 I know the town of Springfield, Ohio well. That is to say, I knew it well 15 years ago when one of my daughters was a student there at Wittenberg University from 2007-2011. Back then Springfield was a rather down-at-the-heels place, except for the area around the University, from which I imagine Springfield drew a good portion of its financial sustenance. I myself contributed minutely to Springfield's economy during my visits to my daughter, which mayhaps happened a bit more often than was absolutely necessary for a parent to visit their college student after I was introduced to (and subsequently developed a sporadic craving for) several of what I considered to be Springfield's culinary delights: The incomparable subs and fries at the Our Hero Subs;    ...the pizza at the Hickory Inn,    ...though it never made sense to me how a place that served up the standard variety of tasty American fare could also whip up what had to be in the running for the best pizza on the planet. I once asked one of the Hickory House staff what was their secret to making such excellent pizza. They replied, "Oh, we just make the sauce, and grate the cheese..." And that was as much of the secret as they saw fit to reveal. And then there was Schuler's bakery, where the donuts were, if not to die for, at least to travel the hour from Gahanna, where I live, to Springfield.  (Apparently Schuler's has since closed this old location and moved to a new one since my donut days there). But back then Springfield was hemorrhaging population, the life blood of any city, and continued to hemorrhage until, beginning in 2013, Haitians, who had been granted Temporary Protected Status as refugees after the earthquake that further devastated their already impoverished country in 2010, began arriving in Springfield, Ohio. Apparently word had spread among the Haitian refugee community that here was a city offering jobs, affordable housing, and the opportunity to build a new life. And so, in building new lives for themselves, the hard-working Haitian immigrants brought new life to Springfield. They worked in the factories, in the warehouses, in the service industries, in retail,    ...and started a number of new businesses, including restaurants, food trucks, and markets.     And in earning an income, they also spent money locally. They helped revitalize the economy and expand the tax base. They filled the empty houses and increased the flagging student population in the schools. In total around 15,000 Haitians moved to Springfield, Ohio and today make up 25% of the city's population. But now, thanks to Donald Trump's agenda of cruelty and economic recklessness, all that may change for Springfield and its Haitians. As living conditions in Haiti continued to deteriorate and became more dangerous than before the 2010 earthquake, Temporary Protected Status for Haitians was extended by both Presidents Barak Obama and Joe Biden. Donald Trump, on the other hand, actively tried to end TPS for Haitians during all four years of his first presidency, but was continually blocked by the courts. During this his second presidency Trump continues his campaign to send Haitian refugees back to a terrible fate and came very close to succeeding last week. On Trump's orders February 3, 2026 was to be the day that all Haitians in the United States lost their protected status and after this date would no longer be in this country legally. Amid predictions that hoards of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were set to swoop into Springfield and round up the city's Haitians, Springfield's churches and faith groups protested,    ...and our Republican governor Mike DeWine and the mayor Springfield spoke out against ending the Haitians' TPS. As for Ohio's two senators, both Republicans, one, Bernie Moreno, said the Haitians should solve the problem themselves by self-deporting,  ...while the other, Jon Husted, has been on radio silence.  In those days before their legal status was to end, their last days before the ICE agents would come for them, I could see the Haitians of Springfield, desolate, crying, terrified of what the future had in store for them and their families, their children. I imagined this is how it must have been for the final days of the European Jews before they were herded off to the trains that took them to the concentration camps,  ...where they had no better chance of survival than will the Haitians if they are sent back to the violent, lawless, no-man's-land that Haiti has become. Thankfully, on February 2, the day before the Haitians were to lose their TPS, a federal judge stepped in and blocked Trump's order, citing its invalidity on several levels. And though the Trump administration has filed an appeal to the judge's decision, the Haitians of Springfield have at least received a reprieve. They need not fear looking out their windows and seeing ICE agents barreling up their walk or hear them pounding on their door. At least not today. Those of us whose hearts go out to the Haitians are filled with gratitude and hope that their lives - and the life of Springfield, Ohio - may be spared.  As for the others, those who are saying, "Temporary means temporary, send them all back to Haiti now..." Well, I don't understand how people can be so cruel. References:
