Author Archives: Mark M. Meinero

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I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE. JUST NOT TO THE FLAG.

The Republican who represents my Congressional district held a town hall meeting this week. 

Perhaps even more than other districts, this is a swing. Mike Lawler, with the help of more than a million dollars of Elon Musk’s money, held on to the seat he first won in the GOP sweep of 2022. 

So the nearly half of voters who didn’t vote for him – and even a percentage of those who did – were pretty damn pissed about what’s gone down since January 20.

How pissed?

Here’s the first few paragraphs of Nicholas Fandos’ account in The New York Times:

No one was expecting a love fest when Representative Mike Lawler, Republican of New York, faced constituents in his suburban swing district on Sunday night. Still, even he seemed surprised by the night’s first clash — over the Pledge of Allegiance.

“Please tell me you’re not objecting to the Pledge of Allegiance,” Mr. Lawler asked incredulously after some members of the audience inside a high school auditorium audibly groaned when he suggested reciting it.

They acquiesced, and several hundred attendees labored to their feet to say the pledge, but not without indicating why they believed its words had come to ring hollow.

I didn’t attend the meeting at one of the high schools in my school district. I expected my more boisterous neighbors to show up and say pretty much what I would have said about the disaster that is the 47th Presidency of the United States.

But I would not have “labored to my feet” for the Pledge of Allegiance. Because I think you can find the core of what’s wrong with the United States right now in it.

Most of the countries that have traditionally been our allies – Britain, Canada, France, Italy and so on – don’t have a pledge. Their kids don’t start their day trying to say a word similar to “indivisible;” whoever wrote the Pledge – and its authorship is disputed – was not thinking clearly about the hearing and enunciation of elementary school kids.

That wouldn’t be a problem. We’re not those countries – as Archie Bunker said, “We threw the British out of here.” – and so there’s no need to follow their example.

The problem with the Pledge of Allegiance is that it’s only secondary to “the republic.” Its primary focus – and this goes for the National Anthem, too – is the flag.

The first thing is the flag. “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.”

The flag. Not the Constitution. Not the laws of our land. Not to the now 340 million of us who actually make up this country, who get kissed off at the end with the words “with liberty and justice for all.”

No. A rectangular cloth of nylon, polyester or cotton – is the thing to which we pledge our allegiance. The material would have been used as a windbreaker or a tablecloth or the flag of Vanuatu. But because it has a pattern of stripes and stars that meet general approval, it deserves our allegiance?

That seems like a lot. And I think the problem is that too many Americans – particularly the ones who support the current president – confuse the flag with what it’s supposed to stand for.

They think its existence is the height of patriotism. They actually say that – every year, some group runs with a flag from West Point to somewhere else before Memorial Day. The promotion of it in our town calls it the most patriotic thing.

It’s the Shroud of Turin of the American experience.

And lost in all this is how we think about each other.

We are supposed to be a nation of laws. We have this great Constitution – if you’ve been reading this blog recently, you’ve joined me in a full reading. And it’s being trampled by Trump and his henchmen because they worship the flag, not the principles that are supposed to guide American democracy.

Hell, they used the flag as a weapon on January 6, 2021. Watch the videos of these MAGA maroons assaulting Capitol Police officers with sharpened flagpoles. They pledged allegiance to the flag – and then betrayed the country it represents.

And then there’s the variations designed to intimidate people they don’t like. The black stars and stripes with the blue stripe in the middle that says I support police, even when they’re beating up people for no reason. The “Blue Lives Matter” answer to “Black Lives Matter.”

It’s not just the pledge – our national anthem is the freaking “Star-Spangled Banner,” about a flag that’s still flying after the Battle of Fort McHenry in Baltimore. No one remembers much about the battle, like how many Americans were killed or how they managed to hold off the British who had just stomped through Washington.

Instead, what they remember is some lyrics a lawyer wrote to a British drinking song about the flag still being there.

No other civilized nation I can think of is as hung up on the flag as the United States.

Various groups have established all these rules on how the flag should be presented. You can’t wear it. God forbid it falls into a puddle or, shudder, touches the ground. You have to burn a flag if it’s worn out, but if you burn it in protest, woe is you.

The things that are sacred to me about the United States of America are the things to which I’ll pledge allegiance.

The rule of law.

Civility. Conducting myself as a responsible citizen.

Kindness.

Appreciation of just how beautiful this land is. Shepherding the land so that fellow Americans appreciate the same things 1,000 years from now.

Honoring those who have served our nation. Not just the military, although it should be held in reverence, but those who have labored to make our states, our cities and our neighborhoods safer and stronger. That includes teachers, firefighters, sanitation workers, and so many others that their omission is going to piss off people. (Sorry!)

And celebration of the people who live in my country. No matter what they look like or who they love or where their families started their American journey.

When the flag is the point, people aren’t. And that leads to the kind of detachment so many Americans seem to have. We’re a nation of indignation because we’ve lost respect for our own people. America isn’t the flag – it’s the people and the laws that protect them.

That’s to whom we should pledge our allegiance.

We did, once.

In 1776, our representatives meeting in Philadelphia approved a document written by a Virginia farmer. It ends this way: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

We should be willing to pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor mutually – in support of one another – as Americans. Not a flag.

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O SAY, CAN YOU SEE?

I’m not one for performative patriotism.

But recently, I’ve had a lot of thoughts about a performance of the National Anthem I saw.

It was before the start of a Mets game at Citi Field in New York. The day was chilly – the temperature never rose above 47 degrees. At least it was sunny – I sat close to the field and the  sun beating down helped keep things comfortable.

