WHERE DID THIS MESS COME FROM – A BRIEF HISTORY

By Ruth A. Sheets

We the People are living with a sizable political and social mess which didn’t begin with Donald Trump.  It is true he is incompetent, but he, alone, did not create this destructive anti-American cadre of incompetence, although he did release them on the people and institutions of this nation.

As I see it, so much of it began with Gerald Ford's pardoning of Richard Nixon, claiming pardoning a criminal for his actions while president would help to heal America.  The pardon told political operatives that a president, if properly groomed and paid off, can pardon anyone from Federal crimes.  Folks can complain but, pardons can’t be challenged.  In the wrong hands, as we have seen, a president can pardon insurrectionists if he can call them “patriots” or “heroes,” just don’t call them traitors.

Ronald Reagan seemed like such a "good guy," an actor, you know,” but he had little positive experience of governing.  He was a crappy governor of California, having law enforcement attack college student protesters.  He claimed illegal drug use and poverty as excuses to harm his fellow citizens and to give rich white men more power, a chunk at a time.  While in office, his efforts ended a lot of the support for California’s public universities, and cut property taxes for the very rich.  As president he encouraged big business to move into nearly every facet of life, giving them big tax cuts and the warped idea of “trickle-down economics,” if the rich got more money it would drip down to everyone else; it didn’t.”  He blamed people for needing welfare, claiming they were stealing from the American people (welfare queens).  Under Reagan, wages were cut and cost of living raises were not maintained.  Unions were “discouraged.”    

Bush Sr. went right along with the big business good program, even getting us into a war many thought was just great, giving lots of business to large corporations who would produce the weaponry needed for the war.  Racism got a boost too with the “Willie Horton” ad that “hinted” that Black men are unredeemable criminals.  Future president Donald ?Trump used that “theory” to take out an ad in the “New York Times” demanding the innocent Black men accused of the infamous Central Park murder, be put to death.  

Bush,Jr. was not actually "elected" by the popular vote, but with the electoral college, his brother in charge in Florida, and cheating just part of the way things are done in Florida,he became president, again no real experience of governing beyond signing death warrants in Texas.  Bush,Jr. got us into two wars and a major economic crisis (the Great Recession) that Democrats were required to clean up after, just as they had to do after his dad left office. 

The whole time, Republican presidents and members of Congress were being manipulated to blame all the ills of the world on Democrats, poor people of color in particular and immigrants whenever they could work it in.  They ran McCain in 2008, but his age and his pick of Palen as his running mate were marks against him.  The “Great Recession” didn't help him either. 

President Obama and VP Biden, inaugurated in 2009, got about 50 days to get the mess cleaned up.  That couldn’t happen because the crisis was deep and they had next to no support from Republicans.  Instead of giving the “bail-out” money to the homeowners, they paid the banks who had helped bring about the crisis and millions of people lost their homes.  Many are still trying to recover completely, 17 years later. 

Rich conservatives desperately looked for someone who could "relate" to the Republican base and would buy and spread the BS Republicans and the oligarchs were pushing.  They found their guy in Donald Trump, an incompetent rich white businessman who was manipulatable, hateful, resentful of everyone who had things he wanted and would do anything to acquire, in short, a child-man.  A show “The Apprentice” was built around him, an entire fraud.  It was sold as "reality TV," but it definitely was not reality.  Trump was a loose canon, but workable.   While campaigning in 2016, Trump would mouth the lies fed to him by the last guy to talk to him out of his collection of sycophants or from the voices on “Fox News.”  He didn't win the popular vote either, but the electoral college negated 3 million votes and he took office. 

Democrats were shut out of most of what was going on until 2019 when they took the House.  They did keep Trump and his crazies from doing more damage, but what Republicans had done was enormous:  cutting taxes massively for the very rich, allowing immigrant children to be separated from parents and thrown into cages on behalf of scared white guys who can't stand immigrants who are smarter, harder-working, and just all-'round “better” than they are.  Their Supreme Court picks were sycophants who would do what they were told, most of the time.  They mismanaged a pandemic and left the economy in shambles.  Lying was and still is the order of the day for Republicans in power. There seems nothing they won’t lie about!

Russell Vought, a rich nobody, and his whiny white friends at the Heritage Foundation wrote an anti-American white supremacist 900+ page diatribe called "Project 2025" during Biden's term to undermine our government, and turn Americans against each other solely for the benefit of the very rich, mostly white men with far too much money.  Then, I do believe that during the 4 years when Biden was working to make significant advances, particularly related to climate change, international relations, and transportation and general infrastructure, you know, the things America needs, The project 2025ers went to work to get a system in place for “stealing” the election in 2024, and keeping power permanently,  possibly practicing on certain races in 2022.  There is some evidence related to AI interference in "swing state" voting in 2024.  Democrats, fearing to be seen as just like Republicans whining over the 2020 election which Trump definitely lost, didn't challenge the results and allowed the project 2025ers into office to put their nefarious plans in place.  They should have been arrested the night they entered our departments claiming to be the DOGE, a non-existent government entity that was designed by Musk and friends to steal Americans' private information for his own benefit.  The lying, cheating, militarization, etc. continue. 

We are not helpless, despite Trump’s desire that we should be.  There are things we can do to clean up this mess!

1. Get everyone we know and even don't know to be sure they are registered to vote, signing them up NOW and encouraging them to vote in every election.

