With the Indiana Fever win over the Minnesota Lynx last night, the Fever will be in the playoffs. The WNBA Playoffs state Sunday, Sept. 14. Women's basketball has become as rough as men's football and the women play without helmets or shoulder, thigh and knee pads. Not so rough when we played girls' basketball in high school. (I was a guard.)
Florida to lift all mandates on being vaccinated. I remember before we had the polio vaccine. I and my mother and sister almost died from whooping cough because there was no vaccine. Children died from measles. And now we had a rise in measles, RFK Jr.'s testimony is disturbing. He will not listen to the CDC. Will people be able to get the COVID or not? RFK Jr. will not say that vaccines save lives. What else?
"We're going in" is a commonly used term for going into battle (although actual commanders would use clear, tactical terms). Trump's "We're going in" sends a message to Chicago and all of us that he intends to take over cities and states that he doesn't like and rule them as a military dictator. What else?
The Iowa State Historical archives, established in 1857, holds irreplaceable materials, but plans to close in Dec. 31, citing budget shortfall. The amount in question accounts for 0.00008% of the state's budget. The state now deems the thousands of historical documents, including the history of pain can be replaced with a fictional history. The state will save less than 40% of the holdings, with no plans for what will be saved and what will be destroyed. We need to call our legislators to preserve history. People in other states would do well to see about the plans for their full history.
Labor Day began as a movement to work toward better working conditions and fair wages. The first Labor Day was in New York City Sept. 5, 1882. It has been a national holiday in the United States since 1894 to recognize and honor the American labor movement.
Today Labor Day Weekend is often recognized as the unofficial end of summer, a time to go to the beach and for Labor Day Sales. What will you be doing this Labor Day Weekend?
Trump may say he's making America Healthy again, but he is not. With people leaving the CDC and with RFK Jr. in charge of Health and Human Services, we are deeply in danger. Will we be able to get COVID shots? Will we have health care? Will we be able to see our doctors and have the medicine they prescribe?
Gaza, Gaza, Gaza.
The children, the children, oh, the children.
Starvation, devastation.
Netanyahu, No! No!
The Texas State House Republicans tonight, August 20, have passed a gerrymandered map. The vote in Texas to redistrict mid-decade was demanded by Donald Trump to hang on to power during the mid-term elections. Gerrymandering manipulates boundaries of an electoral constituency to favor a party and/or socioeconomic class.
Hey Friend,
President Trump has escalated his efforts to reshape cultural institutions. This week, he turned his attention to the Smithsonian museums, pressing them to downplay the history of slavery and “remove divisive narratives.” This is an attempt to "white-wash" black history, neglecting to tell the whole story of black history, including accomplishments of people of African descent and the wretchedness of slavery.
The Smithsonian’s leaders have long said their mission is to help Americans understand the full scope of our history, including both the triumphs and the painful chapters. Now that mission is under political pressure.
This is how democratic institutions are weakened, not all at once but gradually, when leaders decide which parts of our shared history the public is allowed to see. |
Women’s Equality Day is today August 26th when U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed a proclamation behind closed doors at 8 a.m. on Aug. 26,1920 in Washington, D.C, ending women's struggle for the vote that started a century earlier. August 26, 2025, is the 63rd the wedding anniversary of Burton and me. Here we are on our "Music Man" bridge in Mason City.
The simple answer is that even when a constitutional amendment has been ratified it’s not official until it has been certified by the correct government official. In 1920, that official was U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby. On August 26, 1920, Colby signed a proclamation behind closed doors at 8 a.m. at his own house in Washington, D.C, ending a struggle for the vote that started a century earlier.
The New York Times ran the story about the document’s signing on its front page and noted the lack of fanfare for the historic event.
Colby had been asked by women’s suffrage leaders Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt to allow groups in Colby’s office for the document’s signing and to film the event. Instead, Colby told reporters that “effectuating suffrage through proclamation of its ratification by the necessary thirty-six States was more important than feeding the movie cameras.”
The Times explained that Colby was concerned about the rivalry between Paul and Catt and wanted to avoid a public scene at the signing.
“Inasmuch as I am not interested in the aftermath of any of the friction or collisions which may have been developed in the long struggle for the ratification of the amendment, I have contented myself with the performance in the simplest manner of the duty devolving upon me under the law,” Colby said.
A package of documents from the state of Tennessee had arrived by train in Washington around 4 a.m. It included the official ratification document from the state legislature.
How Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18, 1920, was a story in itself. Congress had passed the proposed amendment a year earlier, and it was supported by President Woodrow Wilson.
By the middle of 1920, 35 states had voted to ratify the amendment, but four other states—Connecticut, Vermont, North Carolina and Florida—refused to consider the resolution for various reasons, while the remaining states had rejected the amendment altogether.
So, Tennessee became the battleground to obtain the three-fourths of states needed to ratify the amendment. Harry T. Burn, a 24-year-old legislator, was set to vote against the amendment, but switched his vote on the Tennessee state house floor at the urging of his mother, assuring the 19th amendment’s ratification.
Yet, even after Burn’s deciding vote, anti-suffrage legislators tried desperately to nullify the previous vote.
In 1971, Representative Bella Abzug championed a bill in the U.S. Congress to designate August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.” The bill says that “the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920, on which the women of America were first given the right to vote.”
As a footnote, the amendment certification process has changed since 1920. Now, the Archivist of the United States, who heads the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), is responsible for finalizing the ratification process.
Back in 1920, Secretary Colby’s attorney reviewed the documents that arrived from Tennessee. Today, NARA’s Office of the Federal Register reviews the documents and writes the proclamation for the Archivist of the United States to sign.
Section 106(b) of the United States Code spells out the finality of the process:
“The Archivist of the United States shall forthwith cause the amendment to be published, with his certificate, specifying the States by which the same may have been adopted, and that the same has become valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the Constitution of the United States.”
As this country prepares for the 250th anniversary of its founding, how can we celebrate without being uncritical of its history? Princeton Professor of African American history Eddie Glaude Jr. says we have a MAGA embrace of American Civil Religion. Rather, the U.S. has always been on the road to a more perfect union. Cohesion can't come at the expense of diversity and the erasure of people in favor of a lily white America. It's a fantasy to think the foundation of the USA stands outside of history being a divinely sanctioned nation.
Enjoying the new Riverwalk District in downtown Mason City. Burton and I walked there with Bishop Christopher deForest from NE Penn. Beautiful cylindrical light sculpture at dusk.
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