On an aesthetic level, I’ve never been a big fan of “The Star Spangled Banner.” My argument boils down to this – the nation that produced George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Carole King and Stevie Wonder should not be represented by a Maryland lawyer’s poem sung to the tune of a British drinking song.

The song is hard to sing. It’s a so-so message. And, in the dumb way the United States seems to think of patriotism, it’s about a flag.

(Getting hung up on the flag is also the problem with the Pledge Of Allegiance. That’s a topic for another time.)

Another issue is that the government of the United States has not inspired any fervent love since, oh, noon ET on January 20. The inanity of Trumpism clouds every decent day and exacerbates the lousy ones.

This was particularly true when this anthem was performed. It was five days after the Mets’ home opener against the Toronto Blue Jays, the only Major League Baseball team that makes its home outside this country.

Until 2025, no one gave much thought to the rendition of “O Canada” when a Canadian team showed up in a U.S. stadium. But then Trump, not content with taking a dump on the rest of the world, decided to pick on the best neighbor any country has ever had.

That led to the boos from about a tenth of the crowd. Forget that some young woman is performing before 40,000 people and hearing disdain from about 4,000 people. She’s doing her best, but, yeah, boo anyway. 

I wasn’t shocked by this. But I was not going to follow that wretched display by singing “The Star Spangled Banner” with these slugs. 

So I found what I thought was appropriate- bowing my head as if this were a moment of silence, in memory of what we as Americans have lost because of this stupidity. (It also made me respect, all the more, what Colin Kaepernick did by kneeling – had I stronger knees, I might have thought about it.)

Fast forward five days. It’s only going to be the U.S. anthem at the game on the cold day because the Mets were playing Miami. I get up, remove my hat and bow my head.

And then I hear the anthem.

It was performed by a chorus of students from the Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music. It is one of the special high schools in the New York City public school system – you need to go through an audition process to get in.

And, for the few who don’t know, it’s named for one of the most influential Latin musicians in U.S.  history. She left Cuba shortly after the revolution and made great music with another renowned Hispanic artist, Tito Puente. Her influence was such that, if you look in your loose change, you might have the quarter with her image that came out last year.

The chorus performed a capella. You had to think about that, because the harmonies created were so lush that they seemed like an orchestra.

What was striking was that these students – from all over New York City and most, but not all of them, kids of color – were putting incredible passion into this rendition. Maybe it was because they wanted to impress thousands of people hearing them. 

But that kind of performance requires more than showing off your musical chops. It was as if they believed they were honoring their home with the magic of their combination. There was commitment to their vocalizing. 

When the National Anthem is performed at a baseball game, it’s pretty pro forma. As the singer finally gets to the last lines – “O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave…” – the crowd usually starts cheering, almost as if to rush things along and get the game started.

Not this time. The crowd didn’t want to miss the end. They didn’t start cheering until the chorus was finished. And it erupted. It was as if we heard this song that we’d heard more times than we can count for the first time ever.

I wasn’t expecting to be stirred by a song I don’t like. But I was – and I’ll tell you why.

Those kids aren’t what Trump and the livestock that support him have in mind about making America great again. And I’m sure the worst of them – Trump included – would never appreciate the care and devotion the Celia Cruz chorus put into the song. They would prefer you stand there listening to some band go through the motions. 

But the students are what truly makes America great. Their backgrounds are varied and fascinating. When they came together that chilly afternoon, they made a sound that haunted and inspired.

I will still bow my head for “The Star Spangled Banner” in sadness until this idiocy ends or it destroys me, whichever comes first. But as long as I can, I will fight for a country that includes and celebrates diversity, equity and inclusion – and understands that a mosaic is a far more interesting and wondrous work of art than a whitewash.

And, if Taylor Swift or Beyoncé can write a better anthem, please go at it.

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CUE EDWARD GIBBON

The United States of America is the latest in world history’s chain of empires.

Since the end of World War II, the only challenge to America’s position as the world’s most powerful nation came from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. And because the U.S.S.R. was basically the Russians domineering a lot of neighboring nations that really didn’t like them very much, and we basically held our ground, the threat didn’t last.

Imperialism is a tough job. What you want is a world that’s generally at peace. With stable, sustained economic growth.

That was what the Romans meant by their Pax Romana, a nearly 200-year period when their control was mostly unchallenged. It wasn’t really that – it was during that time that a cult formed a Jewish carpenter would upend the whole thing.

But you and I have – probably without thinking much about it – lived through Pax Americana. The world has revolved around us. American music, American film and television, American technology, American food and American ideals can be found just about everywhere.

And, of course, America’s economy is the world’s benchmark. The dollar is practically a universal currency, with the majority of transactions being conducted through it.

In part, the world has been stabilized by American force. We invented the atomic bomb – we actually used it. And we have more than a few of them, all of them way more powerful than the weapons that wiped out Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

This may sound bad – and there are lots of people in other countries who don’t particularly like us. 

But empire has its privileges. Even for those of us on the Bernie Sanders-AOC side of the political spectrum. Having the world run by the dollar makes our goods cheaper, and easier to buy and sell. It gives consumers the confidence to shop for stuff. 

So you have to wonder why Trump and his economic wizards thought it was such a good idea to throw that all away.

Not just because he decided to launch a trade war against almost every being on the planet, from the more than a billion people of China to the penguins on Heard and McDonald Islands in the South Pacific.

It was also the stupid bluster. Threatening Canada and Denmark, worry-free allies that didn’t do a blessed thing to deserve that. Talking tough to Europe and cozying to Russia, the world’s outcast nation for good reason.

