The Silence of the Lambs

John Merrow Uncategorized , , , ,

As the most consequential election of our lifetime draws near, it’s worth asking about Trump’s most prominent critics in the Republican party.  Surely they are aware of the clear and present danger Trump represents, because they were once very public, very outspoken.  But what about NOW, when it matters?

Here’s what George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, and five other once-outspoken critics of Donald Trump are doing NOW, to save our democratic republic from fascism.

(Spoiler alert: NADA, ZIPPO, BUPKIS, NOTHING!)

PAUL RYAN: “Everybody knows I’m not a Trump guy” is what he told Harvard’s Institute of Politics in April, but he followed his mild critique with “but…”  In fact, the former Republican candidate for Vice President and former Speaker of the House seems to have followed every criticism of Trump with some sort of qualification.  It adds up to something worse than silence.  

MITT ROMNEY: The former candidate for President (2012) has been ‘evolving’–but, unfortunately, in the direction of silence.  He was a harsh critic of Trump back in 2016 and twice voted to convict him when he was impeached.  However, lately his criticism has been muted.  Here’s part of what he said at Harvard in April:  “I’m not the first one to suggest that that we’re taking steps towards an authoritarian approach,” Romney said. “When President Biden said, ‘I’m going to get rid of a trillion dollars of student debt without Congressional approval,’ that’s a pretty authoritarian thing, and President Trump has done far more than his share.”

He was more critical in 2024:  “I’m, as you know, not a supporter of President Trump’s. I didn’t support him in this election. I didn’t the last time he ran either, largely for matters of character,” the Utah Republican, who was the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, told CNN’s Jake Tapper in a wide-ranging interview on “State of the Union” on Sunday.  

And in 2016 he said “Here’s what I know: Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University,” Romney said.

GEORGE W. BUSH:   His prolonged silence is analyzed in detail in an insightful article, “George W. Bush’s Code of Silence,” in The New Yorker in September.  I urge you to read Jacob Weisberg’s entire article, and perhaps this one paragraph will entice you to click on the link above: 

Bush coming out against Trump could have made a difference at many points. It likely would have mattered in the fall of 2016, by which point his post-Presidential approval rating had risen above fifty per cent with all voters. If Bush had endorsed Hillary Clinton, it might have encouraged members of his own party to vote for a responsible Democrat, however disliked, over a malignant Republican. The same was true again in 2024, when Bush could have joined the Cheneys in endorsing Kamala Harris as a far lesser evil. But, by then, Bush’s show of staying above the fray had hardened into a fixed posture. He hadn’t criticized Trump before, and he wasn’t going to now. This post‑Presidential abdication stands as the final, damning failure of the Bush Presidency. A leader who framed politics around a straightforward, Christian morality of right and wrong saw evil and failed to call it out.

MIKE PENCE: Pence was, of course, Trump’s Vice President during his first term. He incurred Trump’s wrath when he denied Trump’s request/order to disapprove of the slate of electors that voted to certify Joe Biden’s victory. He then ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, failing spectacularly. He subsequently declined to endorse Trump, although he did not endorse the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris. 

Pence’s language has been muted, as in this interview with NPR:  Trump and Pence ran in 2020 on a mission to “drain the swamp,” rooting out government corruption and wasteful spending. However, Pence said Trump appears to have shifted from those goals.   “There’s maybe nothing more swampy than the battle over getting tariff waivers for big business,” Pence said.

JEB BUSH: If anyone could be expected to be publicly critical of Trump, it’s Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who ran for and lost the 2016 Republican nomination to Trump, who mocked him mercilessly. “Low Energy Jeb” was just one of the epithets Trump flung his way, month after month.  After dropping out, Bush endorsed Ted Cruz.

That was 10 years ago, and since then (like his brother George) Jeb has been silent about Trump’s attacks on democratic institutions and traditions. 

He did, however, surprise observers by endorsing Trump’s Iran policies back in January:  “President Trump continues to demonstrate historic leadership on Iran, with unprecedented support for the Iranian people as they face bullets for freedom.”  And “We applaud President Trump for his courageous decision to launch this military operation. For 47 years, the Iranian regime has unleashed terror, violence and misery—against its own people and across the region—while threatening the United States, Israel and our allies.” 

REX TILLERSON: Trump’s first Secretary of State publicly stated that Trump was “undisciplined,”  unwilling to read important material, and prone to supporting actions and policies that would be clear violations of international law. Privately, he called Trump “a moron.” That was in 2016-2017. Fired by Trump, Tillerson, the former chief executive of ExxonMobil, has gone dark. 