2. Pressure our media to report the truth.  For example, Ms. Good and Mr. Petty, in Minneapolis were murdered by an ICE operative and Border Patrol officers!  There is no real controversy, no mistake about that, despite Noem’s and Trump’s lies.   The liars need to be called out on their actions and lies, all the time on every social media platform, newspaper, NPR/PBS, and traditional network, as creatively and by as many people as possible.

3. Continue to protest the ICE and Border Patrol killings and abuse, in Minneapolis and in all our communities.  Report on the  bad treatment in the concentration camp prisons, so people will know that this evil is going on in our name and with our tax money. 

4. Write letters, make calls and sign petitions to lawmakers at all levels demanding they follow their oath of office and stop this Trumpian anti-Americanism.  

5. Do not lose hope, give up, or allow ourselves to think that Trump and his crazies are worthy of any respect beyond that of being human beings; they do not care what they are doing except that it will hurt people their boss Baby Donnie doesn't like.

6. Encourage a lot of people to read our Constitution over and over so we can knowledgeably demand our Congress start following and living by it and the oaths they swore.

 

Those are just a few things, each doing our little or big part to stop this Trumplican mess.  Trump has dementia and needs to be gone from office, but so do Vance and Trump’s handlers whose plot is to destroy this nation so their rich buddies can take over.  We don't have to allow it, so let’s not!

FACING OUR HISTORY

By Ruth A. Sheets

February 6, 2026

 As I listen to and contemplate current news briefs, I am reminded that doing harm to people white men don’t like, as ICE is being permitted to do, has been part of the American experience nearly from the beginning. 

 Slavery happened and Black people were the victims no matter how much white folks want to believe that enslavement saved Black people from ignorance and savagery and want to cut slavery from American history; it won’t happen!  After the Civil War and supposed freedom, in our south and in some northern locations too, Black men and women and their allies were lynched for wanting something better, more fair, more equal.  Those white perpetrators were extremely rarely held accountable.  White women and children came to sites of lynchings and cheered, jeered, and showed themselves and their white male perpetrators to be worse than anything those being lynched could possibly have done. 

People were killed for their faith at least as long as there have been “Christians” in this nation.  There have been reports of possible killings of Irish Catholics working on railroads in the middle 1800s.  KKKers targeted Catholics as well as Black Americans in the south and Chinese and Japanese were attacked for just being who they are, mostly in the West.  Then, there are the many Native Americans who were killed just because white men wanted their land and them gone.  The one thing these events have in common, white people, most of them men.   

 

Trump, Miller, and the rest of the white house white toddler pool have grabbed onto that "right" to be white and hateful, even murderous if they choose.  America until January 20, 2025 was better, but the strains of that old white male destruction are being revived and heard, even in the ICE recruitment ads.  I would bet those ICErs would be delighted to hang a few people and commit the same horrors their ancestors did to those who wanted their right to a piece of the pie.  They’ve already dragged innocent people face-down along the street, including a pregnant woman, smashed car windows, broken into homes, kidnapped people and sent them, even children and old people, into appalling prisons far from home and any legal defense.  They committed murder on several occasions while Donald Trump implies only 2 out of thousands is no big deal. 

Trump and his sycophants forget their heroes:  Trump, Miller, Musk, and a bunch of others have recent immigrant ties, Trump’s mother was not a citizen when he was born and his father a second generation American.  Miller’s Lineage in America is not long, neither is Musk’s (overstayed his visa).  The hypocrisy is astounding!  Those white men don’t care because, well, they’re just so special, you know! 

This country needs to face the reality of who we have been and what we want to become.  I know we don’t want to be what we were, particularly many white Americans don’t.  We have a responsibility to work hard to make things better for more than just the super rich white guys who want to rule.  We do need to be protesting in every way we can, doing our best to stop the violence against women and people of color, citizens and immigrants alike.  That's what we are called to do.

In our protests, we must do everything possible to keep our elections free and untrumped,  and ICE off our streets.  Our Congress needs to be held accountable, anyone in either party who supports ICE and the other things DHS is doing need to be unelected ASAP, every single one!  Some things we can do include:  watching for ICE in our streets, giving warnings, filming, and getting in the way whenever we can show this Trump regime we are done with their hate, anger, fear and resentments that lead to revenge.  We are not in a schoolyard with a bunch of toddleresque bullies; we are ordinary Americans and our allies who are tired of the Trumpian toxic garbage!  We are looking for quality adult leadership!

 

 

HOPE IN THE NEW YEAR

 By Ruth A. Sheets

The first month of the new year has passed and the political upheaval that began just over a year ago continues at an alarming pace.  We are not helpless!  Here are a few of my ideas to direct some of our efforts to stop this tyrannical takeover.  The Substacks I connect with regularly present actions we can take.  Here are a few of my responses, slightly modified in some cases to include more recent events.

  

Lilla, I like your idea of finding ways to educate the American people about the truth. We could do it

• through supposed innocuous advertisements by decent corporations and agencies, mentioning kindnesses people have done as part of their ads, giving a fact about our constitution and its amendments at the beginning or end of each ad, “did you know that . . .” 
• presenting cartoons with positive themes about immigrants and others who do good works to help the people of this nation and the world and make it "cool" to watch them and share them among young people.
• Introduce local scholarships for people who do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly, but not too humbly in this world.

We have to be creative now in what we do because the creeps have had a half-century+ to do their dirty work against our nation and the world.