And it’s the way he’s gone after people not born white and in a red state. Tourism is sharply lower because who the hell wants to come to a place where they hold or cart off people the administration doesn’t like. When you act like Russia and North Korea, you don’t get respect. You get contempt.

Trump has forced the world to reexamine the order that gave the United States so much control over things. 

In a research report this month, Goldman Sachs – not exactly the wobbly left – warns of the world decreasing its reliance on us. Consumers throughout the world are making the decision to not buy things tied to us. Governments are looking into ways to negotiate high finance without the steadiest currency the world has ever known.

That could lead to a decrease in our standard of living. Inflation, unemployment, isolation.

We’ve walked the world as Americans, loud and proud. Trump is in the process of reducing us to what conservatives in the 1970s feared – a pitiful, helpless giant.

In the late 1700s, more than 1300 years after the fall of Rome, British historian Edward Gibbon wrote his masterwork, “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” While believing Rome’s embrace of Christianity contributed to its fall, he thought it came about more through decadence – Rome got too rich and complacent.

Someday, if the human race makes it to the 3300s, somebody will look back at what the Americans did to quash their command of the planet. The answer wlll be that Americans got too filled with self-interest and self-pity to care what anyone thought. They thought they go it alone in a world that thrives only when it’s cooperative.

The American Empire didn’t shoot itself in the foot. It gave the gun to a huckster, and he shot the foot.

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THAT’S THE NEWS

I lucked into a daughter whose love of theater surpasses my own.

In fact, she’s written plays that were staged or read, and – BRAG ALERT – they’re really good.

What my daughter doesn’t write is news copy. That’s what I used to do – for much of a 40-year career.

I’m glad she loves writing. I’m also glad she’s not in the profession that helped pay for the education that led her to writing plays and TV scripts.

The reason this thought  came up this week is that my daughter took me to see the Broadway production of “Good Night, and Good Luck.” It stars George Clooney, who directed the film from which the play is derived. In the play, he portrays broadcast journalism legend Edward R. Murrow after playing Murrow’s producer, Fred Friendly, in the film.

In case you haven’t seen it, or forgot, “Good Night, and Good Luck.” highlights Murrow’s CBS broadcasts on Sen. Joseph McCarthy, whose crusade against people he perceived as Communists led to an atmosphere of fear in the 1950s. It captured – and was focused – on the fear of the era, educating another generation about a dark period in American history.

The movie is excellent and I recommend it if you can find it on a streaming service or old DVD. 

But I thought the play underscored a great point in a way the movie didn’t.

The play, much more that the film, takes place in the CBS “See It Now” newsroom. It depicts what’s great about journalism – the collaboration among colleagues, the rush of tracking down a hot story, the matching of wits with really smart people.

Murrow and his crew were disgusted by McCarthy’s intimidating and smearing. The parallels to 2025 America are obvious to anyone who checked their news alerts at the theater before turning off their phones.

But the play also highlighted the nature of the business known as broadcast journalism.

TV stations and networks have big newsrooms. They produce some incredible work – few newspaper pieces can match the power of a well-produced piece on a “See It Now” or its offspring, “60 Minutes,” not to mention some of the great PBS documentary series such as “Frontline.”

But big newsrooms are expensive. And, as many of the scenes in the play highlight, they don’t exactly bring in big numbers – news only gets ratings when it’s catastrophic, like the September 11 attacks. People even turn off Election Night coverage to watch old movies

There are scenes throughout the play when CBS’ chairman, William Paley, reminds Murrow that it’s the sponsors who pay his and his co-workers’ salaries. Murrow and Friendly even have to pay the costs of their McCarthy broadcasts because sponsors won’t.

I’ve seen the respect for broadcast journalism go from awe to awful. When I was young, there were icons on the air – Walter Cronkite, John Chancellor, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, Mike Wallace, Daniel Schorr, Judy Woodruff. Barbara Walters was an outstanding interviewer, pressing for a point when a politician kept trying to dodge it. 

People trusted and admired these men and women. They accepted that what they reported was as factual as it could possibly be.

Time, unfortunately has eroded that trust in two ways.

One is the quality of what we call news. Too much of what passes for news in the 21st century would have been scoffed at when I was young. Somebody setting a record on “Jeopardy!” A male celebrity’s stupid remark. A female celebrity’s apparel choice.

On TV, local newscasts forsake important issues in their community if they have video of somebody being rescued from a river in Thailand. The only stories that seem to take place in their market are easily filmable crime scenes and suspects, often the exceptions to the statistics that show crime decreasing in a city.

Celebrity and sensational stuff have been increasingly infringing on news. Even Murrow, the patron saint of broadcast journalism, did interviews with people like Liberace and Zsa Zsa Gabor to satisfy CBS’ ratings cravings. 

The other problem has come up a lot more in the past 30 years, since the creation of Fox News by Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch: Calling propaganda “news” and blaring it 24 hours a day.

It plays on people’s fears and addiction to personalities. And it makes crises out of nothing – think famously of Barack Obama wearing a tan suit or Joe Biden eating an ice cream cone. It trumpets clowns like Donald Trump – unless he accidentally does something that hurts Fox’s bottom line – and promotes morally bankrupt ineptitudes like Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity as “newsmen.”

In the play’s final monologue, Murrow – speaking to some unnamed awards dinner – muses that television should inform as much as it should entertain. That primetime should be used not just to show westerns and comedies, but also discussions of domestic problems and foreign policy.

The problem is that it’s unlikely you’d get even 1% of the audience for “Tracker” or “Chicago Fire” for those kinds of discussions. The most popular news show, “60 Minutes,” is a notable and laudable exception, but it is more about hot-button issues than in-depth discussion of matters that matter.

