Today marks two months since Donald Trump took an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States” as president of the United States.  Was he listening to the words of the hallowed oath as he repeated them?  Or did he have his fingers crossed behind his back?  We know he didn’t put his hand on either of the Bibles held in the Capitol Rotunda by his third wife. His press secretary, repeatedly, has said that this administration believes that portions of the Constitution are unconstitutional.  What?

Most high school students would be able to tell you that freedom of the press is not unconstitutional.  Birthright citizenship is not unconstitutional.  Defendants, regardless of the charge, are entitled to legal representation.  State Bar Associations, following due process, can ban attorneys for ethical breaches; presidents can’t.  It seems that nearly every action taken by the Musk/Trump cabal has been subject to legal challenge and, fortunately so far, the federal courts have provided guardrails to limit the administration’s broadaxe approach to dismantle government.  Whether the Supreme Court will uphold the lower courts’ decisions is unknown at this point, but it is time for the Court to recognize its role as a co-equal branch of government enshrined in the Constitution and show some spine when Trump’s appeals, using curious legal arguments, come before them.

As more chaos and destruction emanates from the Trump White House, friends and family from around the country have asked me what they can, or should, do.  My advice, some of which has appeared in my previous columns, is to contact their Members of Congress, write letters to the editor, have conversations in whatever circles they inhabit – the workplace, the classroom, the worship service, the dinner table.  Sometimes, though, the best advice is to “turn it off,” if only temporarily. In today’s 24-hour information cycle, everything seems to be “breaking news,” whether a court decision, a plane accident, or Trump “winning” a tournament at one of his many golf resorts. I’ve enjoyed watching the news ever since the 15-minute Huntley-Brinkley report appeared on our old black-and-white television when I was a child.  A snapshot of national and world events, it was just enough, along with the daily newspaper, to learn more about community, government, and world affairs, and then go about our daily activities.  Today we are bombarded at every turn, on every device, by a firestorm of information – and disinformation – so I say, turn it off.  The calm that brings can be amazing!  

One of my favorite columnists is Dana Milbank, who writes for the Washington Post.  Mr. Milbank writes damning critiques of the Administration (he critiqued Joe Biden, too), interspersed with the occasional introspective column about his recently-purchased farm in rural Virginia. His stories about buying a tractor, and learning how to drive it, and a recent column about the spotted salamander, had me chuckling at his descriptive word pictures of the natural world.  A vernal pool may be distant from Potomac intrigue, but that little pool holds millennial mysteries of nature that have survived political strategies from the right and left since before the founding of our Republic. As Spring approaches, taking a closer look at the beauties of nature’s rebirth, in the yard, the local park, or a nearby stream, can provide a terrific mood adjustment, better than alcohol or chocolate!