The Tide MUST Turn

to save our democratic republic

Never having served in any country’s armed forces, the closest I got to a uniform was as a Girl Guide in England. But I have great respect for those who serve to defend the Nation, and as a sailor, I’m particularly fond of the United States Coast Guard. The fact that I live in the City which is home to the Coast Guard Academy fills me with pride. And my dearly departed friend Betsy introduced me to the free concerts the Academy Band often gives. So writing this post today causes me sadness.

First, the Commandant Linda Fagan (an Admiral, by the way, with a stellar record of service and leadership and the first woman to lead a military service) was summarily dismissed by what I call the fake President on his first day in office with one of the nastiest letters you can imagine. Now, there had been an ongoing investigation of the past examples of sexual abuse at the Academy—aptly named Operation Fouled Anchor, I believe—but Commandant Fagan inherited that mess. Her dismissal letter, though, implied that it was all her fault, among other so-called faults. At that time, I felt she had been very unfairly treated, but in the firehose of disastrous executive orders flying from the White House, it was hard to stay focused on one woman’s fate. I rationalized that I have enough old-age things going on personally that I would leave the outrage to others to express. My mistake . . .

It has become even more egregious at the Academy, and the headlines in our local paper seem to bring notice of the disaster afoot on a daily basis. After getting rid of a woman at the top, the powers that be are now going after any hint of diversity in the ranks. It also seems there will be an avoidance of science because the term climate change will be eliminated from the curriculum, even though there is an entity called the Coast Guard Academy Office of Culture and Climate. How ridiculous can you get?

But my horror has reached the boiling point with the latest story. The Coast Guard Academy will not host ECLIPSE WEEKEND where the small but hopefully growing diverse populations of graduates gather to celebrate. An annual event for 50 years, this reunion was canceled just weeks before it had been scheduled for April 10-12, leaving everyone who had plans to attend on the back foot. Imagine if your college reunion to which you looked forward every year had been canceled after you had already made reservations. I think you would be annoyed to put it mildly. But in reading the story, I realized why this vindictive regime had singled out this particular event. Not only does it celebrate diversity, but a main guest was to be the courageous Congressman Bennie Thompson from Mississippi—the vice-chair of the patriotic January 6th Committee. He, too, expressed surprise at the late notice to re-arrange his schedule, and he had been looking forward to returning to New London. I had the extreme honor and pleasure of meeting him at the local NAACP Dinner the year he appeared after the publication of this report, and I got him to sign my copy of it. I treasure that as a symbol that we can right egregious wrongs in this country—even when it takes years to do so. We had been making progress until the latest bought-and-paid-for election.

Please, dear people, do not take this stuff sitting down. I know that I am feeling somewhat encouraged by the signs of the people rising up around the country. And April 5th is going to be epic. So get off the couch and take to the streets in non-violent opposition to the illiterate bunch of cruel thugs—who shall be overcome.

Another personal memory surrounding the awful snatching of people from the streets. The young woman in the video being taken from Tufts, Rumeysa Ozturk, has raised further awareness of the gestapo-like tactics being used. I was encouraged to read a letter prepared by the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts to protest this action. And my personal connection is that many years ago I wrote an article about the man for whom that school is named: Henry Fletcher. I was proud to have had it published in the newspaper, and I have had a warm place in my heart for Tufts ever since. I am so glad that finally an administration is speaking out (to good effect it seems as I check the latest news from Friday).

Now I have to give you the details from the book that I mentioned on Thursday when I cut my writing short. It hit me rather hard when I was reminded on page 114 about the Republican “Contract With America” which had been spearheaded by Newt Gingrich. The 104th Congress (with a Republican majority) vowed to hire an independent auditing firm “to search for waste, fraud and abuse” among other major reforms. I remember at the time we Democrats took to calling it a Contract On America because of the decidedly backwards actions being taken. No wonder those three words jumped off the page. I imagine they are thrilled to be back in vogue. I haven’t finished the book about Joe Waldholtz and his grift yet. But the cover of Enid Greene in tears doesn’t bode well for a happy ending. History is fascinating, isn’t it?

RESIST ALWAYS

TTFN