https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/this-is-good-for-us-patrons-at-springfield-haitian-restaurant-react-to-judge-blocking-end-of-tps-for-haiti/RMXV2EBOMRCVNOQPVCS55SK https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2026-02-06/ohio-agencies-making-plans-to-help-kids-of-haitians-if-tps-ends-and-ice-surges https://www.dispatch.com/picture-gallery/news/2026/02/02/hundreds-gather-to-support-haitian-immigrants-in-springfield-ohio/88477816007/?link_source=ta_first_comment&taid=69850be2a9c7ef00019d6938&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawPzbWZleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFVRXN3WVdFQTdTajNsdTU4c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHschz3T14qXZFzKFQOqPE0_QVlMWYSjMg_Xp9eikjgtU1K-i5ULCTvPEmvMV_aem_sdQXuzuPVcSZQJOndnr_6w https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/02/05/ohio-senators-governor-respond-to-calls-from-brown-to-extend-protections-for-haitians/ https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5725642-ohio-gov-defends-haitian-tps/
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 Yesterday, Sunday, February 1, in my town of Gahanna, Ohio, our good townsfolk turned out in the 15-degree weather and 12 inches of snow for a demonstration calling for immigration justice.  The exact number of citizens who braved the chill to be part of the Intentional Chain of Empathy, as this peaceful gathering was called, I cannot say; I suppose as many as could fit along the shoveled half mile of sidewalk down our main street, from the Dairy Queen to the Golden China Restaurant.       Among the demonstrators were some of the members of my group of gal pals who refer to ourselves as The Posse.  Though The Posse's principle raison d'être is to get together once a week for brunch and conversation,  ...of late we've taken to showing up at protests around the Columbus area, as we did at a No Kings march last August.  For this protest I spent the day before constructing my sign, the message of which I figured was simple,    ...but to the point,  ...and the amateur artistry of which I figured would be okay from a distance.  There were plenty of signs at the event besides mine, some of them more cries of protest or lamentation,       ...though most were messages of kindness and hope.        Our protest seemed to hearten the drivers-by, as most who passed us gave a honk, a shout-out, or a peace sign. The local police were friendly and helpful, and even a postal truck that passed by gave us a wave and a honk of encouragement. After the protest my friends, my mate and I decided to get some food from the Blue Agave, the Mexican restaurant up the block from our protest location.    Meanwhile, on the same day on the other side of the country, some of my long-distance relatives were among the 15,000 marchers who staged a pro-immigrant, anti-ICE march for two miles along the Strand, the walking path that runs for 22 miles along the Los Angeles oceanfront. The marchers walked from Manhattan Beach to the next community over, Hermosa Beach. My relatives, who were involved in the coordination of the event, sent me some photographs,     ...and videos. We have not yet begun to protest.   One of my favorite social/political commentators is David French,  ...a formerly staunch conservative and evangelical Christian intellectual who these days sounds like a voice crying out in the wilderness in his relentless opposition to the corruption and inhumanity propagated by Donald Trump and the MAGA ideology. I believe his writing must come from the heart, because it always speaks to mine. But David French's commentaries also tend to be informative and illuminating, as was an op ed piece he wrote for the New York Times last week entitled "An Old Theory Helps Explain What Happened to Renee Good." (Published, ironically, a few days before the similar death of Alex Pretti also at the hands of ICE agents). The theory Mr. French referred to in his article was one put forth in 1941 by a German Jewish labor lawyer named Ernst Fraenkel in his book, "The Dual State: A Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship."  Though Ernst Fraenkel fled Germany in 1938 and emigrated to the United States in 1939, he had lived enough years under Adolph Hitler's Nazi regime to have formulated his observations as a Jew in a country where those considered enemies of the Nazi ideology - this included all Jews - were denied any civil rights and so could be oppressed, assaulted, killed, or dragged off to the concentration camps by the Gestapo, Hitler's brutal secret police who operated above the law and without accountability. Meanwhile, for the rest of the German population, that is, most Germans, life went on day to day in a normal way under protection of the law as it had always done, business got taken care of, things were fine. Too bad what was happening to those others. Here, then, was Fraenkel's dual state: a country where part of the population lives a seemingly normal, stable, law-governed existence which he called the "normative state," alongside others who are delegated to what he called the "prerogative state," which "exercises unlimited arbitrariness and violence unchecked by any legal guarantees.” This was Fraenkel's description of how dictatorships in general, and Nazi Germany in