 

David, I heard Eli Wiesel speak once and wondered how he, Victor Frankel, and so many others maintained hope in the face of what they had experienced in the Holocaust.  It makes me see that we have within us individually and in groups, the ability to not only sow hope, but also to live it ourselves, making connections with people to keep us/them from losing hart and falling into the chasm of hatred, fear, unchecked anger, and utter cruelty that feed the fascists and other authoritarians who want only power to keep people under their thumb to get whatever they want with impunity.  We need to become the actors, as Bernie Sanders, AOC, and so many progressives have done, speaking, writing, drawing, composing works that can break through the walls that fascists and others build.   Hiding our heads and pretending none of this matters and there is nothing we can do is not acceptable. 

 

Joseph the challenge is that we don't all have the same idea of what it means to be "a good person" or virtuous.  For Trump and his toddler pool, it is to get as rich as possible, stepping on whoever happens to be in the way of their accumulation of money and power.  People who want to just be rich as their life's goal think a good person is one who can do whatever it takes and not look back.  I think we can put out some portraits of what it means to be a person of virtue, "a good person" through children’s books, articles, posters, Tee-shirts, and social media directed toward young people.  We can include civics education in our schools from Kindergarten through college, incorporating it through reading, science, and social studies, even math with material at each child’s learning level, making lessons fun and compelling.  We can emphasize, in our news and entertainment programs, people who have done positive things that matter, large or small (skipping quickly over those who are not people of virtue instead of dwelling on them).  We could do this through a campaign , pushing networks, social media platforms, and even NPR/PBS to stop putting Trump’s various actions and his name as the first thing on all of their news reports; he isn't worthy of the honor, particularly when he has done something illegal, like bombing boats in international waters, kidnapping the president of Venezuela, and threatening to invade other nations.  Cover these, but only with facts, reminding people that these are wrong actions. 

 

Marc, It can be pretty dark now, but we will come out on the other side of this as a different nation, hopefully for the good. Again neighbors are helping neighbors and many on our courts are working to stop the insanities of this regime. It is giving us a good look at those who do not value this nation, our constitution, and our laws. We need to focus on them to see who they are, what they are doing, and how they can be redirected. The oligarchs need to be addressed directly with higher taxes on all their wealth as well as their corporations. Having too much, as they do is bad for everyone. We could make a big difference on how this insanity is moved out.  We all need to stay vigilant and peaceful, protesting whenever we can and encourage others to protest with us no matter the obstacles. Courage, our values,  and our Constitution should be our guides.  Hope should give us what we need to keep moving forward.

 

It’s time more effort is placed on covering the actual courage being displayed in our nation, and it isn’t in the white house or among ICE or the Border Patrol.  Kudos to the people of Minneapolis for weathering the bitter cold to stand up to Trump’s paramilitary thugs.  Thanks to people all  over the country who are finding their voice and courage to protest in the face of this Trumpian regime.  Keep in mind the next “No Kings” event is set for March 28^th.  I hope to see you there in person or in spirit!

WHAT WILL WE DO AS AMERICANS?

 

By Ruth A. Sheets

January 21, 2026

This morning Robert Reich presented a challenging “Office Hours” in his Substack column.  He asked what we would risk “to counter ICE’s Bullying and Brutality?”  He gave 4 choices from “doing nothing” (writing to members of congress and signing petitions) to putting one’s life on the line.  I was not the only respondent who had some difficulty with this question.  Issues of racism, immigrants, and ignorance came up as one would expect.  These are some of my thoughts on this question. 

To one comment, I said, how terribly sad that whole communities have chosen to teach and curate hatred of anything they don't understand or fear instead of working together to understand and include.  There is value for some in this kind of negative behavior performed while claiming a religious faith that demands love and inclusion as well as service.  It helps some people to believe in their own superiority. It is a deeply engrained hypocrisy that has for many, become normalized.  Trump is just the most current practitioner, the con artist who sets one group against another and models how to do it while looking like the "good guy" just passing on the  secrets of life.  It seems We the People, or at least the part of us that cares about this nation will have to stand en masse to show others that they don't have to build their lives on hatred, dismissal of others,  and ignorance unless they choose, and it is  a choice.  Trump will never stop his conning ignorance because dementia does that to a person, but We the People can help each other become more like the people we claim we are.    

Compliance was a topic because of the way a lot of Republicans, white people in power, and some others have “obeyed in advance” to the illegal orders and actions of Trump and those around him.  My response to that is, people who so easily comply and go along with what the rest of us know is nonsense do it because they think it is what their group expects of them.  If they don't, they won't be accepted by that group, for them, a disaster.  We so often teach our children to comply "because I said so" and forget in our frustration that an explanation is necessary, if not at that moment, shortly afterward.  Women are groomed and threatened into compliance from birth and it is amazing that so many of us manage to break out and say "no."  Peer pressure is enormous in most people's lives and unfortunately those peers who are bullies and bad actors get by far the most attention and coverage.  Just look at our media to see how this works in real time.  Trump was often covered far more than Obama or Biden when they were actually president.  Those who are most susceptible definitely took notice and got the message that Trump was something special or the media wouldn’t cover him so much, and their loyalty went directly to him.  It still rests there no matter how much those people suffer from Trump's actions.  I do not believe these people are stupid, just willing to follow what is expected of them with as little fuss as possible.  We encourage that kind of compliance and blame people who don't comply as being "bad mothers" or "absent fathers" or "troublemakers" or whatever term those doing the manipulating come up with to shame people back into line.  Thank goodness there have always been people who would resist that shaming and called it what it is "BS."  We need more of that standing up right now, but without insulting too badly, those who have been cowed by the social pressures to conform and comply. 

