#OnThisDay: Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward

I see you’re scratching your head over the topic of my blog post today. I don’t blame you. Unless you are a graduate of Dartmouth, a resident of New Hampshire, or an expert on contract law, you’ve probably never heard of this U.S. Supreme Court case.

I was tempted to just brush it off and blog about a story in my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, but then I remembered the significance of the case and why learning about it is important for us today.

I’ll give a brief version of the story, for that’s really all you probably want to know. If you want to know more, you can dive into it.

An iconic building at Dartmouth College. Photo by Ronni Kurtz on Unsplash.

In 1769, King George III of Great Britain issued a charter to Dartmouth College as a privately-funded school.

In 1816, the state legislature in New Hampshire decided to convert Dartmouth College into a state university. The legislators, as state legislators tend to do, thought they could just change Dartmouth’s charter by shifting control of the college to a board of trustees appointed by the governor. The school’s corporate seal, other corporate property, and record books were removed.

“Not so fast!” said the former trustees. Those earlier trustees filed a lawsuit against William H. Woodward, the secretary of the new board of trustees. They hired none other than Daniel Webster to represent them. He was a graduate of Dartmouth, but was yet to gain fame as a U.S. Senator and as the 14^th and 19^th U.S. Secretary of State.

It is reported that Mr. Webster made such an impassioned argument before the Supreme Court in Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward that Chief Justice John Marshall was nearly moved to tears.

Webster was apparently extremely convincing, for the Court handed down its decision in favor of Dartmouth on February 2, 1819. The actions taken by the New Hampshire Legislature were invalidated, and Dartmouth returned to being a privately-funded institution of higher learning.

The Court’s decision was based on the sanctity of a contract. The Dartmouth College’s corporate charter qualified as a contract between the King and the school’s trustees, and the United States Constitution, Article 1, Section 10 prohibits a state from passing laws to impair a contract.

In case you’re wondering why I thought it apropos to blog about Dartmouth today…

Dartmouth’s administration refused to sign the agreement that U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon sent to nine colleges and universities (Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt University) on October 1, 2025.

In my October 15, 2025, blog post, Some good news from Massachusetts Institute of Technology!, I wrote about the agreement McMahon had put forth.

To refresh your memory, the agreement would dictate how the signing colleges and universities would change their admissions policies and the way faculty would be hired. As I stated in that blog post, “By signing the compact, the colleges and universities give up their right to make public a stance on societal or political events. They must be neutral, as in no opinion, no free thinking, no thoughts whatsoever. You know, sort of like operating in an authoritarian nation.

“They must also agree to define sex as ‘male’ and ‘female.’ They must do all this while they ensure there is ‘a broad spectrum of viewpoints’ on their campuses. I’m not sure how you can do that while meeting the other requirements. Some of the requirements appear to negate the others.

“In return for signing the compact, a college would receive preferential treatment for federal funding. It seems like a high price to pay.”

The ten-page agreement was called “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which strikes me as a misnomer.

The President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was the first to refuse to sign the agreement, so that’s what I wrote about in that October 15 blog post.

Two days later, Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia joined MIT in rejecting the agreement.

Being from North Carolina, I don’t know a lot about Dartmouth, but Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward and the Dartmouth administrators’ October 2025 refusal to cave in to the blackmail deal offered by the Trump Administration tell me all I need to know.

Hurrah for college and university administrators with morals and courage to stand up to bullies!

Hurricane Helene Recovery Update

I haven’t given a Hurricane Helene recovery update since January 8, so I will do so today. The rest of the nation may have forgotten about Hurricane Helene, but North Carolinians have not forgotten.

Portions of the Blue Ridge Parkway have not reopened since Hurricane Helene damage in September 2024. I-40 at the North Carolina-Tennessee border remains just one lane in each direction with a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit.

I was unable to find a detailed report from the North Carolina Department of Transportation about the roads still closed due to the hurricane. Friday’s report dealt with road closures due to ice and snow.

Governor Josh Stein and North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson continue to seek funding and reimbursement from the federal government, but the response lags behind the U.S. Government’s response to earlier national disasters. It is a sign of the times.

Repair work continues on the Lake Lure dam on the Broad River, and debris removal there also continues. It is hoped that the lake will be back to full pond and ready to reopen in May in time for the summer tourist season.

Local TV stations in Charlotte have hurricane recovery news items occasionally. They try to remind us that our lives in the piedmont went on after Helene, but our fellow citizens here and there in the mountains are still dealing with the loss of homes and businesses as well as transportation routes that were destroyed.

There was a news item from WLOS in Asheville last week celebrating the reopening of a Walgreen’s on Tunnel Road in Asheville. It was so heavily damaged by the flooding of the Swannanoa River during Helene that it closed for 16 months for a complete remodel. It reopened on January 22. The article noted that a U-Haul store had also reopened. That’s indicative of how long it has taken for life to return to normal in the mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee since the hurricane. Businesses – even national chain businesses – have struggled to rebuild. I have no idea how many small family-owned businesses will never recover.

Life has not returned to “normal” in portions of the mountains in North Carolina. I think the people are adjusting to a new normal. Hurricane Helene changed much of the landscape forever.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

“Slip Sliding Away” – historical short story

With a possible major ice storm predicted here on January 24 and 25, and the accompanying possibility of power outages stretching into the week of January 26, I am scheduling this blog post on Thursday, January 22, to be published on January 27. Our power lines are not underground here, so ice storms wreak havoc with our electricity.