particular, functioned. David French contends that the precautions that were set up by our founding fathers to protect our country from falling under an authoritarian rule have failed in the era of Donald Trump. "And so," he writes, "we’ve slowly but surely created the mechanisms of 'the dual state'...you can see the emerging dual state in action in Minneapolis right now." French then offers that Renee Good died as she did because when an ICE agent began circling her car she thought she was still in the normative state, where, as Mr. French points out, "your life almost never depends on immediate and unconditional compliance with police commands." Renee Good had no idea that in her encounter with that ICE agent she had crossed over a line from the normative to the prerogative state where, French writes, "you can be shot dead recklessly, irresponsibly and perhaps even illegally, and no one will pay the price. Your killer might even be rewarded with more than $1 million in donations from friends and allies." Of course, David French could have - and probably would have - said that Alex Pretti lost his life two weeks after Renee Good lost hers because in trying to help a woman who had been pepper sprayed in the face by ICE agents he, like Ms. Good, also crossed over from the normative state to the prerogative state. I expect it's good to have thinkers like David French - and Ernst Fraenkel - provide us with the words to help us shape and clarify our our own thoughts in these troubled times. But why, in 2026 in the United States of America, should we have to be thinking such thoughts?  References:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/opinion/renee-good-ice-immunity.html https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-dual-state-a-contribution-to-the-theory-of-dictatorship-ernst-fraenkel/53d8d232e332b285?ean=9781616190699&next=t&next=t&affiliate=12476  Let them call me a pearl-clutching liberal snowflake. Let them snicker that I'm suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Let them lob at me every sling, arrow, jeer, sneer, burn and verbal dig in the MAGA quiver. I don't care, I want it known that I condemn Donald Trump. I want it out there on the internet from where, it's said, nothing ever truly disappears. I want anyone who looks now or in the future to see that I am part of the anti-Trump resistance. Not that I've likely done anything that qualifies as resistance, other than campaigning for Trump's opponents, voting against him and the Republican party, the soul of which he now owns, writing my blog, occasionally writing a letter to my senators, occasionally attending a demonstration,  ...carrying a whistle, believing what I believe, and helping those who believe as I do to keep the faith, just as they help me to.  And in truth, I know that it doesn't even make any sense in this country - at this point, at least - to talk about an anti-Trump resistance movement, since - at this point, at least - we live in a democracy and are free to elect our leaders, so that our leaders represent the will of the majority of the people - at this point, at least - even if I'm not among the majority who put Donald Trump into office. In other words, Trump was elected President fairly and squarely by the American people. Donald Trump is what the majority of Americans wanted. And, for all I know, continue to want. But I don't. I want it known that I am against what Donald Trump has done to our country, how he has turned it into his own personal kingdom for him to rule as he pleases, for his own profit, pleasure, gratification, and vengeance; to rule selfishly, unjustly, cruelly, without regard for our Constitution, our rule of law, our cherished traditions and institutions, our freedoms, our well-being, our healthcare, without morality or human decency. I want it known that I condemn Donald Trump for unleashing on cities whose leaders and populace displease him a cruel army of ICE agents, drunk on their own power, stripped of their souls and humanity and who subsequently take sadistic pleasure, while dressed as Terminator cyborgs, in terrorizing immigrants and citizens alike.  (I want it known that I condemn Donald Trump for making me afraid to write these words even though I know they'll only be read by a very small number of people. Because in the United States of America today, in spite of our constitutional freedoms of speech and of the press, anyone, no matter how obscure, needs to be afraid of speaking out against Donald Trump). I want it known that I condemn Donald Trump for the havoc he's wreaked on our international relationships and our standing in the world. Like the Biblical rich man in fine clothes who feasted while refusing to share even crumbs with sick and starving Lazarus, Donald Trump has cut off food and healthcare aid from our country, the richest on the planet, to our suffering brothers and sisters in the poorest countries.  Donald Trump has turned our best friends and allies into enemies and embraced the world's worst tyrants, murderers, and aggressors.    I condemn Trump's piracy in the Caribbean and his invasion of Venezuela in order to steal that country's oil. I condemn his threats against Cuba, Mexico, Columbia, Gaza, and Canada. But today, January 19, 2026, what I most of all condemn is Donald Trump's lust to own Greenland.  