Related to the many comments about the Trumpian treatment of immigrants, I said, yes, immigrants have always been America's strength, but rarely seen as that until the masses had become used to their presence, their accent as it disappeared, and their different customs.  Unfortunately, many Americans never allowed themselves to "get used to" Black and Native Americans, possibly because those folks had been present here from the beginning.  It was so hard for people who had been groomed to believe in the inferiority of Black and Native peoples, to readjust to the fact that they are at least as intelligent and capable as white folks and due to appalling treatment over the years had become even more resourceful in their efforts to survive.  It seems a whole lot of people like believing in their own superiority and will do nearly anything to keep that false idea alive and kicking.  We saw that on full display in the 2024 election when a woman of color who was eminently qualified ran for president.  I am sure there was some fraud perpetrated by Musk and his AIers, but if the same number of Democrats had come out to vote as had in 2020 for Biden, the Musk cheating would have been obvious and caught.  They didn't and despite all their whining about something or other, the real reason was racism and misogyny, the deep-seated need to keep a woman of color out of high office.  I am guessing we don't think about it much, but it is there and part of nearly everything white people do.  I taught in a disadvantaged school district with about 85% of the students Black, Hispanic, and other people of color.  I told them that it was likely I, as a white woman, would do or say something racist in my time with them, even though unintended because that is how endemic racism works.  I asked them to tell me if/when I did.  I don't know if I did because they never said anything, but I did know it was a definite possibility that racism would raise its ugly head at times.  The mostly white men recruited for ICE are guaranteed steeped in the racism that is endemic and are encouraged by their "leaders" to grow it and use it to "identify" immigrants of color they can snatch (kidnap) and drag off to the prisons that they are told those people deserve for daring to come into this supposedly "white country."  It is clear this is racism and also that our Supreme Court's Roberts 6 embody that racism, even Thomas whom one would think should know better.  ICE operatives are permitted to whine "I was scared for my life" as they murder and brutalize people when they are the only ones armed, masked, and wearing combat gear.  Does that mean white men are more easily damaged than unarmed people of color?  Inquiring minds want to know.   

This issue will not go away.  I am hoping Congress will be sick of the anti-American behavior of ICE and Sec. Noem of the Dept. of Homeland Security, and will totally defund and disband ICE.  ICE is a menace and we all need to think of how we will respond if/when they show up at our door.

A CULT OF STUPIDITY?

By Ruth A. Sheets

January 12, 2026

A member of Robert Reich’s thread and I had an interesting discussion for several days.  We discussed many things, but most interesting was a few exchanges about the general stupidity of the Trump regime.  These are two of my contributions to that discussion.  I realize it is only my side, but isn’t that often what happens in a blog!  

J L, I think character is our most important asset as Did Dr. King, and it was his words that I heard when I was 10 that started me on that path.  Many folks work hard to regularly adjust their character to fit the circumstance.  Such adjustment enables folks like Steve Miller to incite those “character-adjusters to do violence and lesser harms in the name of whatever hatred Miller et all drag out that day.  They say to themselves “that’s not who I am; I just got carried away.” 

When their hate works to do massive harm as Miller's hatred of immigrants has done, through ICE and others (hypothesized that it is due to his hatred of his Jewishness), he will keep it and magnify it.  When there is no accountability for the violence and cruelty, the orchestrator’s need for the "violence" multiplies and more people suffer which we now see in the establishment of concentration camp prisons for immigrants.  The vast majority held there, have done no crime, not even a traffic violation, and some are American citizens.  The crazy part, Miller et al don't have to do anything but open their mouths and it will be done (despite the fact that Miller has been elected to nothing by no one).  

Miller/Trump/Vance/Vought have now corralled Republicans/MAGAs all across the country to buy into his/their hatred of immigrants, ignoring what the American people want because, who is going to stop them?  They now have an army to stand against everyone else, and a lie-squad that can pump out lies before the truth is available.  All of this is criminal, far worse than anything immigrants have done in this country. 

How do we get more people to stand up, to display their positive character?  The death of Ms. Good in Minneapolis last week was meant to scare us all off, but I hope the response continues to be massive courageous protest.  then bring state charges and convictions against the perpetrators, whom the toddler president can't pardon. 

The white house media reps who heard Caroline Leavitt's clear lie last week should call her out on it all the time, no matter where she is and ask how she would feel if that had been her mother murdered in the street because an angry ICE agent had a gun and was masked.  She will whine and try to hide behind her Baby Donnie, but everyone except a few ignorant MAGAs knows that the entire regime lied about this murder, every one of them!  The regime is trying to gaslight, but most people choose to believe their own eyes and the videos taken at the moment of the murder, not the made-up AI altered fakes that Trump just released, thinking we’re all as stupid as he is!

J L, I think people who live in bubbles as many of certain careers or income brackets do, don't think past the confines of the bubble, even pushing their kids to bond only with folks from their own bubble, their race too, of course.  Most of the work gets done, often by the workers in the rich owners’ corporations, but the guys at the top don't know how or by whom.  They don't care if the wages for the workers is adequate, why should they care, particularly if the work gets done! 

