BONUS: Trip to ballpark does not relieve anxiety
PBS, NPR stations take steps to stand up to president, Congress on defunding
Please consider supporting The Front Page with a paid subscription: HERE
The news on Tuesday was typical - bleak.
I needed to do something, anything, to relieve the anxiety over a crumbling democracy. I headed to the National World War II Museum where former astronaut Jan Davis was in conversation about a new book about her father who was a B-17 pilot during World War II. He was shot down over Germany and ended up in a POW camp.
This was not helping with the anxiety.
I caught a streetcar and headed to Tulane University to catch a baseball game.
As I walked across the beautiful campus, I saw a group of students playing what I first thought was softball, but it turned out to be cricket.
They all had darker skin and the chatter I heard were words indistinguishable to my ears. I surmised they were from India, perhaps Pakistan or one of the 100 other cricket-loving civilizations beyond our shores. They were laughing and having fun.
I wondered if it was a brief respite from worrying about their own futures at the university.
The Times-Picayune reported Wednesday that six international students in New Orleans had their student visa status terminated recently, including two at Tulane. Some 1,300 nationwide had seen their visas revoked or immigration status changed.
Obviously, they all aren't criminals, terrorists or protesters. For some, the most controversial thing they do is play cricket instead of baseball. Our country and its elite colleges continue to be a destination for the best and brightest in other cultures and the Trump administration seems intent on ending that.
So there I was halfway across this beautiful campus on one of these gorgeous just-glad-to-be-alive evenings and I was again agonizing over the headlines of the day and the Trump administration's refusal to abide by a court order to return an innocent immigrant to our country.
A Federal appeals court said that taking the Maryland man from his home to another country was an official kidnapping and expressed outrage the administration was doing nothing to correct this miscarriage of justice.
“The facts of this case thus present the potential for a disturbing loophole: namely that the government could whisk individuals to foreign prisons in violation of court orders and then contend, invoking its Article II powers, that it is no longer their custodian, and there is nothing that can be done,” one of the three judges said in the ruling. “It takes no small amount of imagination to understand that this is a path of perfect lawlessness, one that courts cannot condone.”
By the president of the United States.
The news guys are calling it a Constitutional crisis.
I worried it was the end of democracy and worried ICE to might roll up any second and whisk away the dark-skinned students because their cricket bat was a national security threat.
It hit home the next morning when another Substack columnist, Robert B. Hubbell writing his "Today's Edition Newsletter," shared this thought from a reader named Joyce:
"If you wonder what you'd have done in Nazi Germany, you are doing it now."
The answer would be little for most of us, nothing for others.
After all, the president of the United States is refusing to abide by his oath of office and Republicans in Congress have totally abdicated their responsibility to hold him accountable.
And I was going to a baseball game, along with a few hundred others.
The game got out of hand quickly - it was 6-0 before I even arrived - and 10-3 by the seventh inning.
Behind me was a group of middle-aged men with Louisiana accents. They all seemed to be old friends. Most of the talk was about the game, then sports in general, but with Tulane getting trounced and the pitcher unable to throw strikes, one man asked another how he was doing in the stock market while I was content to eavesdrop.
The man said he had taken a bit of a hit, but was going to buy some stocks the next day while the market was still low. He shared a couple stocks he liked.
There was no talk of the constitutional crisis.
No one showed concern about the tariffs being imposed around the world.
And no one said anything about the man being help illegally in El Salvador.
Neither did I.
I thought about that on the lonely walk across campus and while riding the streetcar back into town.
"What would you have done in Nazi Germany?"
Talk about the stock market, the price of eggs, try to figure out how to afford college for your kids?
Life goes on, right?
Until it doesn't.
There have always been bad people in the world, but what has always been truly unique about our country is that there have been good people to stop them.
Those bad people are in power now. Donald Trump has the unique ability to hire some of the least ethical people on the planet. And the good people trying to stop him seem fewer and fewer and less powerful.
Most of us just want to enjoy our lives, be with our families and be happy.
But if this continues, we will never be able to do that again.
PBS and NPR
There will be an up or down vote in Congress in the near future about whether to fund PBS and NPR.
Republicans have wanted to defund the public interest networks for years, but the networks are determined not to go down without a fight, according to CNN media writer Brian Stelter.
“The plan is to remind people of the value proposition,” said Jim Schachter, CEO of Alaska Public Media.
“The majority of Americans think it's worth the $1.60 that they pay in taxes,” said Ed Ulman, CEO of New Hampshire Public Radio.
Stelter reported they are urging viewers and listeners to visit an advocacy website, Protect My Public Media, and send letters to Congress.
Great way to get a message to Stefanik, but it is doubtful she is listening.
Albany ice cream
Have no idea where they get this stuff, but this website called dailypassport.com ranked the city of Albany No. 10 among cities and their consumption of ice cream.
That seems hard to believe considering how cold it gets there.
Here is what dailypassport.com had to say:
Average ice cream spend per person per year: $41.43 New York’s capital city sure loves its ice cream. Albany residents spend over $40 per person on the sweet stuff in stores annually — and that’s not to mention the dozens of ice cream stands, shops, and drive-ins found around the city. According to recent data, the most popular ice cream flavor in New York state overall is chocolate, but Albany strays from the status quo. In a local news survey, residents declared their three favorite flavors to be coffee, black raspberry, and mint chocolate chip, in that order.
Taking out the garbage
Not everyone is a fan of The Front Page.
I got this from a disgruntled reader Wednesday morning:
"I have repeatedly unsubscribed and your garbage keeps showing up in my email. I will hit that button, again, and I expect it will work."
When I checked on their subscription, I found they did not have one. I informed the person of this and signed the email Ken Tingley, The Garbageman.
I did not hear back.
Good, bad news
Every bit of good news in the media world seems to be met with a bit of bad news.
Cowles Company, the family ownership group of The Spokesman Review in Spokane, Wash. announced it was exploring turning the newspaper into a non-profit based news organization to advance local journalism.
Cowles signed an agreement with Spokane-based Comma Community Journalism Lab to transfer the assets of the newspaper and a gift of $2 million, contingent on Comma raising a $2 million match, according to Cowles President and Spokesman Publisher William “Stacey” Cowles.
The press release goes on to say that Comma was founded in 2022 by Rob Curley, executive editor of The Spokesman-Review, to incubate community-centered journalism, amplify diverse voices and share best practices with independent news organizations nationwide, highlighting new ways that impactful local journalism can be sustainable.
On the flip side, a two-year-old nonprofit called the Houston Landing announced it will shut down in May.
It had raised $20 million as a startup and that still was not enought to keep it going. It said it had been unable to build additional revenue streams to support operations.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
I agree totally with Fred Grunewald.
These days are not going to be easy.
My fears have been realized. The literal reality of a then presidential candidate. He said the immigrants were eating pets in Ohio. Now we have people being arrested and deported because there immigration status is not in good standing. I recall the first lady's parents getting there citizenship in Trump's first term. Sure there enjoying our lovely country and the fruits of citizenship.
Simply had a situation with one of my children this week. Verbally someone working with one of my children just bashing them and there ethnicity. I could have lost my shit. Gone in the place of work and been arrested and removed. I drove around angry and mad talking withy sibling. Cooling my ass off. I raise my children better and she handled it by appropriate channels. Not good. But all be well and all who voted for this tyrant should be slapped.
As bad as the status of Democracy is becoming we must all be speaking and sharing our thoughts publicly through social media, town halls and letters to government officials.