As a result, we’re not as smart as we should be. We’re susceptible to demagogues and liars.

I went into journalism as my way of informing a world I wanted to improve. I thought the truth, whether it fit with what I believed or not, was the most important thing – that’s what I told the Northwestern professor who interviewed me in 1971. He warned me that, while my thinking was admirable, the truth was not as rock solid as I thought.

As “Good Night, and Good Luck.” reminded me, I love journalism. I love what it accomplishes when it’s good. There are still colleagues of mine doing incredible work – and I’m so proud I know them.

But I’m happy my daughter is a playwright and screen writer. Because I think that, in 2025, she’ll help people find the truth about the world a lot more efficiently than if she worked in a newsroom. 

This isn’t Edward R. Murrow’s America any more. We’re all the worst for that – and the path back from that is hard to see.

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ENTITLEMENT 

As of the moment this gets posted, I am 71 years old.

I can’t comprehend being 71. I remember being 17. It doesn’t seem that long ago.

Being 71 is something I never imagined. When I was pining for some young woman, when I got bored in a Sociology class, when I played second base in my town’s youth baseball league, I couldn’t foresee the world where I am now looking back on all those things and more.

There are lots of things not good about being 71. I go back to knee rehab Monday. My diabetes prevents me from scarfing a genuine toasted sesame bagel with a schmear of olive pimento cream cheese. I’ve seen Trump get elected president – not once, but twice, once after he tried to stage a coup after he lost,

But there are pluses. There are descriptions I can apply to myself that I would have had a difficult time justifying in my youth. I call them entitlements because I feel as though I’Ve earned them.

CURMUDGEON 

I’ve aspired to curmudgeondom ever since I started working as a wire service writer.

One of my mentors was Charles J. Morey. He was a phenomenal broadcast sports writer for the Associated Press. He was nearing retirement age when I was hired in 1977. 

His talent – writing simple, clear, declarative sentences that someone could read on the radio with ease. That he was able to string them together with wit and charm made him great.

But Charlie seems very forbidding when I met him at age 22. I’d get to work at 4 and he would sitting at his desk, arms crossed, waiting for his replacement. He was perpetually cranky and full of invective, particularly about the management of the organization. 

He was never, ever afraid to express his views out loud. 

My managers told me that I should try to be as good as writer as he was. But they also said you don’t want to share his personality. 

They got it wrong.

I loved the idea of being this inscrutable old man who passes down proclamations as if residing on Mount Olympus. And I loved the idea of making people think twice before bringing up a stupid idea.

I’d like to think that, with the passing of time, I’ve ascended to Mount Curmudgeon. And once my time among the mortals is past, Charlie is waiting for me with an Irish whiskey, arms crossed in the corner of a room, with my empty chair next to him.

CUT-RATE

A year before I turned 65, I went into New York to have a drink with a former colleague. On the way down, I stopped at the New-York (the hyphen isn’t a typo) Historical Society. If I waited a year, it would have cost me $10 less.

I revel in senior discounts. I pay half-price for the subway and commuter rail. I pay lower prices to get into museums. I bought a Senior Pass for National Parks just before Trump screwed them up and didn’t pay to visit Joshua Tree, Haleakala and Sagamore Hill. I get 10% off every time I go to the local supermarket. 

It might seem silly to those of you paying the full price for everything. But it’s a small pleasure that makes me thing I’ve got something that those of you who aren’t 65 or 71 don’t. 

Of course, there is one drawback: I don’t ever get questioned about whether I’m entitled to a senior discount. 

I’m reminded of the time my 72-year-old grandmother visited my parents, taking a bus from Queens to the North Shore of Long Island. She was indignant. She hadn’t said anything, but the driver charged her the senior fare.

“How did he know I qualified for it?,” she scowled, believing that it was hard to look at her and know she was 72.

I don’t get carded, either. That must mean I look every bit of my 71 years. 

Great. 

CONSEQUENCE

When I was young, I wanted to be famous. I originally sought a career as a TV reporter, thinking the fame I’d attain would garner respect I didn’t get a lot of as a heavy kid in the suburbs. 

That didn’t happen. 

Would it have been cool to be a household name? I’m not sure. I have friends and family who have attained measurable success – I can find them on Wikipedia – and they seem happy and grounded. Some sought the limelight, some didn’t. 

But sometimes I wonder if fame is an opiate. People can’t handle the pressure or the adoration. They turn to ways to numb the feeling – alcohol, drugs, abusive behavior, infidelity, violence.

So I haven’t attained celebrity. And I don’t feel as though as I’m missing anything. 

Because I believe I’ve attained consequence instead.

Consequence is contributing to your world. It’s having people seek your advice and respect your opinion. It’s gaining from the experience and wisdom of others. It’s sharing a honest laugh with a few good friends and your family. 

It’s helping to bring two great kids – the most fun people I know – into the world and sharing their triumphs and occasional setbacks. It’s spending my days with someone I love who seeks my counsel as she wrestles with her own efforts at making a mark.

I couldn’t imagine consequence when I ambled home from high school or drove from my summer job at a tire store. But I also couldn’t imagine cellphones, streaming TV and air fryers, either. 

I’ll take it. And, betraying my curmudgeon aspirations, gladly. 

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IMPROV 101

My son took an improvisational comedy class this winter – and his class show was last Sunday.

It was a good hour of solid laughter as he and his fellow quick-thinkers responded to the moment with some hilarious ideas.

As his class instructor said at the conclusion, that was the only time that show will ever be seen quite that way. The next time, it will be somewhat different, funnier or maybe not.