ELAINE CHAO: Chao, Trump’s Secretary of Transportation, was the first Cabinet member to resign after the January 6th Insurrection attempt.  Chao, the first Asian-American to serve in a Presidential cabinet, later called out Trump for his anti-Asian remarks in speeches and on social media in which he attacked Chao and her husband, Senator Mitch McConnell, calling her ‘Coco Chow’ and him ‘Old Broken Crow.’  Here’s one TruthSocial post from January, 2023: “Does Coco Chow have anything to do with Joe Biden’s Classified Documents being sent and stored in Chinatown?” Trump wrote. “Her husband, the Old Broken Crow, is VERY close to Biden, the Democrats, and, of course, China.”

Chao responded, saying that his attacks say “a whole lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans.”

Like Mitt Romney, Chao seems to have ‘evolved’ into silence.  It’s probably just a coincidence that in January 2025 Trump appointed Chao to the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees (and we know how that Board has voted, lock-step).

BETSY DEVOS: DeVos, Trump’s first Secretary of Education, also resigned from Trump’s Cabinet in a public display of (feigned) integrity after the January 6th Insurrection attempt.  I say ‘feigned’ because she continues to support Trump financially through at least one major PAC.

GENERAL JOHN KELLY: Of all the men and women I’m writing about, Trump’s former Chief of Staff has been the most critical of Trump, saying that he “could fit the bill of a fascist” and that he was unfit to serve–all this just two weeks before the 2024 Presidential election.  

“Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy,” he told The Times.

“So, certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America,” he told ABC News.

CNN reported that, the day after the January 6th insurrection, Kelly supported using the Twenty-fifth Amendment to remove Trump from office, saying “What happened on Capitol Hill yesterday is a direct result of his poisoning the minds of people with the lies and the frauds.”

I haven’t seen General Kelly, Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Mike Pence or any of the other well-known Republicans stepping up to the plate to defend our democratic republic. 

So I guess it’s up to us!

The Great and Irreplaceable Dolly Parton

John Merrow Uncategorized

If the state of the world has you down, here’s a reprieve, two interviews with the great Dolly Parton.  The first is my extended interview with her, 13 years ago about her Imagination Library; the second piece is my report for the NewsHour, also from 2013.

During my 41 years in journalism, I interviewed or spent time with a lot of charismatic people, and no one, not even Bill Clinton, came close to Dolly.  She had the gift of magnetic intensity–100% positive–that made the interviewer feel as if this conversation was, for her, the most important one she was ever going to have, ever!  And there was nothing contrived about it.  She listened to the questions with 100% concentration and then answered directly and thoughtfully.  I’m sure she had been asked my questions hundreds of times, maybe thousands, but she answered as if this was the first time.  

I spent maybe 30 minutes or so with her, that’s all, but I can tell you that all the wonderful things that have been said about her, and are now being said, believe them….

Read This If You Want to Learn to Read

John Merrow Uncategorized , , ,

I want you to experience how a skilled teacher makes certain that her first graders learn to read.   Imagine that you’re sitting in the back of a classroom of First Graders, most of them 6-years-old, a few of them age 5. It’s early October, and the students already know their letters and the sounds they make.  First the teacher holds up what looks like a Stop Sign.  

Teacher: Children, what does this sign say?

Many hands go up, and a lot of the kids call out “Stop” and “It says Stop” and “That’s a Stop sign.”

“Maybe you recognized the sign because you’ve seen it on lots of street corners, but let’s read what this sign actually says. First, let’s take it apart, letter by letter.  The first letter, T, makes a sound.  What sound does T make?” 

The teacher then goes through the sounds the other three letters make, the children make the sounds and put them together, laughing when they realize their mistake.

Then she holds up a slightly different sign for her students to decode:   (this sign reads SPOT, but I am flummoxed by pasting graphics. Sorry)                                                                

They do, with increasing confidence because they’re enjoying the game the teacher is playing.

“OK, now let’s see what happens if we move the letters around again.” 

She holds up another sign:  (this one reads POST)

“Same four letters.  Let’s try to read it by sounding out each letter. Start with the first one.  What sound does P make?”

After they’ve decoded and pronounced POST, they are delighted when she brings out two more versions of the familiar sign:   

They take those words apart, then put the sounds together, eventually reading both words.  OPTS is the most challenging because the First Graders don’t know the word, leading to a discussion about OPTIONS, a noun, and OPT, a verb.  The teacher doesn’t move on until she’s sure everyone understands. Then she challenges her students to use those words in conversation during the day, or at  home that night. 

Finally, the real thing, which they decode with ease:

And for one more challenge, she holds up this sign,  STOP but with an E at the end. 

She tells them how it is pronounced and explains that, when the letter E follows a vowel, that vowel ‘says its own name.’  She tells them how to pronounce it, and then she writes several words on the blackboard: NICE, HOSE, and CASE.  The children sound them out. 

Then she holds up another image, a GO sign:  

“Who knows what this sign says?  Can anyone use it in a sentence?” (Many hands go up.)  “That’s good.”

After sounding out the two letters and putting the word together, the teacher asks the children, “What happens to GO if we replace the G with S or N?”