Those owners and the regime in DC that supports them currently ignore global warming thinking if they can just make a few more100 billion they will be safe if the cataclysm arrives.  That thinking is truly beyond stupid, but if one is stuck in Bubbleland, their future is about making sure nothing is demanded of them in the present that will throw them off-course.  They buy politicians whom they think will work to that end on their behalf, and they do. 

People among those actual workers will suffer first, but that is OK with those in Bubbleland because in their minds, the crisis will never touch them because they have planned.  That sounds to me like a kind of cult of stupidity.  It would be a good idea if We the People outside the bubbles start trying to punch some holes to deflate those bubbles for the sake of all of us and our sacred planet.  We need a few pins in the hands of people who actually care and want to bring some reality to Bubbleland.  

It’s about intelligence – really?

By Ruth A. Sheets

Happy New Year again!  Well, back to my usual blogs.  I hope you will try some of the books I loved last year. 

These are responses I made to commenters on Robert Reich’s thread on Substack.  I hope you find my responses at least tolerable in addressing the insanity we are now experiencing.  There is a lot of negativity lately on the threads, and from what others are saying, many botts active right now.  I guess they think their “despair” can influence us to give up or comply in support of the appalling behavior of Trump and his toddler pool.  Not happening!  A commenter named Rick told me that I am  “giving too much credit to intelligent people, a rare commodity in America these days.”  I answered right back. 

Rick, yes I am.  There are a lot of intelligent people in this nation, even among the MAGAs.  A lot of those MAGAs are looking for something clearly missing in their life:  personal worth, some control in their lives, respect.  They work at low-paying jobs or if they are able, in slightly higher-paid work, but work where their bosses think of them as cogs that make their business operate, nothing else of value to the corporation.  When Donald Trump was falsely portrayed on "The Apprentice as a great businessman," they thought he was something special because he owned buildings with his name on them and could just say "you're fired" and the person was gone from the show (fake business).  The viewers didn't know the whole thing, presented as though it were "reality TV" but in real life, it took more than 200 hours of taping each episode for one 42 minute broadcast.  That is nothing like "reality" but the exhausted viewers saw what the producers, deceivers wanted them to see.  Then a bunch of despicable Republican operatives saw their chance to put into office an ignoramus with no experience, but who was a narcissist, a serial liar, hated everyone who did not bow to him, and was easily manipulated, but could be made popular among a bunch of folks.  He was their man and they went crazy promoting him and his nasty attitude, dismissive language, insults, avoiding mention of his misogyny, racism, and classism.  They knew those would work on their behalf when they got Trump into office.  They helped him get Russian involvement and probably committed other crimes to get their Baby Donnie elected in 2016.  Trump's sex admission tape didn't even shake any of the MAGAs because now they had a cause, a hero, someone they thought cared about them, even respected them; they had the hat to prove it!  Trump didn't win the popular vote, but it didn't matter since the Electoral College was designed to give too much power to the small and at the time slave states than to the actual majority of the people.  Throughout the first term and Biden's term that same cadre of despicables manipulated the courts, the media, the MAGAs and more to get Trump elected again in 2024 despite 2 honest impeachments and an attempted coup/insurrection.  That 2024 election was probably manipulated in the "swing states" by Musk and his AI and Starlink, but Democrats wanted to prove some kind of gracious loser persona, so they did nothing to challenge the election, which they should have.  Oh well, so now, we have an old man with dementia in the white house being manipulated by appalling actors like the ball of hate Steve Miller, the rich unscrupulous guy Vought, the whiny white boy Vance, and so many more in Trump's toddler pool.  The MAGAs are desperate because they don't know what to do and who to believe because they have been betrayed and don't know how to respond beyond what they have been doing for the past decade which gave them some orgasmic moments of power and belonging.  It is hard to reverse a decade-long clinging to a fake.  This is not about intelligence; it is about how people are treated and what we have permitted the ultra-rich and bad actors to do to our people.  We do have freedom of speech or should have that, but free speech does not include putting people's lives at risk, insurrection, and abuse by AI, since AI is not human, though its operators are and should be held accountable.   

J L Wrote on how we have lost a sense of the common good, and used the example of how learning about Lincoln was lost when the “meaningless Presidents’ Day” replaced Lincoln’s Birthday celebration.  I responded with this.

J L, so much of our lack of concern for the common good has been partly attributable to an over-emphasis in schools on testing, learning to read for itself, not for the purpose for learning to read, understanding and knowledge.  Teachers are often given lousy curricula, then expected to teach it to the letter to classes of a wide range of students who learn differently.  There is often little heart in it.  The passages to read are not particularly interesting and not discussed beyond basic comprehension.  We don't trust our kids to have curiosity and a desire to learn, so we make school like a learning prison for them then wonder why some act so badly and others just comply because it's easier.  We can do better, but we need people in the Departments of Education federal, state, and local who know something of education, its challenges, and the benefit of trusting our well-trained teachers to make connections with their students, and provide whatever support is needed.  My favorite teachers growing up were those who made their own paths to learning while using the curricula as guides.  That was true in college too.  Teachers can still talk about Lincoln on his birthday as well as the others born the same day, year, and decade and how their thinking compares.  Children like being on their phones and computers, so what about asking kids to go online to find out about Lincoln, Darwin (born at the same time), Louis Braille, same year, and ask what they might have been like at the students' current age.  What might have helped them to grow into the adults they became?  Creative teachers can work that into any curricula.  There are good materials online to support drifting important concepts into curricula without the crazies realizing what is happening.  Our kids would benefit and so would this nation.    