Improvisation is a great form of comedy.

It’s a lousy strategy for fighting would-be dictators.

Right now, Democrats are wisely capitalizing on the nonchalance of Trump’s national security team, which accidentally gave a journalist access to deliberations on this month’s strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

No one claims to know how Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was included in what should have been a top-secret chat on the messaging service Signal.

In the process, Trump and his Trumpettes have blamed Goldberg, called it an accident, told two versions of what they knew about the situation, blamed AOC, asked if it might have been a nefarious plot by Signal workers, said the dog did it, blamed Joe Biden and anything else you can think of. Not all of that is real, but given how these people are, you might be tempted to think it’s possible they used all those alibis.

Here’s the thing: I would be surprised if anyone loses their job because of this. Even Party Pete Hegseth, the Defense Secretary and White Lotus wannabe.

Accidentally broadcasting American military operations and putting the lives of brave men and women at risk is only a mild stretch from sexual predation, persecution, family destruction, illegal deportation, violations of free speech and 34 felony counts of fraud.

And if, by some stroke of unusual competence in Team Trump, somebody does get canned, what does that mean for the quality and integrity of the U.S. executive branch?

Bupkis.

It doesn’t matter if Pete Hegseth or Peat Moss holds the title of Defense Secretary, even if they have the same level of intelligence.

See, the thing is, Trump and the Republicans aren’t improvising. They’re working from a script. And they will stick to the script no matter who the actors are.

Their script is to weaken and decimate the federal government. And nothing – not even a scandal involving the basic idea that YOU DON’T TELL EVERYONE YOUR SECRET MILITARY PLANS – will cause them to ad lib.

They told you what they were going to do when they put out their Project 2025 playbook. And even when Trump went around denying he knew anything about a plan he almost certainly approved, did you ever believe the Republicans wouldn’t abide by it?

And that brings me to the Democrats.

We are good at getting mad. Reacting in the moment to some injustice or wrongdoing. Our lawmakers ask the piercing questions at committee hearings. We create clever memes and social media posts.

What Democrats don’t do is plan.

It’s almost as if they expect would-be voters to trust that they’ll find some way to attain the ideals they proclaim. But they don’t have a blueprint to get to that point.

And people like blueprints. They like specifics. They like benchmarks to gauge progress and ideas.

Democrats are afraid of ideas. They’re afraid people will shoot them down.

Try them. Instead of saying we think education needs to be reformed, ask people what they want for their kids and then work with them to attain those goals. Instead of saying we need to take care of our elderly, ask seniors and their caregivers what’s needed and figure out how we get to that point. 

If people are angry about their healthcare options, see what’s troubling your constituents and then work toward it. 

Trying to fight the drive toward Project 2025 won’t come ad hoc. It is, to be sure, extremely unpopular – it polled so badly that Trump and the others denied it existed even though it was in print and online for all to see. Once they won, they just went back to the plan as if it was a mandate.

The advantage Democrats will have if they develop an action agenda in consultation with the people showing up at town halls is that people will support it. Make it a genuine grassroots idea, and they’ll back you to the hilt.

It’s well and good to improvise a reaction to a security scandal or whatever Trump’s next A.S.S. (Act of Shame and Stupidity) is. But you can’t wing your way to win the hearts of your fellow Americans.

It takes a script. Write one.

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ARTICLE II

Here’s what I imagine happened:

One night, in his first presidency, Trump was in the White House room where he does the most thinking, the bathroom.

Normally, that’s where the most feculent thing he does is send out messages on social media on whatever flitters through his mind. But this particular night, he must have left his BlackBerry somewhere.

Instead, he grabbed whatever was lying around. It just so happened to be a copy of the Constitution.

He certainly could care less about the Preamble, with that “We the People,” “domestic Tranquility” and “Blessings of Liberty” stuff. And Article I was about the Congress, the bane of his existence. It mentioned what Congress’ powers are, but why should any of that matter?

But then he came to Article II.

Here’s how it starts: The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

He really didn’t bother to read after that, certainly not after that long part about the election of the president, most of which was changed by the 12th Amendment.

This was a sentence Trump thought he understood. Because, after all, wasn’t he an executive? In his mind, a great executive – somehow forgetting those multiple bankruptcies.

From that reading, Trump and his enablers have understood Article II to allow him to do whatever he wants. 

If Article II, Section 1, paragraph 1 was all there was to the Constitution, Trump might be right.

The problem is that, as I’ve tried to illustrate over the past few weeks, if you actually read the whole thing – the Preamble, the seven Articles and the 28 (again, I’m with Biden that the ERA is part of the Constitution) Amendments, Trump’s reading of our founding document is woefully incomplete. 

But Trump, Musk and the demon devils in their sway are citing Article II as the reason they have the right to terminate federal employees at will. As they see it, Trump’s the executive – a variation on the word execute. 

And that’s what he intends to be, the man who executes democracy for the benefit of himself and those who support him. 

If he and his supporters actually did READ THE CONSTITUTION – as they say their opponents haven’t – they wouldn’t have to go far into Article II to see this little gem from Section 3: 

he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed

That would include the right of due process spelled out in the Bill of Rights, even for people in this country undocumented. That would include the judicial authority spelled out in Article III to rule on whether the action of any individual in this country, including the president, is legal – a power that does not fall on the executive branch. That would include provisions against Emoluments – getting gifts or payments that exceed his constitutional limitation. 

That would include abiding by laws duly passed by Congress affecting such things as civil service and civil rights – and by constitutional amendments ratified by the states that grant citizenship to anyone born in this country and limit a president of the United States to two terms in office.