This post is about the ninth story in my historical fiction book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories. “Slip Sliding Away: A Southern Appalachian Short Story,” transports the reader to 1875 and an isolated cove in the southern Appalachian Mountains.

I originally wrote this story in the early 2000s. In fact, it was my first historical short story. It has gone through many revisions (and, hopefully, improvements!) since then. It is the story I offer as a free e-download on my website (https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com) for subscribers to my e-newsletter. If you wish, you may do that to get a free for my fiction writing style.

In “Slip Sliding Away,” Hannah Johnson’s husband, Daniel, has seriously injured himself. A late spring blizzard sets in. Hannah retrieves an envelope of powder from her box of private treasures in the corner cupboard. She adds small amounts of the powder to her suffering husband’s tea as the night passes and she has no way to call for help.

Is she using the precious powder to ease his pain?

And what part does Daniel’s brother, James, play in this story? In fact, all of Daniel’s brothers play a part in this story as it progresses. Therein lies some humor in this otherwise serious subject matter.

You will have to read the story to find out about the powder and Daniel’s ragtag brothers.

How to get a copy of “Slip Sliding Away”

“Slip Sliding Away” is available as a standalone short story on Amazon. It is available in paperback and e-book on Amazon.

Of course, I would be thrilled for you to purchase my book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories. “Slip Sliding Away: A Southern Appalachian Short Story” is one of more than a dozen stories in the book.

Traveling Through History is available in paperback from Amazon at (https://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Through-History-Collection-Historical/dp/B0FZSR6FPX/) and e-book at (https://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Through-History-Collection-Historical/dp/B0FZSR6FPX/.)

*Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories*, by Janet Morrison

It is available in Harrisburg, North Carolina at Second Look Books, or you can order it from any independent bookstore in the U.S. by visiting my website (https://janetmorrisonbooks.com) and clicking on the Bookshop.org button. (Full disclosure, as an affiliate of Bookshop.org, I will receive a commission from any books you order through Bookshop.org by going through my website.)

If you enjoy my books, please leave a brief review on such online sites as Amazon and Goodreads.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

“with liberty and justice for all”

I don’t know if the Pledge of Allegiance is still recited in public school classrooms like it was in the 1950s and 1960s.

I will be 73 years old this week, and I remember standing beside my desk in elementary school, facing the American flag that hung from a wooden dowel at an angle from the wall of the classroom, putting my right hand over my heart, and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

I did it even before I understood the words we were saying.

I pledged my allegiance to the flag and to the republic it represented.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

My generation learned from an early age to revere the flag and to revere the ideals the United States of America strives to attain and uphold.

We were born after World War II. Yes, we are the “boomers” who the Gen X-ers make fun of. We did not yet know or comprehend the horrors of war. We had no concept of liberty and justice. We were too young to know that our country was special and unlike any other country in the world.

We slowly learned those things. We learned that all American citizens did not enjoy the same rights and privileges that we in an all-white school took for granted. We learned about civil rights by living through the Civil Rights Movement and school desegregation. We learned that all people are the same, regardless of skin pigment.

Somehow, the 31 simple – yet profound – words of the Pledge of Allegiance settled into our bones and our minds and our souls.

I might not remember what I ate for breakfast this morning, but the words of the Pledge of Allegiance still easily roll off my tongue.

Did Donald Trump ever learn the words of the Pledge of Allegiance? Perhaps it was not taught and recited in the prestigious private schools he attended in New York. I don’t know.

Did James Donald Bowman recite the Pledge of Allegiance in his school in Ohio? My hunch is that he did, even though he seems to have forgotten. You probably know him as James David “J.D.” Vance. (I still think it is a stretch to call the northeastern suburbs of Cincinnati “Appalachia,” but I digress.)

What about Kristi Noem? Was she taught the Pledge of Allegiance in the school she attended in South Dakota? Surely, she was. I know nothing about the political science department at South Dakota State University, but I question the validity of her Bachelor’s degree.

And what about Gregory Bovino? Did he learn the Pledge of Allegiance as a young student in California? I am appalled to report that he graduated from Western Carolina University and received a Master’s degree from my alma mater, Appalachian State University. This sickens me. I don’t know what his degrees are in. I pray they are not in political science. His buzzcut, his olive-green uniform, his practice of hurling tear gas canisters at protesters have allowed him to become the poster child for the crackdown on illegal immigration that the Trump regime espouses. The cross body strap his uniform includes is reminiscent of Hitler’s “brown shirts.” This is not a look that we are accustomed to seeing in the United States. On Saturday, Bovino adamantly told us that the federal agents in Minneapolis had followed their training that morning when they killed Alex Pretti. Before Mr. Pretti’s bullet-riddled body was cold, Bovino claimed that Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” That’s how afraid members of the Trump regime are of a Veterans Administration ICU nurse armed with a cell phone.

What about Stephen Miller? It is ironic that he allegedly campaigned to get the Pledge of Allegiance said in his high school in California. Most of the things he says about our rights as Americans call into question the political science education he received at Duke University.