So, these are two  comments I submitted.  I don’t know how they will be received as I wrote them today, but they are both things I needed to say and that I wanted to share with you too.  We must be aware of the efforts to undermine nearly every aspect of life so most will give up.  I don’t think giving up is going to happen.  The murder of a protester in Minneapolis by a Border Patrol officer is not going to win friends and influence people and neither is the attack on Venezuela and the theft of their oil because a toddler-man with dementia in the white house ordered it or that’s what we have been told. 

Keep standing for those actions that will support a move toward the common good and challenging the greed, lies, disinformation, and the rest that give cover to the selfish autocrats who would do as much harm as possible to this nation and our world.

BEST BOOKS READ IN 2025 PART II

By Ruth A. Sheets

Here I am again ready to share with you the best books I read in the second half of the year.  Again, they are from a range of genre.  I hope you will try a few and let me know if I had made a good choice.  You might notice that I especially like non-fiction.  

1. Someone Has Led This Child to Believe by Regina Louise (Regina had a childhood first of being passed off from her father to mother and back, then when neither wanted to care for her, she went into foster care where she was abused, ultimately put into an institution for troubled teens, then to a mental institution where she was drugged heavily.  A system worker wanted to adopt her, but was never permitted.  She went to college and came to own a salon and to become a writer, against all odds.)  

2. Integrated, How American Schools Failed Black Children by Noliwe Rooks (The author discusses the case Brown v. Board of Education and its “intent” to integrate schools while what happened was conflict, closed schools so Black children could not attend, Black qualified teachers fired, Black students being relegated to the classes for poorly functioning children.  Now schools are often as segregated as pre-Brown.  The old segregated schools for Black children did have qualities of unity and support which often do not exist now. 

3. Who is Government, The Untold Story of Public Service ed. by Michael Lewis (I had no idea of what to expect with this one, but it was great!  The various authors present the stories of government workers who have done amazing things because they love their subject and are dedicated to the people of this nation.      Our government is “not designed to highlight the individual achievement of unelected officials,” but so many have done remarkable almost impossible things for the benefit of this nation (well, until Trump got his second term).

4. The Counterfeit Countess, The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust by Elizabeth B. White & Joanna Sliwa (This is a powerful book about a Jewish teacher who was able to get the ID of a Polish countess and use it to get food to the Poles at one of the concentration camps in Poland.  This book describes how violence, hatred, evil grow and will not stop by themselves.  This woman was so courageous and caring.  Everyone in this country should read this one to see what the Trump/Miller/Vance/etc. EVIL are capable of doing if not stopped, and how even one person can make a difference.)

5. Solidarity, The Past, Present, and Future of A World-Changing Idea by Leah Hunt-Hendrix & Astra Taylor (The idea of solidarity is huge.  It is a way of bringing people together for a critical cause that has serious implications for themselves and many others toward improvement of a life situation:  unions, Civil rights, government change, climate change, the arts, and so much more.)

6. Not Another Banned Book by Dana Alison Levy (Molly and her reading friends in her school’s book club learn the books they are reading are scheduled to be banned and the teacher/librarian who led the group was on probation.  The students decided to fight back and got an online program going to raise money to buy the banned books to put into the Little Free Libraries around town.  The quirky group is leaving 8^th grade for high school, each in their own place with their own style.)

7. Cults Like Us, Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America by Jane Borden (This amazing book describes the US from the beginning at Plymouth Rock, as a collection of people who saw working for the end times at the center of life.  She talks about how gaining money at the expense of others is part of this because it is about the individual doing his, sometimes her own thing as though they were the messiah, or sent by the messiah to announce the coming.  She included actual cults and there were plenty of them, utopian communities, corporations like Amway, religious groups, and others.  The groups demand conformity, complete subservience, and often permit the guy in charge to sexually exploit the other members.)

8. How We Learn to Be Brave, Decisive Moments in Life and Faith by Mariann Edgar Budde (This woman I admire describes her life as a series of experiences of learning courage, attempting to follow examples of others’ courage.  She is now the Episcopal Bishop of DC, and a strong, but as she describes, a far less than perfect person who tries to stand with the people to do what’s right.)  Note:  She is the priest who called on Trump to be kind and merciful as president the day after his inauguration.  He couldn’t hear such words.

9. In the Garden of the Righteous, The Heroes Who Risked Their Lives to Save Jews During the Holocaust by Richard Hurowitz (This book grabbed me from the beginning, presenting 10 stories of non-Jews who risked their lives to help Jewish people trying to escape the Nazis in different countries.  Some of the people saved hundreds, even thousands of people while others one or two, all important!      

10. Money Lies and God by Catherine Stewart (This was a walk through the right-wing pseudo-religion movement which is more about power than the Christianity it espouses.  The author shows the history and claims of this group of mostly white men but a few white women pumping out all sorts of lies about people not like themselves, then pushing their poison all over the world.  The author says action on the part of those against this movement is the best response to it. 

11. There is No Place for Us, Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone (This is one of the hardest books I have read in a really long time.  The author follows several families whose incomes are not sufficient to have a decent place to live due to outrageous rents.  They have children and move regularly as they can’t afford rents or car repairs, or any of the other expenses that arise.  All are working but even with 3 jobs can’t afford a place, often forced out of a home or job for being a few minutes or days late with rent.  So much needs to be done. )

12. On Savage Shores, How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe by Caroline Dobbs Pennock (I knew some indigenous Americans had been brought to Europe in the 16^th century and beyond, but didn’t realize that it was more than a few and to Spain, Portugal, and England mostly.  This is a hard book to read because of the cruelties involved:  the slavery, the dismissal of people’s rights (particularly in England), the diseases that killed so many when no one had a good idea of how to stop the epidemics.  Good book that should be widely read.)