Perhaps the way to combat Trump’s invocation of Article II is to take legal action finding him in violation of Article II. I wonder what that would take.

I don’t know how we’re going to stop what’s happening to our country. I’ve read every word of this Constitution over the past two months, and there’s nothing in here about how you act against an executive intent on running roughshod over it, especially when a small majority in Congress is complicit in it.

Our Founding Fathers didn’t imagine anyone as craven as Trump. I can’t blame them, because we didn’t see this either. We thought Richard Nixon would be the worst president we ever saw. 

But we’ve got to figure out something. And by “we’ve,” I mean political leaders, civic leaders, corporations, educators, artists and anyone else you can think of. What Chuck Schumer did last week in capitulating to Trump and the Republicans was extraordinarily unhelpful.

And we just can’t allow Trump to use our Constitution – Article II included – to wipe himself when he’s done. 

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THE BILL

The people who didn’t believe this country should be one big unit insisted that the Constitution, ratified in 1789, have an attachment that specified the rights of American citizens.

It’s what we now call The Bill of Rights. It took more than two years to adopt the ten amendments that comprise the bill, meaning that even though there was eventual agreement on the idea, it was like pulling teeth for James Madison and the other anti-federalists.

As part of my mission to heed the overwrought MAGA T-shirt wearers demanding we all read the Constitution, that’s what I’ve been doing the past few weeks.

I have some thoughts.

— Here’s the text of the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This amendment, like some of the ones that came later, carries quite a load.

First, the next time these people talk about God is integral to American life, tell them to READ THE CONSTITUTION. Not only can Congress not make a law requiring some specific religious practice – be it an official faith or sect, or forcing kids to recite a prayer in a classroom. 

It also doesn’t restrict your right to pray. As has been said many times, notably by Ronald Reagan, “As long as there are final exams, there will always be prayer in schools.”

You just can’t force anyone else to do it.

The second part deals with the idea of free speech.

We heard a lot about when pre-Musk Twitter and pre-obedient-Zuckerberg Facebook banned Trump following the 2021 insurrection. The usual Trump flag waving homes and businesses had signs saying “Protect Free Speech!”

So let’s be clear. Facebook has the right to stop you from saying whatever you want. So does your local shopping mall. So does CNN and The New York Times; as does Fox News and The New York Post.

Because the amendment says Congress shall make no law abridging free speech. And the people who own Facebook, the mall and those media outlets have the right to stop you from spouting your beliefs – in part based on this amendment.

The next time you see or hear some MAGA putz cry about free speech, ask them when would be a good time for the transgender rights or anti-automatic weapon protest at their house. And watch their response.

The proof that the free speech “absolutists” – at least as far as letting Trump spew what he wants – are full of crap is what’s happening right now to Mahmoud Kahlil.

He’s the Palestinian-born U.S. resident who advocated for Hamas in protests at Columbia University. And he was pretty much abducted by ICE goons from his dorm and taken to Louisiana, where Herr Trump’s minions are working to deport him.

I unequivically do not support Hamas. They’re goons who kidnapped Israeli children and elderly people, killing a lot of them. 

But I also unequivically do not support extralegal justice in what proclaims itself to be the world’s freest country. If you think there’s a legitimate reason to send Kahlil back to Middle East, take it up with a judge. But to seize and hold him before evidence of an actual crime committed is presented to a grand jury is Dictatorship 101.

Letting this happen is one step from just grabbing anyone – citizen or not – and expelling them from this country.

— Here’s the text of the Second Amendment: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

There was a United States of America before most of its major city police departments were created. New York’s – with 50,000 officers and other personnel – came into existence in 1845, 56 years after the Constitution was ratified.

Why do I bring that up?

In 1791, when this amendment came to be, the most common way to arrest someone who broke the law was for a sheriff to round up a posse – think of old Westerns – and bring the lawbreaker to justice.

With the creation of police departments, the need for deputies ended. There were cops. 

The first four words of the Second Amendment always seem to be skipped over. The idea of the amendment was to allow those sheriffs and, later, those cops to get the weaponry to enforce the law.

They were not – as evidenced by the words “A WELL REGULATED MILITIA” – meant to allow some crackpot to collect AR-15s. Madison and his peers probably thought semi-automatic weapons were an impossible fantasy. They also don’t say anything about having the guns to shoot up a bunch of deer, unless you somehow believe deer compromise the “security of a free state.”

As much as I loathe guns, I don’t support repealing the Second Amendment. I just wish 21st century Americans would actually read it – and then, in its adherence, eliminate the right to hold weapons that sick people use to shoot up schools, shopping malls and churches.

— Here’s the text of the Third Amendment: No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Among jurists, there are people known as originalists, people who believe the wording of the Constitution should be applied as if it were the 18th century.

This gives the men who wrote the Constitution and Bill of Rights not only legal weight, but also prognostication expertise. 

Despite their large egos, I personally don’t think they wanted it. Madison didn’t foresee computers. Hamilton didn’t foresee big Broadway musicals.

And Washington, the presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention, had no idea that there would be huge military bases in Texas, California and Germany – as well as having no idea that any of those three places existed.

The point is that there’s no reason whatsoever that someone’s Third Amendment rights should ever need to be invoked. The Third Amendment is a relic of a fledgling nation that didn’t have a large standing military.

What does that say about the other parts of the Constitution? Interpreting this document as if it’s 1791 is silly. 

And yet, we had Antonin Scalia, rest in peace, interpreting things that way. And we have Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas doing that now. 

— Here’s the text of the Fifth Amendment: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

When somebody takes the Fifth Amendment in a criminal or civil case, do you assume guilt?