Because this lust of his is about to get us into a war, either a trade war or, God forbid, a real war. Trump has already declared a trade war to begin on February 1 in the form of 10% tariffs on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland if he is not handed over Greenland by then. Europe is already planning retaliation in the form of an extremely destructive economic weapon called their Trade Bazooka - developed to use against China or Russia - which would essentially cut off all meaningful trade with the United States. Who would have thought that it would be not China or Russia, but us that would be the aggressor nation that would bring Europe to the brink of the unthinkable? But it's us, the United States of America, that has Greenlanders shivering in fear and likely the rest of Europe, too. And for that matter, me, too. I'm afraid, because I believe that if Donald Trump fires the first volley in an economic war against Europe that degenerates into a real war, there will come a day of reckoning for our country when the rest of the world will band together against us to stop American aggression, and to this end those who were once our good allies will bring the war to our shores. And I believe if that terrible day should arrive, the day the rest of the world comes after us to pay for Donald Trump's transgressions, then, unlike in the Bible, the wheat won't be separated from the chaff, but we'll all burn together, whether we were for or against Donald Trump. We'll all suffer, just as all the Germans suffered, whether they supported or condemned Adolph Hitler, when Hitler's Reich finally crumbled under Allied bombs and armies. Still, today I want it known where I stand.  References https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/18/business/europe-greenland-trump-tariffs-trade https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-administration-news-01-19-26  On Sunday, January 3, at 6:59 am I was sitting in my favorite writing chair in front of a cozy fire writing in blissful ignorance a blog about leftover Christmas cookies. At 7 am my spouse turned on the radio to listen to the news and my visions of sugarplums suddenly turned into visions of a shock attack, bombs, explosions, and squadrons of helicopters from which hordes of foreign soldiers rappelled to the earth. I knew that it was the United States that had attacked Venezuela, American planes that had dropped the bombs on Caracas, American cyber units that had sabotaged Venezuela's electrical infrastructure and plunged its civilians into darkness, and that it was American troops that had rappelled from helicopters into their capitol and captured their president and their country, and for what reason.  Still, for a moment in my mind it wasn't Venezuela but my country the planes were flying over, my country the bombs were falling on, my country that was without power, my country that the foreign soldiers were rappelling down from their helicopters to attack. And I was seized with a moment of fear. Because even before the attack on Venezuela Donald Trump had been threatening to seize, acquire, or take military action against a number of countries, among them Greenland, Canada, Panama, Gaza, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, and Iran. And when I heard that Trump, of his own volition, without so much as consulting Congress, had started a war with Venezuela, I thought, this is just the beginning. He won't stop with one country. He'll go right down the line, using America's superior military strength to overpower and vanquish country after country until the world finally unites to fight back back against us, and then the day will come when we Americans will look up and see helicopters in our skies with foreign soldiers rappelling down. I've thought that thought more and more often since January 3, as since then Donald Trump has doubled down on his determination to personally own Greenland, and to accomplish this goal either, in his his words, the easy way or the hard way. Today's meeting in Washington D.C. among the Danish, Greenlandic and American (that is to say, JD Vance and Marco Rubio) delegations resulted in no change in Trump's ultimatum that he will own Greenland, nor in any lessening in Greenland's resistance to his ultimatum. And Denmark's Defense Ministry today announced that its troops will fire on any enemy, including the American Army, that tries to take Greenland by force. In the meantime Donald Trump has cut off oil to Cuba, exacerbating the economic hardship of the Cuban people, and he's already talked about installing his Secretary of State Marco Rubio as that country's new president. Trump continues to talk up taking military action against Colombia and Mexico, but front and center, right next to his threats to invade Greenland, are his threats of an imminent military strike against Iran. I wonder if, when Adolph Hitler and his allies were raining down death and terror in Europe, Asia and Africa, they, as military superpowers, felt safe and impervious to conquest because oceans separated their territories from the United States, which was, in any case, a mid-level military power at best in the late 1930's and early 1940's. According to the 12/11/2014 post on the U.S. Army website: "'The U.S. Army went into World War II with an end-strength of just 189,000, ranked about seventeenth in effectiveness among the armies of the world, just behind Romania,' wrote Cristopher R. Gable in the U.S. Army Center of Military History publication: 'The U.S. Army GHQ Maneuvers of 1941.'" (https://www.army.mil/article/139620/americas_entry_into_world_war_ii_remembered_73_years_later). But that was before Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor propelled the United States into a massive and unprecedented production of military equipment, a well-answered call for military enlistment, and the will to once again fight to make the world safe for democracy. I wonder how many countries Donald Trump's armies will have to invade before the day comes when an alliance of world powers decides to make the world safe for democracy by crossing the oceans and landing on our shores. References: https://www.google.com/search?q=Which+countries+had+Donald+Trump+talked+a+out+conquering%3F&rlz=1C1OPNX_enUS1166US1166&oq=Which+countries+had+Donald+Trump+talked+a+out+conquering%3F&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRiPAjIHCAIQIRiPAtIBCjE4ODkzajBqMTWoAgywAgHxBZL1JTZ-Fmmv8QWS9SU2fhZprw&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/article/poll-62-of-americans-would-oppose-us-military-action-in-greenland-215222605.html https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/03/trump-venezela-mexico-00710063 https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/10/politics/us-will-take-greenland-the-hard-way-if-it-cant-do-it-the-easy-way-trump-says https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01/14/us/trump-news?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20260114&instance_id=169279&nl=breaking-news®i_id=57152138&segment_id=213658&user_id=bd7dcba13f30625c4d8a54f9f4eaa28e https://www.chathamhouse.org/2026/01/what-would-trumps-threatened-strikes-colombia-mexico-or-cuba-achieve https://www.army.mil/article/139620/americas_entry_into_world_war_ii_remembered_73_years_later  Multiple videos have turned up of the shooting of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross last Wednesday, January 7. Most of the videos were taken on cellphones of witnesses. One of these evidential videos was taken by Ross himself on the cellphone which he held in his hand while circling Renee Good's car. He continued holding his phone and recording even while he shot her three times. There've been all kinds of back and forth from opposite sides of the political aisle on what the videos tell us happened, and yet with all the captured angles and points of view and all the subsequent analysis and some rushed conclusions up to date, none of the visual footage actually shows how close Jonathan Ross was to Renee Good's car when she began pulling away, or whether he was in danger of being run over, or, what appears to be the most important element, whether Renee Good's car made contact with Jonathan Ross's body, and if so, when. Me, I don't get why someone doesn't just ask Jonathan Ross whether or not he got hit by the car. Or maybe the FBI investigators did ask him, but don't want to share his answer in case it does nothing to support the conclusion required of them by Donald Trump and his clownish vassals, FBI Director Kash Patel and Department of Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem.  But there are things that the videos do tell us, things so obvious that that you don't have to study the frames with a stop-action camera or a magnifying glass to see them. What the videos tell us is that ICE agent Jonathan Ross was poorly trained for the job he was supposed to be doing. According to Department of Homeland Security policy, officers are required to try and de-escalate tensions in potentially volatile situations. But Ross and his fellow agents did exactly the opposite when, instead of allowing Renee Good to leave the scene, they surrounded her car and ordered her to exit. Also per DHS policy, officers are in general forbidden to shoot into a moving vehicle because shooting into a moving vehicle may kill the driver but won't make the moving vehicle stop (Duh). The vehicle then becomes a two-ton missile careening out of control that endangers lives and property.  Tragic as the shooting of Renee Good was, one can only shutter at the thought of how much more tragic it could have been, had her car crashed into humans instead of parked cars. The video footage further tells us that here is a law enforcement officer who knew no better than to record on his cell phone with one hand while shooting his gun with the other, cowboy style. And here's a question that the video begs: if Ross had time to pull out his weapon, why didn't he instead use the time to jump away from the slowly moving car? The videos tell us that Ross and his comrades were either ignorant of or dismissive of the basic law enforcement training that instructs officers never to stand in front of or behind a moving vehicle, don't grab a door handle, and don't reach into a car.  I imagine that smashing a car window then reaching into the car is such unthinkable behavior for a law enforcement officer that no purveyor of police policy ever even thought to include forbidding it in the training manual. But it was this very behavior on Jonathan Ross's part - smashing a car window then reaching inside to try and unlock the door - that caused him to be dragged and seriously injured just last June. Which knowledge gives us the big picture of what it was we actually saw in the video footage. What we saw was a man who underneath his mask and his Kevlar and his weapon and his authority was afraid. A man who was perhaps still suffering from PTSD. A man who has been indoctrinated that these people are the enemy.  We saw a man who was angry that two women, one of them in a car,  ...were showing him no respect in spite of his boots and his Kevlar and his mask and his gun and his authority and his masculinity.  What the videos tell us is that this is what our country has degenerated into.  Reference:
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/09/us/ice-shooting-minneapolis-renee-good-cell-phone-invs https://www.newsweek.com/jonathan-ross-ice-agent-shooting-minneapolis-minnesota-11332093 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/01/08/ice-shooting-minneapolis-use-of-force/88082677007/ https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2023-02/23_0206_s1_use-of-force-policy-update.pdf https://www.justsecurity.org/128498/dhs-doj-cbp-policy-force-vehicles/#:~:text=or%20other%20Conveyances-,a.,solely%20to%20disable%20moving%20vehicles. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/01/10/minneapolis-shooting-ice-officers-training-policies/  What a fearful, sad, disorienting time we live in. This is the age of Trump, where day by day, sometimes hour by hour, we're hit with a new shock, so that we can't absorb one shock before we're hit with the next one. I regularly find that while I'm still searching for the words to express what I think and feel about the most recent act of cruelty, brutality, corruption, or aggression by Trump or his minions I have to abandon the effort because that outrage has been made obsolete by the breaking news of yet another outrage. Sort of a variation of a nightmarish Groundhog Day scenario. And so here I am again today, here many of us are, once again horrified, angry, grieving, trying to find words to express what we're thinking, what we're feeling, about the latest outrage, the brutal killing two days ago in Minneapolis of 37-year- old Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three, who was shot to death by ICE agent Jonathan Ross,  ...while she was attempting to move her illegally parked car during an anti-ICE demonstration. Renee, videoed by Jonathan Ross on his cell phone moments before he shot her.  The purported investigation of Renee Good's death will be carried out solely by FBI, no longer an independent law enforcement agency but beholden to the wishes of Donald Trump. To this end the FBI has blocked the Minneapolis police and Minnesota state officials from taking part in the investigation, such as it will (or will not) be. But if Trump's FBI refuses to seek either truth or justice in the killing of Renee Nicole Good, and if Trump lackeys JD Vance and Kristi Noem insist on broadcasting their preposterously fabricated narrative that Good was a domestic terrorist who was trying to kill ICE agent Ross, who subsequently had no choice but to shoot her in self-defense,   ...there are human witnesses and video footage that tell a different story. The story those witnesses and videos tell is that Renee Nicole Good trying to move her car was no threat to the lives of the ICE agents or to whatever mission they were there to accomplish in their combat gear and masks that morning in that Minneapolis neighborhood. They tell that there was no reason, while Good was turning her front wheels to the right, for Jonathan Ross to shoot through her windshield from where he stood to the front left side of her car. That there was no reason, after shooting Good in the face through her windshield, for him to shoot her twice more through the driver's side window then snap, "f**king b**ch" as her car and its lifeless driver careened away. And though MAGA world is pushing the unproven account that Jonathan Ross at some point was hit by Renee Nicole Good's car, all the video stills show him on his feet the whole time, walking and looking just fine.    Some outrages are worse than others. Rest in peace, Renee. You seemed like a really nice person.   It's Saturday, January, 3, the day after January 2, the day the Christmas holidays (or whatever holidays one opts to celebrate or not celebrate between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day) officially close for the season. Today I intend to take down all the decorations,      ...except for the Christmas arch that we set up every year,  ...both the setting up and taking down of which is a whole day's operation usually carried out with the help of our son and a measure of agita.     And yet while it's up and glowing, the arch is a source of such visual delight to ourselves and, we're told, the neighborhood, that its construction and deconstruction are worth the effort.    So the arch will stay up a few more days. But the rest of the holiday things will be put away until next year. Including the holiday eating. Oh, that holiday eating. The feasts we had. In our house the feasting began on Christmas night, when the first of our out-of-town loved ones arrived for a too-brief, too-quickly-over six-day visit.  