13. One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome (A group of Black families from Nachez, MS set off for Nebraska where it is said there is land to be purchased to homestead.  The story is told from the viewpoints of the women and girl in one family:  daughter Letty, mother Silvy, and friend Philamena.  Hardships faced the people traveling west:  getting provisions, stranger violence, injuries, illness, and death.  The family arrives after 5 months of travel in a community of mostly Black homesteaders where they, now fatherless plan to make a life.  Gr.3-6 and older)

14. The Paris Deception by Bryn Turnbull (The story follows two women in the Paris art world during WWII:  Fabienne and Joan.  They tried to figure out how to keep the Germans from taking and/or destroying the art from the late 1800s onward.)

15. Eleanor, A Spiritual Biography, The Faith of the 20^th Century’s Most Influential Woman by Harold Ivan Smith (Using previous biographies of the Roosevelts, Eleanor Roosevelt’s own personal writings, and writings for newspapers and magazines, the author presents a portrait of a woman whose faith and acceptance of the faith and backgrounds of others was strong as she tried to follow the teachings of Jesus to love, to care for those who are poor, and to include everyone as children of God.)

16. The Capitol Ghost Mystery by Michelle M. Barone (Sylvy’s class goes on a trip to the Colorado capitol in Denver.  She was disfigured by an accident when she was younger and has no friends until she is paired up with a kid who had bullied her at school.  Together, they solve a mystery for the Capitol, for her family and for her friend’s family.  Fun for gr.5 and up)

17. Murder at an Irish Bakery by Carlene O’Connor (This was a twisted mystery  about a baking competition with all kinds of rivalries, even hatreds with lots of red herrings and good Irish humor.  All the books of the series are good!)

18. 8-Legged Wonders, The Surprising Lives of Spiders by James O’Hanlon (I loved this book about spiders, a critter I have found interesting, I think, since reading Charlotte’s Web,” and watching a spider spin her web across our front door when I was growing up, the same web night after night, catching bugs, but gone in the morning.  I find spiders remarkable and not deserving of the bad reputation they have.  Go spiders, natural pest control!)      

19. The Unquiet Grave by Sharyn McCrumb (This mystery brought to life an actual murder and trial in West Virginia in 1897.  A young woman marries a near stranger and is found dead at the bottom of stairs but the husband doesn’t want her body examined.  They exhumed the body and found evidence of strangulation.  The story is told in various voices.)  I really like Sharyn McCrumb’s mysteries!

20. Newsroom Confidential, Lessons and Worries from an Ink-Stained Life by Margaret Sullivan (The author writes of her life in various jobs writing for and managing newspapers over 40 years.  She discusses her various jobs, the people she worked with, the principles that guided her work, and her responses to the positives and negatives of reporting and writing for public consumption, angry that so much of what is put out is about making money rather than truth.)

21. A Protest History of the United States by Gloria Browne-Marshall (This book is one every high schooler should read with their teachers.  OK, the rest of America should read it too.    It is a great way to look at history from the point of view of those who did not like what was going on at a particular time and let the world know about it from the revolts of enslaved persons to anti-war protesters to constitutionalists to LGBTQ persons, women, and citizens of color.)

22. House of Sticks by Ly Tran (This is the memoir of an immigrant from Vietnam whose father had served with the Americans in the war and was a Prisoner of War of the Communist government for 10 years.  In 1992, he brought his wife and 4 kids to NYC. He was scared of the government, so would not permit his daughter to get glasses even though she could hardly see and was having trouble in school.  They were poor but a determined family and all of the kids became successful, attended college, and made a life for themselves, but it was tough.)

23. Small Acts of Courage, A Legacy of Endurance and the Fight for Democracy by Ali Velshi (The journalist MSNOW host describes the challenges of his family’s struggles for a better life and the trials of being forced out of countries because of their color.  Despite THAT, they made their mark wherever they were, changing lives wherever they went.  Beautiful!)

24. Hatchet Man, How Bill Barr Broke the Prosecutors’ Code and Corrupted the Justice Department by Elie Honig (This was a trip through the second part of Trump’s first administration when Barr was Attorney General and used the position to get Trump off the hook several times for his “criminal” behavior, and used the office for his own purposes.  Anyone interested in politics will find this one interesting.)

25. Shadow Work, The Unpaid, Unseen Jobs that Fill Your Day by Craig Lambert (The author takes readers on a ride through many of the activities we do each day that once people were paid to do on behalf of corporations that now, don’t want to pay people to do, of course, while raking in the bucks:  ordering and serving ourselves at fast food restaurants, checking and bagging our own groceries, pumping our own gas, building our own unassembled furniture.  The author calls it “middle-class serfdom.”  He adds that it has undermined community as it keeps us from talking with those who used to do the work and made everything more personal. 

26. Night on Fire by Ronald Kidd (In this novel, Billie lives in Aniston, AL in 1961 when the Freedom Riders came through town on a Greyhound bus.  She is white but appalled at the way the riders were beaten and the bus burned just because white and Black people were sitting together.  That begins her transition into adulthood in a racist society. Gr.5 and older) 

27. A Pair of Wings by Carole Hopson (This is a fictionalized autobiography of Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman to earn an international pilot’s license.  She had to go to France to get it since no Black woman could get such training here. The author presents a vibrant, ambitious, decent woman who needed to fly.)