If you don’t, congratulations. You have followed the intentions of the framers of the Constitution. Again, they had no foresight of threats from mobsters or social media or any of the modern reasons for invoking the Fifth Amendment.

But Trump has not been a big fan of this fundamental U.S. right. This is what he said when some of Hillary Clinton’s staff invoked it during the infamous e-mail server crisis of 2016:

“When you have your staff taking the Fifth Amendment, taking the Fifth, so they’re not prosecuted, when you have the man that set up the illegal server taking the Fifth, I think it’s disgraceful.”

Six years later, during the case of The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump over whether he falsified business records to pay hush money to a woman he slept with, Trump didn’t find invoking the Fifth Amendment so disgraceful.

He did it 400 times.

It didn’t stop the state from proving its case before a jury of Trump’s peers, not once but 34 times. But it was his right.

Now that Trump, and this still blows my mind, has regained the presidency, we’re going to see if MAGA is going to Make Taking the Fifth Disgraceful Again. 

What are the odds?

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LET’S STAY TOGETHER

I’m a big fan of Al Greens.

There’s no apostrophe missing there. Of course, you need to be made of stone not to enjoy the minister who sang “Let’s Stay Together” and “I’m Still in Love With You.”

But the other Al Green, a Democratic Congressman from the Houston area for 20 years, made some fans (me) and a bunch of enemies (not me) when he verbally challenged Trump during his “Look at Me” speech last night. Green was removed from the House floor by order of one of Trump’s pets, Mike Johnson.

I’m not usually a fan of disruptors, Civility requires listening to other people’s points of view.

But that was when we were a civil society. Something that ended on January 20. Since then, thousands of federal employees are no longer at their jobs, tariffs have been imposed on the two best neighbors any country in the world has ever had and the bravest politician in the world – a leader whose valiant nation has held off a brutal invader for three years – endured a public temper tantrum by two Russian dolls.

Rep. Green stood up to say what this is – bullshit. Letting it go unchecked and adulated by the sycophants in the Republican Party wasn’t an option for him.

It shouldn’t be one for us.

—-

Anyway, I’m still reading the Constitution backward. I skipped Amendment 16 last week because I wanted to emphasize the Reconstruction amendments – 13, 14 and 15 – to cap Black History Month. 

So let me start with 16, and then look at 12 and 11.

16th Amendment: The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

Given the animosity with which Red states direct toward taxation, it might surprise you to know which state legislature first ratified the 16th Amendment. The answer will be below.

Somewhat timely, before this amendment’s ratification in 1913, the federal government’s main source of revenue was tariffs. Importers would bring in whatever they were selling in this country, the government would add the tariff and then the product would be sold.

As then, the country targeted by the tariff wasn’t paying it – the final consumer was. The other country was hurt by the fact that their products were less competitive in the marketplace than those made in the United States. Tariffs, in addition to being revenue sources, were aimed at protecting American businesses – that’s their normal rationale.

They usually aren’t imposed for some nebulous reason or some lame political aim. People in the 1890s would be dumbfounded by what Trump did.

Because consumers paid the final cost, they were seen as regressive. People with lower incomes were spending a larger percentage of overall wealth on things than those who were wealthy.

So the impetus for the 16th came from the West and South. The opposition was primarily in the Northeast – of the four state legislatures that rejected the amendment, two were Connecticut and Rhode Island. Pennsylvania never considered it.

The amendment blocks the idea of each state needing to contribute a specific amount and that size of the state’s population is not a factor in the levy.

Alabama was the first state to ratify the 16th Amendment. It’s probably embarrassed by that fact now.

12th Amendment: The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; — the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;

 — The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. 

— The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

Four points about this amendment:

— So, as all you “Hamilton” fans know, in the first few president elections, each member of the Electoral College cast two votes for president. The man (no 19th Amendment yet) with the highest total that was a majority of the votes cast became president. The runner-up became vice president.

If this rule was in effect now, we’d still have Trump. But we’d also have Vice President Kamala Harris (again). The person a heartbeat away from the presidency could, theoretically, be very interested in making that other heart stop beating – and vice versa.

And, in 1804, when a pissed off Aaron Burr blamed Alexander Hamilton for finishing second in the prior election. Burr finished Hamilton.

So that was one of the primary purposes of the 12th Amendment. Now, the Electoral College voted for separate people – running mates – for president and vice president.

— In the last sentence of that first section, do you see anything that indicates the person counting the Electoral College votes – the president of the Senate, who’s the sitting vice president – has any leeway into how those votes are counting?

Where do these people get these stupid ideas? Mike Pence might not have been the smartest guy in America on January 6, 2021. But, thankfully, he could read.

— Right in the middle of that wordy second section above is the date of March 4th. If he he 20th Amendment hadn’t passed in the early 1930s, Inauguration Day would have been this past Tuesday.

Which would have been worse – waiting four months to inaugurate Trump or beginning the chaos we’ve experienced since January 20 a couple of days ago?

— It’s not only the 22nd Amendment that stops Trump from having a third team. It’s also the 12th. Because the 22nd specifies that Trump can’t run again in 2028, he’s constitutionally ineligible to be vice president, which some have suggested might be his way around the third term thing.

11th Amendment: The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.

I, a New Yorker, am limited in the ways I can go to federal court to get remedy from a perceived wrong in another state.

This amendment means I can’t try to overturn Texas’ draconian abortion laws in federal court, and some yahoo in Waco can’t try to overturn New York’s laws.

The federal government, on the other hand, is still free to go after states for stupid laws – that’s how a lot of Jim Crow laws got bounced in the 1960s.

