Lincoln Inaugural Address

05/21/2025 by Pat Shiplett Leave a Comment

At the Lincoln MemorialLincoln’s words were etched in stone so they couldn’t be erased from history by an executive order.

Lincoln used just 701 words to lament the death and destruction war had wrought on a young nation. The sheer beauty of those words makes his message all the more searing.

The conflict claimed some 600,000 lives, equivalent to six million Americans in today’s population.

Lincoln spoke to the crowd gathered for his second inauguration:

“…the Almighty has his own purpose.”

“…he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came…”

“…both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other.”

“…it may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged.”

Today, not far from the Lincoln Memorial sits the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It has come under full attack by recent executive order.

Donald Trump condemns it as part of a “widespread effort to rewrite our nation’s history” that promotes a divisive, race-centered ideology.

He downplays the role slave labor played in building our nation. He claims that classroom discussions of Jim Crow laws, segregated public facilities and racial violence does harm to our children.

Lincoln’s words, first delivered 150 years ago, were carved into stone as a warning that even people who read the Bible and pray to God can fall into the darkness.

The full text of Lincoln’s brief Second Inaugural Address follows. Read more…

Maarten Tollenaar

05/06/2025 by Pat Shiplett Leave a Comment

People at a coffee shopThe Dutch visitor speaks the King’s English with a brogue that can’t be had for love nor money.

Maarten read ‘Matilda’ in Dutch at the age of eight. Then his parents gave him the book to study in English. Now, thanks in part to Roald Dahl, his emails are impeccable in both languages.

He spent five weeks here visiting a friend he’d met at an international political youth conference held in Ivory Coast. Like many at the coffee shop, he’s working to complete his dissertation.

Maarten recently finished his term as International Officer for the Jonge Democraten (Young Democrats), one of the largest political youth organizations in The Netherlands,.

Its mission is to secure access to civic liberties, equality and sustainability; to expand the definition of democracy from North America to the Middle East and North Africa.

The Netherlands won independence from the Spanish in 1648 only to create an colonial empire of its own (the Dutch only recently apologized for their role in the North Atlantic slave trade).

The application of international law, Maarten Tollenaar explains, is existential to a nation of only eighteen million squeezed between nuclear powers. He attends Leiden Law School which is just minutes from the Directorate of International Affairs and International Criminal Court at the Hague.

Young liberals in his organization are wary of the continent’s recurring infatuations with authoritarian-leaning politics and share the Euro skepticism caused by Brexit.

Maarten and the woman from our coffee shop he was visiting – an advocate for social justice in her own right – refer to each other as ‘partners.’ So there’s reason to think we’ll see more of the ‘Nederlander’ in the future.

sumo

04/16/2025 by Pat Shiplett 2 Comments

They weren’t dog people. They weren’t cat, gerbil or goldfish people either. They were simply parents raising two kids.

They lived in a world where dogs are a source of companionship rather than protein. Where conventional wisdom holds that dogs teach empathy to children.

You may already know where this story is going.

The parents bought a year of delay by buying a book with a breed of dogs featured on each spread. Every evening the man and his daughter played a game; he would cover the text and she would memorize the provenance and personality of each breed.
Once she had her breeds down cold, she called in her chits.

She and her mother phoned from the SPCA to describe the prettiest, smartest dog in the world. He’s got a smushed-in nose, she gushed. “I will walk him everyday.”

The family decided they’d pick up the Japanese Chin first thing the next morning.

But it turned out the most wonderful dog in the world was nowhere to be found. Maybe he’d been adopted, the staff said, or maybe even, ugh… you know. The mother stayed while the staff searched databases. The man took the kids to a hot-dog place, preparing them for all possibilities.

When they came back their mother offered some hope that he’d been sent to another shelter. The kids worried that every second counted – knowing they had to get there before Cruella Di Ville.

“Might be the little guy in aisle F,” the manager said about the dog that fit the profile exactly, But it wasn’t him.

All hope was lost until, far down the aisle, through her tears, the girl saw him looking out at her. And he seemed even more perfect than the day before. She was sure he remembered her.

When the clerk opened the cage he spun around and, to sanctify the moment, defecated on the floor. That’s when they knew he was the dog for them.

Snorting and licking, tail wagging 90-mph on the expressway home, the animal took command of the sedan and family in it. He ran back and forth upon entering his new home. The backs of sofas were to his liking. He claimed corners in the sun.

They gave him the name “Sumo” and spoiled him shamelessly.

Sumo could learn tricks but he felt performing was beneath his dignity – “I’m not a pug, you know” – at the same time he would sell his soul for table scraps.

He was everybody’s pet and was almost never left alone The family walked him 3 times a day, taking turns. He and the boy became especially close when his older sister became a teenager.

A decade passed. The family had never said goodbye to a pet before, and maybe because they weren’t dog people they weren’t prepared for the intensity of their loss.

D.J. with fascist sign

04/06/2025 by Pat Shiplett 16 Comments

People at a coffee shopDictators can intimidate the courts, institutions of learning and the free press into compliance. But coffee shops have a mind of their own.

April 5, 2025 – The idea of freeing ourselves from King George III grew out of colonial coffee houses scattered across the colonies.

Pamphlets and newspapers were read through clouds of tobacco smoke. Ideas about government were tested.

Those early Americans used the term “tyranny” to express their fear of autocratic authority. A healthy vigilance continues to this day. Every president since Washington has been accused of unconstitutional villiany.

We’ve turned to the word “fascism” instead of tyranny in modern times because the industrialized genocide committed by Nazi Fascists is seared into our consciousness.

What makes our current president more dangerous than any in the past is his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election and remain, patently unelected, in office.

He is systematically destroying documents and rewriting our history about that crime and the riot that followed. He’s imposing a nazi-style retribution against officials who followed their sworn duty to hold him responsible.

The Yankee tradition of frequenting coffee shops and debating our liberties dates back to our founding. It would take more than an executive order to shut them down. Let’s hope we never go there.

Allergic to people

03/22/2025 by Pat Shiplett 3 Comments

People at a coffee shopAllergic to people.

Over time he’s learned to present himself as warm and approachable, gregarious in fact. And he is so convincing that people line to be his friends.

That complicates things for a person who reacts to social activities like some people react to gluten and chemicals in cleaning agents.

Before the epiphany, he was trapped in a feedback loop of his own making. He’d invent flaws in friends as an excuse to keep his distance. When they stopped inviting him to do things, he was free to write them off.

There’s no way to eliminate his need for time alone but through a series of false starts, he’s taught himself to live comfortably.

He’s close with his family and friends on a one-on-one basis. He stays on the outer edges of social circles in a way that won’t be noticed. He avoids appearing aloof.

Books and the outdoors offer refuge; he can find his way around a kitchen. He avoids entertainment that jams his receptors, especially if a laugh track is involved.

Some years ago he experienced his epiphany.

A friend he admired described himself as “inwardly directed” and somehow that prompted the man to search for keywords like self-sufficient, self-possessed, independent, resilient, innovative.

A book about the power of introverts helped him see that he’s not an oddity, that there are millions of others like him; and that they’ve been given a gift in disguise.

Our closet introvert seldom talks openly about his allergy to people because no one here at the coffee shop would believe him if he did.