The next night we ate at the Sakura Japanese steak house, to which we all gave five stars.  On the morning of December 28 my daughter Claire and her husband Miguel arrived from Chicago, and after a quick brunch of waffles and Miguel's sublime specialty scrambled eggs,   ...we all hit the ground running to get ready for a feast with family and friends that evening.           After the company left, everyone laden with leftovers, the family gathered in the family room for a movie and games.   The following morning, Monday, the plan had been to go out for brunch. But as it turned out, everyone was once again jonesing for some of Miguel's eggs and my waffles, so we brunched at home, where it was generally agreed that the food was superior to restaurant fare.  The next morning, Tuesday morning, was our last day of holiday feasting, when two more local relatives joined us for a final brunch, this time with French toast, tater tots, fruit salad, and Miguel regaling us with two batches of eggs, one mushroom and one veggie.  Early the following morning, New Year's Eve, all our out of town loved ones left. On New Year's Day, the last day of the Christmas season, I suggested to my mate Tom that the two of us ring in the new year by going out to dinner at Fado, an Irish restaurant at nearby Easton Town Center. Easton was still festively lit up,       ...Fado was cozy,    ...and the food, Tom's super-tender pot roast and my tasty shepherd's pie, was just what we were in the mood for.   And now it's January 3, time to take down the Christmas decorations and stop the Christmas eating. Except I still keep seeing these cookies and candies around the place.      So I guess Christmas isn't quite over yet.   When I came down on Christmas morning I caught a quick glimpse of the New York Times sitting on the kitchen table.  My first thought was that this was some contemporary artistic rendition of the Nativity story, in which Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with their newborn baby Jesus to save him from certain death at the hands of Herod, the King of Judea. But upon taking a closer at the newspaper I saw that this was in fact a photograph of Sudanese refugees who fled their homeland to save themselves from certain death at the hands of a violent militia group known as the Rapid Response Forces.  I wondered if the Times editorial board purposely chose this photograph for its Christmas Day edition on the hunch that its readers would likely make the same connection that I did. And perhaps to hand their readers the challenge of squaring how we celebrate Christmas,             ...with circling back to that first Christmas, which, if we are to believe what the the Gospel tells us, has much more in common with this image,   ...than with any of the things we do to commemorate the birth of Jesus. But here's an idea. Supposing we gave ourselves permission to brighten up the dark, cold, winter days to our heart's content with lights, gifts, eating, singing, celebrating with family and friends, and spreading a spirit of joy, while the rest of the year we live the message of Christmas by caring for the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters on the planet.  If only.    It's Christmas Eve here in Columbus, Ohio. Some of us spent the day getting our homes ready for this night,   ...putting the finishing touches on our baking,  ...burning our Christmas Eve bayberry candles,   ...for some of us the celebration of Christmas with friends and family beginning on this night. Some of us were out during the day doing some last minute shopping or enjoying the festively decked-out stores and malls,  ...and some were in their homes, cowering in fear, unable to put together Christmas for their families, unable to console their frightened children, too terrified to leave their homes to visit with loved ones, or even to shop for food. This is because during this season, the overarching themes of which are peace, joy, goodwill, letting all contention cease, and recalling the story of the baby who was born in a stable and whose parents became immigrants who had to flee with their newborn child across the border into a foreign country,  ...Donald Trump chose to bring his theater of cruelty,  ...under the direction of his cold-blooded, plastic surgery-skinned overseer of brutality,   ...to Columbus, Ohio for Christmas.     But Columbus, Ohio, has chosen during this Christmas season to live the message of kindness, brother-and sisterhood, and caring for the least among us preached by the one who was born on that first Christmas day:            Matthew 25:35 – “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.” Leviticus 19:33-34 33 “ ‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. 34 The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord and carry a whistle.  Merry Christmas, Everyone. May the Lord keep your city safe from ICE.
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"Tropical Depression"
by Patti Liszkay Buy it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTPN7NYY Archives
February 2026
I am a traveler just visiting this planet and reporting various and sundry observations,
hopefully of interest to my fellow travelers. Categories |
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