This seems like one of those amendments that’s a little fungible.

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AND SO THIS IS BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Black History Month 2025 is coming to an end.

When February comes around, news outlets, educators and others who mark Black History Month tend to focus on personalities. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, Barack Obama and others. 

And that’s great – usually, there’s a story of a Black American hero that’s forgotten or little told. How Katherine Johnson and other Black women “computers” made this country’s space program possible was a revelation to millions when the film “Hidden Figures” was released in 2016.

But to commemorate Black History Month – and to continue to, as so many MAGAs like to say, “read the Constitution” – let’s skip around and focus on Amendments 13, 14 and 15.

These are often referred to as the Reconstruction Amendments, ratified between 1865 and 1870, aimed at correcting the American sin of slavery that resulted in the Civil War.

I doubt there are MAGA types – despite their self-proclaimed literacy about the Constitution – who have seriously read 13, 14 and 15. If they have, they do an amazing job of ignoring them in word and/or spirit.

13th Amendment: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Slavery isn’t peculiar to the United States and wasn’t newly thought up in the 16th century, as anyone who’s casually read a Bible knows.

But it seems few countries embraced slavery with the gusto that this one did – particularly, but far from exclusively, in the South.

It took the northern part of the United States, which didn’t rely on slavery as much for economic development, until well into the start of the 1800s to begin agitating against it. For the South, the equation was simpler – slave labor reduced costs. And if it was restricted to people who weren’t white, all the better.

So we fought a Civil War, almost as if it was penance for the horror we as a nation imposed. And, with the passage of the 13th Amendment – a process beautifully depicted by Steven Spielberg in his 2012 film, “Lincoln” – slavery ended in the United States.

Uh, no.

The second clause of the amendment specifically states “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”

That’s the sound of the man working on the chain gang. (Sorry, Sam Cooke)

The 13th Amendment made slavery illegal for people who weren’t convicted of a crime. But it made it legal for people who were, forcing them into prison chain gangs and other such horrors.

And so, the back door to slavery, particularly for thousands of Black Americans, were laws passed in the Jim Crow that severely restricted their actions – so much so that the number of “crimes committed” skyrocketed. 

It’s one of the reasons why this nation has one of the largest rates of incarceration in the world. Particularly of Black man, who become a source of cheap labor for states and businesses who contract with them.

That’s the point of filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s outstanding documentary, “The 13th.” And it’s why when you look up the idea of repealing the amendment – something you would expect from those who think making America great again means reintroducing slavery – you’ll find Black and white liberal members of Congress advocating for repeal of just that clause.

14th Amendment: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

The 14th Amendment does a lot of work. That’s why many scholars consider it the most consequential of the 28, or at least of the 18 passed after the Bill of Rights.

I’ll try to be brief.

The first section was thought to be required as a way to get around the Dred Scott ruling of 1857. That’s when the Supreme Court ruled that a runaway slave had no rights because he wasn’t a citizen. The backers didn’t want Congress changing its mind about this, so they enshrined “birthright citizenship” into the Constitution.

That’s the part Trump wants to get rid of by fiat, seeing it as a way to deny the rights of children born here to undocumented immigrants – what he and his ilk call “anchor babies.” 

But does that mean that if you are someone born to parents who were in the process of becoming but not yet citizens, your automatic citizenship would be revoked? That’s a legal nightmare in the making.

Yes, his Supreme Court is pretty tame. But if it upholds Trump’s view of this, you might as well rip this whole document up. 

That third section also seems pertinent in 2025. Because he got re-elected in 2024, the effort to hold Trump accountable for what he did on January 6 has died. In the criminal courts, anyway.

I just wonder what would happen if he could be found to have committed insurrection in a civil court and thus made constitutionally ineligible. Lawyer friends, help me out with this.

Also, in case these pardoned felons from January 6 have ideas about getting reimbursed for their trouble, I would suggest reading (READ THE CONSTITUTION!) section four to dissuade you of that notion.

One other point about the 14th Amendment: If you read it and wondered what’s going on if voting is restricted to men 21 and older, you obviously didn’t read the last two parts of this series. First, welcome, belatedly. Second, go back and read ’em – the 19th and 26th Amendments address this.

15th Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

That’s all there is to the last of the Reconstruction amendments. It seems pretty simply stated – American citizens can’t be denied the right to vote because of what they look like.

Understood?

Apparently not. Because the 15th has been so violated since its ratification in 1870 that we needed the 24th Amendment that bars the use of poll taxes and the 1965 Voting Rights Act just to enforce it.

Racists – first Democrats immediately after the Civil War and then Republicans after passage of the Civil Rights Act – have found ways around the 15th.

The poll taxes that the 24th abolished were instituted in Southern states to make it too difficult for poor people – many of whom were Black – to vote. But those Black people who found the money to meet the tax faced so-called “literacy tests” designed to make it impossible for them to pass.

And even with everything that has been done, Republicans have found new ways to stop people of color from voting.

They’ll say that the voter ID laws they seem hellbent on passing are designed to protect against election fraud.

BS. The only fraud being committed is the effort to eliminate people of color and women from voter rolls. Enough of them were taken off by 2024 to possibly have made a difference in who was elected three months ago.

—–

The three Reconstruction amendments are not in the Constitution through the benevolence of the white ruling class of this country.

They are in there because of what rebellious slaves, freed men and women, advocates like Frederick Douglass, and the thousands of Black soldiers who literally fought against sedition and treason.

Amendments 13, 14 and 15 are more promise than realization. Making them work is the job of everyone who cherishes freedom – in Black History Month and the other 11 as well.

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