Karoline Leavitt is of a younger generation, so perhaps she never learned the Pledge of Allegiance. She often wears a necklace from which hangs a cross – a symbol of Jesus Christ. It is offensive when people wear cross necklaces or verbally claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, yet the truth is not in them.

What has happened to these people? Did the Pledge of Allegiance not settle in their bones and their souls?

The Pledge of Allegiance does not mention telling lies. That comes from the Bible. The Eighth Commandment instructs us to “not bear false witness.’ In other words, it tells us not to lie.

When a person is raised in a home where the truth is always told, that commandment becomes second nature. It becomes a core value. Telling the truth is what you do. You don’t have to pause and decide whether to tell the truth. It’s just what you do.

When a person is exposed to lies in their home or in their work place, perhaps the telling of lies becomes second nature to them.

I don’t know much about the private lives of the people in the Trump Administration, but I know they are feeding the American people and the world a lot of lies about what transpired on Saturday morning in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

They are telling me not to believe my eyes and ears.

Two days after the murder, members of the Trump regime are still defiant. They will defend the actions of the ICE and Border Patrol Officers until the end. Until the end of our democracy. They told us weeks ago that Trump’s federal agents are above the law.

They seem to have lost sight of the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America, and the Ten Commandments.

The United States is a country rooted in the rule of law and the ideals proclaimed in our founding documents. The political party to which Donald Trump and his regime belong claims to be rooted in the Bible. They don’t pay much attention to the New Testament, but they claim to love the Old Testament.

That’s where the Ten Commandments are found. It is in the Old Testament that we are instructed not to tell lies.

I suggest that Trump and the members of his regime take a few minutes to sit quietly and read the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America, and the Ten Commandments. All of this might be new literature for them, but I think taking time to read these documents and Bible verses might be beneficial for them and the nation they vowed to serve and protect.

My faith in what is being taught in the political science departments at the public and private universities in the United States is being shaken. I fear the students who were born after my college days are not being taught the tenets of democracy that I was taught in school and on the university level. I fear they are not being taught to serve the public with integrity and honesty.

I fear they were not taught that the government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

I would have much preferred to have written scene 43 in my historical novel this afternoon, but I’ve spent several hours contemplating and writing this blog post. And yet, people wonder why it is taking me so long to write my novel. My brain is being torn between 2026 and 1768.

The irony is not lost on me. The people I’m writing about who were living in North Carolina in 1768 were also rebelling against tyranny. That’s not what the novel is about, but the colonists’ patience with the English Crown was already growing thin.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

When will enough be enough?

I write this on Sunday afternoon during an ice storm. The worst of the storm is predicting over the next hours, but I will try to get this blog post written and posted before the power goes off. The events of this weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and my government’s official response to it/explanation of it compel me to speak out.

Photo of the cover of the book, We Will Not Be Silent — *We Will Not Be Silent*, by Russell Freedman

The fact that we have a United States President that is hellbent on destroying the very foundations of our democracy is not bad enough. We have American citizens who are not only applauding the wrecking ball he has taken to the people of Minnesota; they are justifying what he is doing.

I am appalled at the number of Americans who are saying that Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good “got what they deserved.”

I am appalled at the number of Americans who can watch the same videos I’m seeing of Saturday morning’s murder in Minneapolis and not see what I see.

The video shows that the gun Mr. Pretti was legally carrying had been removed from him by a federal agent. Then four or five federal agents were all over him while he was held on the ground. Then, more than 10 shots were fired at him, and Mr. Pretti lay there dead. It appears that one of the federal agents fired five shots at Mr. Pretti, who was already lying motionless on the ground. Then, all the federal officers scattered.

The U.S. Government says Mr. Pretti was holding a gun when he approached to try to rescue a woman who had been shoved backwards to the ground by a federal agent, but what he held was a cell phone. They sprayed him with pepper spray or some other chemical because he was trying to shield the woman. He was trying to film the incident with his cell phone. He was not reaching for his gun.

He had a permit to carry a firearm. That is a right that Republicans hold as the most sacred right an American can have. They value it above our right to vote, above our right to worship, and above our right to assemble.

These are the same people who called 17-year-old high school drop-out Kyle Rittenhouse a hero for openly carrying a high-powered rifled down the street in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020 during civil unrest. Rittenhouse fatally shot three people. Trump invited Rittenhouse to the White House so he could honor him as an American hero. A real patriot, according to Trump and his ilk. Rittenhouse was acquitted, claiming “self-defense.” He is now a darling of the Trump regime.

However, these same people are saying that Alex Pretti deserved to be shot to death because he was legally carrying a firearm – a firearm that was not in his hand. It was in a holster.

The “weapon” in his hand was a cell phone, but the federal agents did not want their actions recorded. They had to do something.

The U.S. Government says the federal agents were being threatened.

A federal agent should never feel threatened by a cell phone, unless that agent is doing something illegal or immoral.

Mr. Pretti was a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a Veterans Administration hospital. He had apparently gone into the street with his cell phone to observe and record the protest.

The U.S. Government immediately accused Mr. Pretti of being a domestic terrorist. That’s also what they immediately called Renee Nicole Good after they shot her in the face as she drove away from the ICE agents.

This is now a U.S. Government that does not want us to believe our own eyes. This is now a U.S. Government that does not want us to believe our own ears. This is a U.S. Government that wants us to forget every word of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.

