cut his words off short
and he threw a frightened glance
over his shoulder

The port was filled with riverboats, more than he had ever seen at one time before in his life. Half the self-propelled barges of Germany — more than half, perhaps — were there, packed in, rank beside rank, and nearly all of them riding high in the water to prove that they were empty. There were friends and acquaintances everywhere, shouting greetings as soon as they recognized him and his barge.

“The Fritz Reuter’s here, boys. Now the war can start.”

The barge captain who shouted the last remark cut his words off short, with a note of apprehension in the final syllables, and he threw a frightened glance over his shoulder — the sort of glance which Germans had for years been casting behind them after a rash speech.

From the short story, If Hitler had Invaded England in the book, Gold from Crete ; ten stories by C. S. Forester (Little, Brown. Boston, 1970).

My son recently got a passport.

I asked him where he was going?

“Nowhere“, he said, “… just need to prove I am a citizen of the United States.”

All my life I have watched Movies and TV shows were men in black trench coats and black hats and tight lipped smiles say to someone, “Your Papers …?“

When I was kid, I had to ask my Dad what that meant.

I didn’t know.

I was an American.

From America.

A place where no asked for your papers.

A place where no one carried papers.

It used to be one of the things that Made America Great.

I watch as those things, those things that Made America Great are ripped away by people who claim to want to Make America Great Again?

And I wonder …

What was it like in Germany in when Hitler and HIS entourage took over.

Joseph Goebbels said, We are going into parliament to arm ourselves with weapons from democracy’s arsenal. We are becoming members of parliament in order to hamstring the Weimar way of thinking…

If democracy is stupid enough to give us free tickets and allowances for this disservice, that is its own business. We don’t worry about it. We will use any legal means to revolutionize the current state of affairs. (“What do we want with the Reichstag?” [“Was wollen wir im Reichstag?”] in his newspaper Der Angriff [The Attack], April 30, 1928.)

But what was it like for people like us in Germany to watch as the Nazi’s used any legal means to revolutionize the current state of affairs.

Can’t look at the voting records since as soon as the Nazi’s got slim majority control of the German Reichstag they outlawed any other political party so their percentage of all votes cast was almost always near 99%.

The average citizen of Germany during Word War 2 doesn’t show up in literature too often but this short story of Mr. Forester’s came to mind.

To invade England, in this story, the German Navy gathers together a collection of river barges skippered by everyday Germans.

Men not in the military and probably not a part of the political process.

They get together.

They see old friends.

And they joke.

They joke about the Government.

They joke about the Government and cut their words off short.

They joke about the Government and cut their words off short, with a note of apprehension in the final syllables.

They joke about the Government and cut their words off short, with a note of apprehension in the final syllables, and through a frightened glance over their shoulder.

They joke about the Government and cut their words off short, with a note of apprehension in the final syllables, and through a frightened glance over their shoulder — the sort of glance which Germans had for years been casting behind them after a rash speech.

The Trump years.

The Make America Great Again years.

The solutions … in search of problems.

In search of problems most of didn’t know we had.

The solutions to problems most of didn’t know we had that come at cost we don’t appreciate until it’s too late.

I told my son, I never needed a passport just to live in the United States.

And I cut my words off short, with a note of apprehension in the final syllables, and through a frightened glance over my shoulder — the sort of glance which we have for years been casting behind us after a rash speech.

PS: I have to point out that in the years leading up to the Civil War, the Southern States used their ‘slim majority’ in the House of Representatives to pass a rule FORBIDDING even the mention of the word ‘SLAVERY’ let alone any legislation to come to floor in the subject.

try obedience
to Constitution, laws
don’t you think that’d work?

On February 23, 1861, Abraham Lincoln arrived in Washington, DC for his March 4th Inaugural as President of the United States.

Meeting in Washington at the same was the Peace Conference of 1861, which according to Wikipedia, was a meeting of 131 leading American politicians in February 1861, at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the American Civil War. The conference’s purpose was to avoid, if possible, the secession of the eight slave states from the upper and border South that had not done so as of that date. The seven states that had already seceded did not attend.

An invitation was passed along by the Conference to meet with Mr. Lincoln and he replied that he would receive members at 9:00 p.m.

Mr. Lucius E. Chittenden, a Vermont delegate to the Conference, later wrote of that meeting:

There was only one occurrence which threatened to disturb the harmony and good humor of the reception. In reply to a complimentary remark by Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Rives had said that, although he had retired from public life, he could not decline the request of the Governor of Virginia that he should unite in this effort to save the Union. ” But,” he continued, ” the clouds that hang over it are very dark. I have no longer the courage of my younger days. I can do little — you can do much. Everything now depends upon you.”

“I cannot agree to that,” replied Mr. Lincoln. “My course is as plain as a turnpike road. It is marked out by the Constitution. I am in no doubt which way to go. Suppose now we all stop discussing and try the experiment of obedience to the Constitution and the laws. Don’t you think it would work?”

Here today on the 4th of July, 2025, 250 years after Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill and George Washington being appointed to the command of the Continental Army, we seem to have lost our way.

I found that difficult to understand as I feel that our course is as plain as a turnpike road.

It is marked out by the Constitution.

I am in no doubt which way to go.

Suppose now we all stop discussing and try the experiment of obedience to the Constitution and the laws.

As Mr. Lincoln asked, Don’t you think it would work?

Sadly, as Bruce Catton wrote, Lincoln’s path might indeed be clear—to him, at least, if not to all of his fellow countrymen—but a general appeal for obedience to the Constitution meant nothing at all, because the Constitution meant such different things to different men.

Maybe at one time, this might have been seen as part of the beauty if not majesty of the Constitution of the United States.

Not something used, as it was in 1861, to wreck it.

their destiny is
destruction, glory their shame …
mind on earthly things

Based on the Bible verse that says:

Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. Ephesians 3:19 (NIV).

In his 2nd Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln said this about the two sides in the argument that led to the American Civil War:

Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other.

There are two sides to the current argument in American politics today.

I am on one side of that argument and I have a certain point of view.

I am told that every time I use a verse from the Bible, the other side can take the same verse and show how it applies to their point of view.

But let us look at this verse again.

Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.

Mr. Lincoln went on to say:

It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully.

So let me present the two points of view in the current argument in photographs.

This is a photograph taken from the website of the Christian Appalachian Project which provides, according to their website, vital services, including home repairs, food assistance, and educational support, aiming to build hope and transform lives.

This photograph … well … you know what this is.

Now, read the verse again, Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.

In Matthew 6:21, the Bible says: For where your treasure is, there your heart …

But let us judge not, that we be not judged.

Though Mr. Lincoln included a warning: The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.”

I am just holding up the mirror.

You can check your reflection.

not about the man but
but constitutional rights
and the rights of all

In the article, Kilmar Ábrego García returned from El Salvador to face criminal charges in US by Maya Yangm Ms. Yang quotes a statement from US senator Chris Van Hollen writing:

A Friday statement from the US senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said the Trump administration had “finally relented” to his demand to afford Ábrego García due process.

“This is not about the man,” said Van Hollen, who visited Ábrego García in El Salvador in April. “It’s about his constitutional rights – and the rights of all.”

“It’s about his constitutional rights – and the rights of all.”

Remember Dr. King’s “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

In the same article the Attorney General of the United States said, This is what American justice looks like …

I find no comfort thinking the the Attorney General of the United States of America would not have been able to pass Mr. Reagan’s 12th Grade Government class at Grand Rapids Creston Highschool.

Not that that disqualifies her from office in this administration.