing on the edge of a cliff for years. Here’s why by Bruce Feldman and Ralph D. Russo, NYT 10/17/2025)

While the statement is about football, I can find application of that last bit in so many areas of todays life in America.

As voters, if we could only say, you have to have scenarios, and we do.

How is this going to go?

What if this happened?

But looking at where the Country was and where it is and where we want to be as a County, We just felt there was no other course.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

HEY WE CAN SAY THAT!

Last time I checked, The Constitution of the United States still starts: WE the PEOPLE.

Admitted I haven’t checked today and you never know what those folks might try.

Does anyone else remember the scene from Star Trek, The Omega Glory” (Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 2, Episode 23 – and when I say Star Trek, for myself, I am referring only to the Original Canon of 79 shows, broadcast September 8, 1966 – June 3, 1969) where Kirk explains the Constitution.

The society Kirk and the Crew of the Enterprise come across in outerspace is based on the US Constitution but some how the document was buried in that society’s history and the words were only allowed to be spoken by a very few revered leaders.

In a long speech Kirk grabs their copy of the Constitution and says:

“Hear me! Hear this! Among my people, we carry many such words as this from many lands, many worlds. Many are equally good and are as well respected, but wherever we have gone, no words have said this thing of importance in quite this way.
Look at these three words written larger than the rest, with a special pride never written before or since, tall words proudly saying ‘We the People’.
That which you call Ee’d Plebnista was not written for the chiefs of kings, or the warriors or the rich or the powerful, but for all the people!
Down the centuries, you have slurred the meaning of the words, ‘We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution’.
These words and the words that follow were not written only for the Yangs, but for the Kohms as well!
They must apply to everyone, or they mean nothing! Do you understand?”

But looking at where the Country was and where it is and where we want to be as a County, We just felt there was no other course.

They must apply to everyone, or they mean nothing!

Do you understand?

There is no other course.

courts have to pretend
anything normal about
these criminal charges

When asked about things that surprise me here in the 21st Century, I hold out my iPhone.

I make the point that in the Science Fiction writing about the future worlds either as projections of our future or dystopian what-might-have beens, no one, not HP Lovecraft, Issac Asimov or even Stephen King predicted a world where almost everyone carried some kind of computer with more computing power of all of NASA when the USA went to the moon in their hands and that almost everyone would be able to be contacted anywhere in the world.

No one saw the iPhone or handheld device.

It was “inconceivable!” (To quote Vizzini from the movie Princess Bride (who was played by Wallace Shawn, SON OF William Shawn, longtime editor of the New Yorker Magazine).

I mention all that to set the mood for my next point.

Remember that word, inconceivable.

There is this line in an opinion piece in the New York Times I read on Sunday, October 12, 2025.

The line reads:

In other words, do courts have to pretend that there’s anything normal about these criminal charges?

The piece is titled, How a Trump Judge Exposed the Trump Con By David French.

I am not here today to debate the points made by the Mr. French.

I am not here today to debate the actions of anyone on either side in the piece written by Mr. French.

All I want to say is that on this day, someone writing in the New York Times about Criminal Charges brought by the current administration against Americans asked the question, “, … do courts have to pretend that there’s anything normal about these criminal charges?“

I am not sure that such a question, in history or in fiction, has ever been asked in such a way about the United States Judicial system.

In fact, I would use the word, inconceivable!

Maybe during the McCarthy era?

Not in any way do I want to be boxed into the corner of DEFENDING the McCarthy Era but at least he made charges that Americans were turning to side with our biggest enemy.

False as it might have been, it was a charge you could understand.

MY GOSH I AM DEFENDING JOE MCCARTHY!

OH my offense is rank.

BOOOY Howdy!

Lets say that one more time.

In other words, do courts have to pretend that there’s anything normal about these criminal charges?

Where does that put us?

In the movie Casablanca, Victor and Ilsa want to meet with Señor Ugarte but Ugarte was arrested the night before.

Meeting in the police station, they are told by Major Strasser that if they met with Ugarte, they “… would find the conversation a trifle one-sided. Señor Ugarte is dead.

“Oh?” says Ilsa.

Captain Renault looks up form his report and says, “I am making out the report now. We haven’t quite decided yet whether he committed suicide or died trying to escape.”

In the Casablanca of that day, the courts had to pretend that there WAS everything normal about those criminal charges.

Inconceivable!

But here we are.

one hurricane I
lived through, other was different
and lasted longer

It didn’t behave
like anything you had
ever imagined. The wind
tore at the trees, the rain
fell for days slant and hard.
The back of the hand
to everything. I watched
the trees bow and their leaves fall
and crawl back into the earth.
As though, that was that.
This was one hurricane
I lived through, the other one
was of a different sort, and
lasted longer. Then
I felt my own leaves giving up and
falling. The back of the hand to
everything. But listen now to what happened
to the actual trees;
toward the end of that summer they
pushed new leaves from their stubbed limbs.
It was the wrong season, yes,
but they couldn’t stop. They
looked like telephone poles and didn’t
care. And after the leaves came
blossoms. For some things
there are no wrong seasons.
Which is what I dream of for me.

Hurricane By Mary Oliver as published in A Thousand Mornings: Poems. (New York: Penguin Books, 2013).

Standing by the storm surge pole on Tybee Island I got to thinking about how nice it would to have something like this to indicate the depth of political despair in the country right now.

This comes close from this mornings NYT article: We Asked 50 Legal Experts About the Trump Presidency Before the election, we surveyed the legal establishment about what a second Trump term could mean for the rule of law. A year later, they’re very, very worried.

For some things …

there are no wrong seasons.

Which is what I dream of for me