But the thing that frightens me more than my government is my fellow American citizens who think this situation is just fine. They are the citizens who say, “Trump is just going after the worst of the worst. He is just going after the murderers and rapists. He is just going after the people who are here illegally.”

The people who say those things are the people who scare me. Those are the people who would say that Anne Frank got what she deserved. They are the ones who would have defended Hitler’s thugs and “brown shirts” in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. They are the ones who would have said the Jews “got what they deserved.”

They are the ones who today are saying, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti “got what they deserved.”

They are the ones who today are saying, “If you just do whatever an officer tells you to do, they won’t kill you.”

They are the ones who say, “The Holocaust never happened.”

They are the ones who will say, “Nothing happened in Minneapolis on January 24, 2025.”

Never in my first 72 years of life would I have thought this would be the state of things in the United States of America in 2026, but here we are. We have a segment of the population who truly believe, “If you just do whatever an officer tells you to do, they won’t kill you.”

My questions for them are as follows:

If an officer tells you to wear a yellow star on your clothing, would you willingly do that?

If an officer tells you to climb into a train boxcar, would you do that?

If an officer tells you to watch them abuse and arrest a peaceful protester and never say a word about it, would you stand idly by and never say a word?

If an officer uses your five-year-old child as bait to try to bring you out of your home so they can haul you and the child away to a detention center more than 1,000 miles away, would you be okay with that?

If an officer uses your neighbor’s five-year-old child as bait to try to bring your neighbor out of his or her home so they can haul them away to a detention center more than 1,000 miles away because they committed a misdemeanor, would you be okay with that?

Are you aware that it is a misdemeanor to be in the United States illegally?

Are you aware that being shot to death is not a legitimate “punishment” for committing a misdemeanor?

Are you aware that being shot to death is not a legitimate “punishment” for filming a peaceful protest?

Are you aware that being shot to death is not a legitimate “punishment” for coming to the rescue of a fellow citizen who has been shoved to the ground by a federal officer?

And yet, we have a convicted felon “serving” as President of the United States.

We live in a country today that honors felons and murders American citizens for coming to the aid of another citizen being physically abused.

The U.S. Government says that Alex Pretti interfered with a federal operation.

It appears to me in the video that Alex Pretti saw an unarmed woman being pushed backwards to the concrete sidewalk in Minneapolis. Mr. Pretti tried to record the incident with one hand while trying to protect the woman with his body and his free hand.

If the federal agents were properly trained instead of being given $50,000 signing bonuses, they would not have murdered Alex Pretti.

Mr. Pretti, being a trained nurse and an American citizen, saw an abuse of power and tried to do what any law-abiding citizen should do.

God, help us.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

“A Letter from Sharpsburg” – historical fiction

As I write this on the night of January 20, 2026, Trump is on his way to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. (In fact, news came in as I wrote this that Air Force One had been turned around due to an electrical problem. Trump will be moved to a back-up plane.)

This gathering includes many NATO countries – the very NATO countries he threatened with tariffs this week. He will, no doubt, attempt to dazzle them with his perception of the current economy of the United States. Those of us who live here, know better. The picture he painted today in his news conference was far-removed from reality. He will embarrass us in Davos. He would embarrass himself, but that is not possible.

The next couple of days will not go well. Trump never comes across as Presidential here at home or on the world stage. Will he further insult our allies at this forum? Probably. That’s all he knows to do. At the very least, he will probably make fun of French President Emmanuel Macron’s eye condition. Trump has a record of belittling people with medical problems.

In today’s news conference, he finally feigned regret that an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. Did you hear why he pretended regret today? Because someone told him that Ms. Good’s father was a Trump supporter.

I cannot remain silent as I see my government attack the least of these among us. As a Christian, it is my responsibility to speak up for the people who have no voice or whose voices are being ignored. As the President claims ICE agents are only going after “the worst of the worst,” my eyes and ears know better.

American citizens are being accosted and detained. One has already been killed on a street in Minneapolis. My government has not come after me yet, but if I wait until it does, there will be no one left to speak up for me.

Without further adieu, here is my planned blog post for today

Today’s post is about the eighth story in my short story book. “A Letter from Sharpsburg,” is a fictitious letter from an imaginary Confederate soldier who had fought in the Battle of Sharpsburg in Maryland during the American Civil War.

As I explain in the book, it was general practice for the Union to name battles in the Civil War for a nearby physical feature, such as a creek. It was the practice of the Confederacy to name battles for the nearest town. This has led to confusion for more than 160 years.

This battle took place along Antietam Creek, near the town of Sharpsburg. Therefore, the Union called it the Battle of Antietam and the South called it the Battle of Sharpsburg.

Another example is the First and Second Battles of Bull Run (Union name) being called the First and Second Battles of Manasses in the South. It seems to me that we studied the Civil War almost every year in elementary school, but I don’t recall ever being told how or why the North and the South had different names for the same battles. Knowing the reason behind this practice would have been helpful.

I patterned this fictitious letter after letters one of my great-grandfathers wrote to his parents and sister during the Civil War. It was common in that day for a soldier to begin a letter with the words, “I seat myself and take pen in hand to write you a few lines.”

I chose this battle because more Americans were killed on the battlefield that day than on any other day in American military history. It is said that 2,100 Union soldiers and 1,550 Confederate soldiers lost their lives on September 17, 1862 near Sharpsburg, Maryland. Nearly 10,000 Union soldiers were wounded and more than 7,700 Confederate soldiers were wounded there that day.