28. Grant by Ron Chernow (This is a long book, but portrays a hero of American history not so much as a hero but as a man doing the best he could with what he had.  The parts I found most interesting are those describing his respect for Black Americans and the number of them he put in government positions, even ambassadorships when he was president.  He was not always a great judge of people and was betrayed rather often, but that did not lessen his belief in this nation and its people.

29. Coded Justice, A Thriller by Stacey Abrams (Avery, the hero of Abrams’ past books is asked to investigate a death at a medical research facility where AI is being used to provide medical care for veterans.  A fascinating look at AI’s potential as well as a challenging mystery.)

30. Future Face, A Family Mystery, An Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging by Alex Wagner (Alex’s mother is Burmese and her father from Iowa with European ancestry.  She is an only child and wanted to find out the heritage of her family, visits the countries of origin, and takes the DNA tests to learn more.  This is an interesting and entertaining trip through her research.)  

31. The Indispensables, The Diverse Soldier Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware by Patrick K. O’Donnell (I really liked this book about a group of men from Gloster MA, that I knew only vaguely.  I knew about their major feats:  evacuating Brooklyn and Washington’s crossing, but not the many battles and skirmishes they participated in, their naval actions against British shipping, and so much more.  They were also multi-racial and a wide range of ages.)  

32. What Set Me Free, a True Story of Wrongful Conviction, A Dream Deferred, and A Man Redeemed by Brian Banks & Mark Dagostino (This is a powerful book about the inanities of our criminal justice system.  Brian was accused of a rape that never happened by a girl at his high school.  He was an up-and-coming football star and was tried as an adult, then imprisoned at different prisons in California.  He finally was released but served a 5-year parole with an ankle monitor which made it impossible for him to do much of any job.  The accuser was finally caught confessing that the whole story was a lie.  The CA innocence Project helped to exonerate him.  This is a great book for high school and older students.)

33. Cassandra Speaks, When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes.  By Elizabeth Lesser (The author takes the reader through Western history to look at the story from a woman’s point of view where she was scorned. Threatened, killed for her beliefs, and otherwise deprived of a recounting of her role in human history.  Women have been caught up in being excluded from the structures of power most of the time, which  The author suggests must be changed for women to take our rightful place.

34. Miracles and Wonder, The Historical Mystery of Jesus by Elaine Pagels (Theologian Pagels looks at the scriptures of Jesus life and those that explain the experience of a 1^st Century Rabbi who taught love, acceptance, caring for those who are vulnerable and how and why people all over the world have been drawn to Jesus and still are.  She looked at the Gnostic Gospels and other early writings to find more clues that helped shape early Christianity and the faith that has come to us today.)

35. Palaces for People, How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life by Eric Klinenberg (This was a fascinating book about how communities and housing complexes can be designed to make life better for the residents and the community as a whole.  People have to believe the owners care about the properties, there has to be a lot of light, clean public spaces, and other amenities that anyone should expect.

36. Untouchable, How Powerful People Get Away with It by Elie Honig (Ugh!  This book deals with the very rich and powerful and how difficult it is to bring charges for their many crimes and then to get them to stick:  bribery, threats, intimidation, prestige, as well as the challenges of gathering evidence against people who know how to hide things and make things hard for prosecutors, so often people like Trump are rarely indicted.  The author explains it, as a former prosecutor, then declares it wrong!) 

37. The Venetian Bargain by Marina Fiorato (Tera lives in Constantinople but is forced to flee to Venice when her father is ordered on a mission there by the Sultan in 1576.  She is a doctor and finds a place in the city in various jobs until she connects with a male doctor during the plague outbreak.)

38. The Frozen River, A Novel by Ariel Lawhon (Midwife Martha Ballard is brought into a case when a body is found frozen in the ice.  She meets the new doctor in town, an arrogant fool, and various other characters in an actual town in 1790 Maine, and helps solve the murder.  It is based on the life of a midwife who lived there and in all her work, lost no mother and a rare child when delivering over a thousand babies in her area during her career.)

39. Murder By Degrees, A Mystery by Ritu Mukerji (In Philadelphia in 1875, the police find a body in the river.  A woman doctor becomes involved in the investigation.  There is a mistaken identity, and a cast of unsavory rich folks who use the people around them.  Very well done.)

40. Where Biology Ends and Bias Begins, Lessons on Belonging from our DNA by Shoumita Dasgupta (This book presents what scientists know about our DNA, related to race, genetics, and gender, then points out that our biases are hiding as genetics.)

41. A Well-Trained Wife, My Escape from Christian Patriarchy by Tia Levings (Tia was raised in a cult-like set of groups that groomed women to be submissive  wives deserving of beatings by husbands who had been groomed to be abusers, all in the name of god, of course.  Tia tolerates it as long as she can, then just leaves and faces the struggles afterward.  Disturbing, but makes the reader aware of what is out in the world of patriarchal Christianity.)

 Yay!  You made it to the end of this.  Unfortunately, that only took us through November’s collection.  Well, if there are books I just MUST share from my December reads, I will send them later, maybe at the end of a blog.  I hope you enjoyed the variety of comments and brief descriptions of the books I included.  It was fun for me reading back over the terrific books I read this year.  I am already reading a couple of the books that will be counted in next year’s collection.