In my book, I included author’s notes, questions for consideration, and a bibliography of the sources I used in writing “A Letter from Sharpsburg.”

In case you missed them here are the links to my blog posts about the first five stories in my book: “The Tailor’s Shears” – Historical Short Story; “You Couldn’t Help But Like Bob” — historical short story; “To Run or Not to Run” – historical short story‘ “Making the Best of a Tragedy” – historical short story; “From Scotland to America” – historical short story; “Whom Can We Trust?” – historical short story; and “Go fight, Johnny!” – historical short story.

Where to purchase Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories

You can find my new short story collection on Amazon in e-book (https://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Through-History-Collection-Historical-ebook/dp/B0FZQBMC2Q/) and paperback (https://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Through-History-Collection-Historical/dp/B0FZSR6FPX/.)

You can find the paperback at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC, or ask for it at your local independent bookstore. Bookstores can order it from IngramSpark. It is supposed to be available at Barnes & Noble, but I’ve been told it is not necessarily in stock in the brick-and-mortar stores.

If you purchase my book and enjoy it, please give it a rating on Amazon and write a brief review of it for that site or Goodreads.com. Also, recommend it to your friends!

Word of mouth publicity is the best! Thank you!

Keeping me honest

My readers continue to try to keep me honest, which is my goal as a writer of historical fiction. Facts matter to me. Facts form the basis for my writing.

I mentioned in an earlier blog post that it had been brought to my attention that I have the wrong date in my book for the Battle of Kings Mountain. Yesterday, a friend clued me in that in “Ghost of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse: An American Revolutionary War Ghost Story,” I have someone calling 911 to report an incident to the police in 1963.

Unfortunately, 911 emergency service did not come into being until 1968. In my flimsy defense, I will point out that I originally had the story set in 1973. When I changed it to 1963, I failed to catch my 911 error.

I appreciate my historical errors being brought to my attention. This will help keep me on my toes as I write my novel. If you find another historical error in my book, please let me know.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Just another week in America

I haven’t blogged since last Monday because my computer monitor died on Tuesday. I couldn’t get a new one installed until over the weekend. As a blogger and writer, I was like a fish out of water while I didn’t have a computer. I’m “old school.” There’s only so much I can do on my cell phone and tablet. The up-side of that situation was that I used my newfound free time to do some decluttering.

I was sorry not to get to blog last week about one of the stories in my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories. I will blog about another story in a day or two.

The highlight last week was the Peace Walk by monks from Texas. I did not get to see them, but I’ve been following their 2,300-mile journey to Washington, DC on social media and the news. They spent one night a few miles from here. They and their dog, Aloka, walk quietly and in peace. That’s something in short supply in the world these days. Reports say that Aloka is recovering nicely from having leg surgery in South Carolina. We’ve all fallen in love with Aloka – the street dog from India. What an inspiration Aloka and the monks are! They’re expected to arrive in Greensboro, North Carolina today.

What to blog about today?

I could take today’s blog post in one of many directions, considering all that Donald Trump has done and said in the last week. Where would I start? I’m running out of words to write about the abuses committed by the Trump Administration. My blog posts risk sounding like a broken record. (If you’re too young to know what that means, Google it.)

Minneapolis, Minnesota

If you are reading this in Minnesota, please know that you are in my prayers. I am with you in spirit. The nation is behind you. The photos and news reports coming out of Minneapolis are appalling.

If Minneapolis is the testing ground for the police state Trump has planned for us, I guess I need to update my passport application. I hoped I wouldn’t need to always have my birth certificate or passport with me, in case I had to prove my citizenship, but it looks like that was wishful thinking.

Trump said he was sending immigration agents and border patrol agents to hunt down and deport “the worst of the worst,” but 73% of the people held in his detention centers have no criminal record.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents keep shooting American citizens. Of the four shootings that occurred in Minneapolis in the first couple of weeks of this year, two of them were committed by ICE agents! And now Trump’s Department of “Justice” has been ordered to investigate the mayor of Minneapolis and the Governor of Minnesota. (It is basically Trump’s Department of Justice and not the U.S. Department of Justice, since he treats it like his personal legal team.)

News reports indicate that Renee Good and her wife will be investigated, but not the ICE agent who shot Ms. Good in the face while she was driving. I have not heard any law enforcement officer say it is recommended that they shoot the driver of a moving vehicle. It’s a miracle no one else died in that incident as Ms. Good’s vehicle continued down the street until it plowed into a parked car and utility pole.

And why was she denied medical attention for at least ten minutes even after a nearby physician offered to lend her aid but was not allowed?

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said that her ICE agents have complete legal immunity.

Only Trump supporters will put any trust in the FBI’s “investigation” of the incident.

ICE agents keep accosting Native Americans on the streets because of the color of their skin. Too bad they weren’t taught in school that North America was originally populated by non-Europeans. The indigenous peoples have more right to be here than the rest of us. There have been reports of ICE agents not recognizing citizenship papers from Indian tribes as legal proof of American citizenship.

Trump has two battalions of U.S. Army paratroopers on standby and is threatening to send them to Minneapolis. He already has 3,000 ICE and Border Patrol agents there creating intimidation and chaos. U.S. military personnel are never supposed to be turned on the American people. Will that be a bridge too far if Trump crosses it?

There have been so many actions and words that I thought would end his political career, but he always comes out unscathed. On Tuesday, he told the people of Minnesota that “the day of reckoning and retribution is coming.” How Presidential!

Of course, he also told the protesters in Iran that “help is on the way.” Funny how he wants to punish Iran for killing protesters, but his own agents are killing protesters in the U.S.

Greenland

If you are reading this in Greenland, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, or Germany… all I can say is I’m sorry, and please don’t give up on the people of the United States of America. The vast majority of Americans don’t want to steal or purchase Greenland. We absolutely don’t want our country to take it by military force! We don’t want to see NATO destroyed! We’re sick and tired of all the tariffs. They aren’t making anyone rich but Trump.

Venezuela

We didn’t want Venezuela, but we are enjoying the flood of cartoons springing up all over social media about Trump’s second-hand Nobel Peace Prize.

I don’t think anyone expected “America First” to entail any of this when Trump was campaigning.

What Trump does next is anyone’s guess. A year ago, he talked like an isolationist, but now he seems to want to rule the world.

Since the majority of Congress members don’t have the guts to remove him from office, the ballot box in November looks like our only option… unless he declares a national emergency and cancels the mid-term elections. He admitted last week that he is afraid Democrats will hold the majority of Senate and House seats after the election and he expects to be impeached. We all know he won’t allow that to happen. Chances are, with that fear eating at him, he would wreak as much havoc as possible before November.

My plans for 2026

I shall keep blogging – not always about politics, but I will not be silenced about the things Trump does. To remain quiet when I have this platform is to be complicit.

I shall keep writing my U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative, even though they are Republicans and two of the three have never said one critical word about Trump. The other one speaks out occasionally, but only because he is not running for reelection.

I shall keep writing my novel.

Most of us will just keep doing the best we can.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

No real power limits?

Last week, four reporters from the New York Times interviewed Trump in the Oval Office. One question and Trump’s answer to it have overshadowed the rest of the interview. In fact, knowing his answer to this question means we don’t need to know his answers to any of the other questions.

A reporter asked Trump, if there were any checks, any limits on his power on the world stage.

Trump answered: “There is one. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me, and that’s a good thing.” A reporter asked a follow-up question: “What about international law?” Trump replied, “I don’t need international law. I’m not looking to hurt people.”

It is the answer to that first question that has stayed with me all weekend. “My own morality. My own mind.”

Trump has said some chilling and frightening things, but I think this is the most chilling and most frightening.

Here we are.

No one should be that self-assured.

No U.S. President should think or say that the only check or limit on his power is himself – his morality, his mind. A U.S. President should at least reference that the U.S. Constitution limits his power.

This is especially frightening, since Trump has no morals. Not to mention, the state of his mind is very much in question.

This is a man who hold grudges. This is a man who never forgets a slight. This is a man with no sense of humor. This is a man devoid of empathy. This is a man who makes fun of handicapped people. This is a man who calls people from Somalia “garbage.” This is a man who daily calls anyone who differs with him such things as “lunatic” and “low IQ” and “horrible person,” etc.

This is a convicted felon who never spent a minute in jail. This is a man who was found guilty of sexual abuse by a jury of nine people.

This is the man who ordered a mob to the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, to stop the confirmation that he had lost his bid for re-election to the Presidency and then watched it unfold for hours on TV before calling off the people doing his dirty work.

This is the man who pardoned more than 1,500 of the Capitol rioters who viciously participated in his attempted coup. (Now he says the Capitol Police started it!)

This is the man who has access to the U.S. nuclear weapons codes. Think about that, if you dare.

Have you ever known of anyone so completely devoid of morals?

He said only one thing could stop him, and then he named two things – his morality and his mind. They are not synonymous. They are not interchangeable. But his misunderstanding of the semantics is the least of our worries.

There are now 52 U.S. Senators (all 47 Democrats and five Republicans) willing to vote to at least talk about curbing Trump’s war powers in Venezuela. It was refreshing to finally have a majority vote on something positive in the Senate last week, but the flip side is that we have 48 U.S. Senators (all Republicans) who did not even have the guts to vote to have a discussion about it this week and a final vote on the war powers resolution. Not that Trump has ever been reeled in by a Congressional resolution.

If the shoe were on the other foot (i.e., a Democrat president had gone into Venezuela and taken its leader to a prison in the U.S.), the Republicans in the Senate would be up in arms. In their eyes, Trump can do no wrong. At least, that’s the way they vote. They are complicit in everything he does.

As you begin your week, remember the people of Ukraine, Iran, and Venezuela – especially since Trump posted on Truth Social that he is the “acting President of Venezuela.” If he believes that, the Venezuelans need our prayers.

Janet

Standard Operating Procedure

I was tempted to blog about this yesterday, but I thought it best not to have a knee jerk reaction. I thought I should wait twenty-four hours after the shooting in Minneapolis before I put my thoughts in writing.

I hoped someone in the Trump Administration would step forth and speak with restraint and a modicum of wisdom. I did not expect it, so I was not surprised when Wednesday’s lies, accusations, and name calling continued for a second day.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem showed up dressed appropriately yesterday for a news conference about the killing of a 37-year-old American citizen by an ICE Agent. That was refreshing after we had to see her in a cowgirl outfit – perhaps her Halloween costume – when she spoke from Brownsville, Texas, about the incident a couple of hours after it occurred on Wednesday.

Yesterday, Noem said the shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday was “standard operating procedure.” She once again labeled Ms. Good “a domestic terrorist.”

Shooting the driver of a moving vehicle does not seem to me to ever be a wise choice, but I am not a trained law enforcement officer. Perhaps Ms. Good felt her life was threatened by the masked officer who approached her car using profanity, tried to open her car door, and then stuck his arm through the opened car window. We will never know what was in her mind, since she was shot in the face and killed.

A nearby physician requested access to Ms. Good as she bled out in her car, but he was denied the fulfilling of his obligation as a medical doctor by the ICE agents. It has been reported that she did not receive medical attention for more than ten minutes.

Secretary Noem said the officer who shot Ms. Good was following his training.

All this is being said by the Trump Administration before the incident is investigated. In fact, Noem said the officer was within his rights, was following his training, and the woman who was shot was the instigator. In other words, she got what she deserved.

Yesterday, Vice President J.D. Vance blamed the “left wing lunatic fringe” for the shooting of Renee Good. He said, “It was a tragedy of her own making.” He said the ICE agent was “just doing his job.” He hinted that Democrats are funding the peaceful protests. He verbally attacked journalists for falling for the lies of the “lunatic fringe” on the left.

It sounds like the Trump Administration sits as law enforcement, prosecutor, witness, judge, and jury in this case. This is unconstitutional.

When a law enforcement officer in the United States is involved in a shooting, it is standard operating procedure for that officer to be removed from on-the-street duties until a full investigation can be conducted by a separate law enforcement organization.

It has been my experience that even local law enforcement officials know that. It is very telling that the top level of law enforcement in the United States is thumbing its nose at that commonly accepted – and commonly expected – practice. What federal officials should be saying is, “We cannot comment on the details of the incident because it is under investigation.”

However, what Secretary Noem has said is that the dead victim is going to be investigated. Apparently, her ICE agent will not be investigated.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that the Trump Administration has denied the State of Minnesota the right to investigate the incident.

I believe the Trump Administration and, by association and blind allegiance, the Republican Party, have lost sight of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Americans have a constitutional right to peacefully protest. No one pays us to voice our opinions!

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

No one pays me to write my blog posts. I have a constitutional right to write my blog and express my opinions. It is beyond tragic that the Trump Administration and the Republican Party, which remains in lock-step with Trump, have completely lost sight of the First Amendment. They are obsessed with the Second Amendment, and they want us to forget the rest of them – especially the First one.

We will not be silenced. And we are not being paid to voice our opinions.

New Assistant U.S. Attorney General position

Yesterday, Vice President J.D. Vance announced we will have a new U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Fraud. This person has been guaranteed confirmation by the U.S. Senate by Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

Perhaps the most frightening thing about this announcement was that this person will work in the White House and answer to the President and the Vice President.

That, my fellow citizens, is a dangerous precedent-setting action to blatantly announce that the U.S. Department of Justice is now officially a political arm of the U.S. President. It should send a chill down the spine of every American.

We have known since January 20, 2025, that Trump considers the U.S. Justice Department “his” Justice Department and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to be his personal attorney. But what Vice President Vance did yesterday was announce to all the world that what they have in practice demonstrated for a year is exactly what they believe and they believe they have the right to control and dictate the actions of the U.S. Department of Justice.

If the U.S. Congress does not stop them, the U.S. Constitution be damned.

In conclusion

I am writing this blog post mid-afternoon on Thursday, January 8 to be posted on the morning of January 9.

I hope there will be a fair and honest investigation to the shooting in Minneapolis, but I do not expect one as long as Trump is President.

It bears repeating: We will not be silenced. And we are not being paid to voice our opinions.

Janet

P.S. I thank Pat, one of my blog readers for bring it to my attention that I gave the wrong date in my blog post yesterday (“Go fight, Johnny!” – historical short story) for the Battle of Kings Mountain. I stated that the battle occurred on October 17, 1780, but it actually took place on October 7, 1780. Much to my embarrassment, I then realized that I picked up the wrong date in my blog post because I have the incorrect date in Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories. My apologies to my readers, and my thanks to Pat for having a sharp eye and for bringing this error to my attention. It just goes to show that even if you proofread a book’s manuscript eight times, you will still not catch all your errors.

“Go fight, Johnny!” – historical short story

Once-a-week since November 25, 2025, I have blogged about a different story in my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories. Today’s post is about the seventh story in the book in which my great-great-great-great-grandfather, John Calvin McElwee, tells his granddaughter (my great-great-grandmother) about his experience the day that the Revolutionary War came to his family’s doorstep.

The Battle of Kings Mountain took place near the border of North and South Carolina on October 7, 1780. Hearing the first shots of the battle fired, John, his father, and one of his brothers ran from their house to join the battle. John was just 15 years old.

John, his brother, and their father are not listed in all accounts of the Battle of Kings Mountain, since they were not members of an organized military company that took part in the battle; however, they are mentioned in various publications.

It was fun to imagine my great-great-grandmother as a little girl sitting on her grandfather’s lap as he told her about his work as a weaver and what happened the day of the battle.

The McElwee’s house was on land that became part of Kings Mountain National Military Park and, therefore, the U.S. Department of the Interior had a draftsman measure and draw the house in detail. Having that information made the house come alive for me and made it easy for me to visualize how the family lived. Unfortunately, the house was demolished around 1934 when the land was acquired by the U.S. Government for the park.

How fortunate I am to have access to drawings and floor plans for my McElwee ancestors’ house from the mid-1700s!

This story is more creative nonfiction than short story. I could have created conflict within the family to make it more of a historical short story, but I chose not to embellish the facts of the family in that way. I hope you will enjoy it anyway.

In case you missed them here are the links to my blog posts about the first five stories in my book: “The Tailor’s Shears” – Historical Short Story; “You Couldn’t Help But Like Bob” — historical short story; “To Run or Not to Run” – historical short story; “Making the Best of a Tragedy” – historical short story; “From Scotland to America” – historical short story; and “Whom Can We Trust?” – historical short story.

Where to purchase Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories

You can find my new short story collection on Amazon in paperback (https://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Through-History-Collection-Historical/dp/B0FZSR6FPX/) and e-book (https://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Through-History-Collection-Historical-ebook/dp/B0FZQBMC2Q/.)

You can find the paperback at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC, or ask for it at your local independent bookstore. Bookstores can order it from IngramSpark.

If you purchase my book and enjoy it, please give it a rating on Amazon and write a brief review of it for that site or Goodreads.com. Also, recommend it to your friends!

Word of mouth publicity is the best! Thank you!

Hurricane Helene Recovery Update

As of January 2, 2026, the North Carolina Department of Transportation has reopened 90% of the roads damaged by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. Some 270 bridges and 870 culverts have been repairs or replaced. Twenty-four roads in the state remain closed due to the hurricane and, of course, I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge near the Tennessee line is still just one lane in each direction and a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit for months, if not years, to come.

The total monetary cost of damages is estimated by the NC Department of Transportation to be $4.9 billion. The State of North Carolina has spent $2.7 billion so far and has been reimbursed $411.46 million by the federal government.

Other states, take note.

Janet

#OnThisDay: Attempted Coup in Washington, DC, 2021

Five years ago today, Trump and his MAGA followers attempted a coup in Washington, DC. To call it anything else would not serve the truth or history.

The White House website tells a much different story of that day. It is a narrative that Trump and his minions have espoused since that day. No matter what you do, as long as Donald Trump is in the White House, do not believe one word that is on WhiteHouse.gov.

Trump and his followers think we will forget that Trump told the rioters on January 6, 2021, to march to the U.S. Capitol. He even claimed he was going with them. Of course, that was just part of the lie. They should have known that “President Bone Spurs” didn’t have the guts to enter the fray. He knew the Secret Service would never allow it. It was all bluster.

They think we will forget that Trump told the rioters, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

They think if they repeat the lies long enough and loud enough, the American people and the world will forget what they saw with their own eyes that day.

They think we will forget the Congressional testimony given under oath by witnesses, by the police officers who were beaten, crushed, and sprayed with bear spray and pepper spray that day.

They think we will doubt the words of the members of Congress who feared for their lives that day as they gathered to certify that Joe Biden had been lawfully elected United States President in November 2020.

Photo credit: alireza jalilian on unsplash.com

They think we will forget that the rioters built a gallows on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol that day and chanted, “Hang Mike Pence.” Trump had turned on Vice President Pence because Pence refused to call the election rigged.

They think we will forget that Trump called them wonderful people and expressed his praise for them.

I watched live TV in absolute horror on January 6, 2021, as the rioters broke the windows of the U.S. Capitol, broke down doors, destroyed all manner of public property in that sacred building, broke into the offices of members of Congress, broke into the U.S. House Chambers, and rifled through papers.

Photo of the US Capitol building at night — Raphael Assouline on Unsplash

It was a wholesale desecration of the seat of American democracy. The historian in me prays that history books will give a fair, true, and honest explanation of January 6, 2021.

More than 1,500 rioters were charged with breaking various laws on January 6, 2021.

Joe Biden was inaugurated U.S. President on a tense January 20, 2021.

Donald Trump was somehow elected U.S. President on November 5, 2024, with 51% of the popular vote,

Donald Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2025, and immediately pardoned the rioters.

After campaigning on “America First” and not involving the U.S. in foreign wars or regime topplings, on Saturday he ordered the U.S. military to physically remove the dictator of Venezuela. On Sunday, he hinted that Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico might be next.

Yesterday, Assistant White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller questioned Denmark’s legal claim over Greenland.

Today, the White House Press Secretary said talks are taking place on how the U.S. will “acquire” Greenland and military action is “not off the table.”

Today Trump joked about possibly cancelling the next national election.

Trump’s modis operandi is to try to make a joke, then see how people respond. He continues to feed that “joke” by bringing it up again… and again… and pretty soon… he doesn’t present it as a joke but a possibility… and pretty soon… masked agents are in the streets snatching people, and military personnel are in Venezuela.

I continue to work on that historical novel I’ve told you I’m writing. Distractions will, no doubt, continue to try to derail that process. I will continue to keep up with politics and share my thoughts on my blog in 2026, but I will also keep writing that novel. Escaping to the 1760s in Virginia and North Carolina just might be what keeps me sane.

What a start to 2026!

Janet

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