She writes SO and NO on the blackboard, next to GO, which the children figure out almost immediately.  

“But letters can be tricky things, children. What sound does ‘O’ make in STOP? Keep that in mind.”

She replaces the G with the letter T, making TO .  Some students automatically rhyme it with GO and SO, pronouncing it ‘TOE.’  Now she explains that in this new word, TO, the letter O has a different sound.  

“So we see that the letter O can make different sounds. English is tricky, but we will learn all the tricks.  Read this sentence: ‘SO I said NO, you must GO TO the STORE.’

Which word isn’t following the rules?”

They all seem to understand that TO is the exception.

“I warned you that letters were tricky!  But there are ways to figure out most letters, rules that work most of the time.  But not all the time, because English breaks a lot of its own rules.  I promise you we will have fun figuring all this out…”

The teacher is incorporating Word Recognition– often called “Look-Say” or Whole Language–techniques into her reading instruction. Because English is often non-phonetic, readers must learn to recognize quite a few words, as she is explaining to her First Graders.

Another time she writes two short sentences on the blackboard: COME HERE!  WHERE ARE THE MACHINES?

“OK, kids. On your toes now, because only one of these words follows the rules.”

She asks them to pronounce each word according to the rules they have learned. They do, pronouncing COME with a long O, WHERE with a long E, ARE with a long A, and MACHINES with a long I.  Then she pronounces them correctly, mystifying and delighting her students. 

“I told you English was tricky and sneaky, but we won’t let it beat us!”

She creates a list of other rule-breaking words to learn.These so-called ‘sight words’ include who, where, to, are, been, because, machine, and police.  The list will grow throughout the year.

She often asks her students to tell the class what words they want to be able to read.  Hands go up, and children call out,  ‘Bathroom,’ ‘Girl’s Room,’  ‘Boy’s Room,’ ‘Ice Cream,’ ‘Police,’ ‘Rocket Ship,’ and more.  By meeting them where they are and encouraging their curiosity, she’s empowering them.  

Another time she will ask her students what sentences they would like to write. “I love you, Momma” and “I miss you, Daddy. Please come home,” some call out. She writes the sentences on the board for everyone to read. 

Neither Phonics nor Word Recognition, this strategy is closer to the “Literacy as Liberation” practiced by Brazilian educator Paolo Friere.  Whatever the source, it’s a powerful motivation for young children, giving a strong sense of mastery.

When the year is nearly over, she will ask her children some questions: ‘Who are the three or four fastest runners in the class?’   The children call out five or six different names.  ‘OK, now who are the three or four best singers in the class?’ Again names are called out.  ‘And one more question. Who are the three or four tallest kids in our class?’  More names.

“I asked those questions because some of you are taller, some of you can run faster, and some of you can sing better, but that’s just how things are turning out. It’s not because you are better. You’re just different.  The same thing is true with reading. All of you are readers, good readers, but some of you can read better….because you got lucky at birth, not because you are a better person.”  

She is correct.  It turns out about 40 percent of young children absorb the basics of Phonics without difficulty and are able to decode and comprehend with ease.  But everyone–even ‘born readers–has to learn to read because reading is not a natural act. 

“You’re all readers now, and nobody can take that away from you….ever.  So please keep on reading, and writing, and thinking, and asking questions.” 

Full disclosure: That teacher isn’t one person but a mashup of marvelous First Grade teachers I encountered as an education reporter, all but one of them women.  Among the women was my own First Grade teacher, Mrs. Catherine Peterson at Hindley School in Noroton, Connecticut.  I went back and spent a day with Mrs. Peterson when I was in my late 30’s and working for NPR.   The man was Johnny Brinson, a First Grade teacher in Washington, DC.  Like all great teachers, they made reading a challenging game, and then did everything possible to see that their students ‘won’ the game.

To summarize: Learning the alphabet is a straightforward 2-step process: Shapes and Sounds.  One must learn to recognize the shapes of the 26 letters and what each letter sounds like.  There’s no argument about this, and certainly there has never been and never will be an “Alphabet War.” 

The same rule–Shapes and Sounds–applies to reading. Would-be readers must apply what they learned about Sounds–formally called Phonics and Phonemic Awareness–to combinations of letters–i.e., words.  They must also learn to recognize some words by their Shapes, because many English words do not follow the rules of Phonics. (One quick example: By the rules of Phonics, ‘Here’ and ‘There’ should rhyme; they do not, and readers must learn how to pronounce both.)  To become a competent, confident reader, one must rely on both Phonics and Word Recognition. 

Ergo, there’s absolutely no need, justification, or excuse for “Reading Wars” between Phonics and Word Recognition. None!  And yet American educators, policy-makers, and politicians have been waging their “Reading Crusades” for close to 200 years.  As a consequence, uncounted millions of adults have lived their lives in the darkness of functional illiteracy and semi-literacy.

Here’s something most  Reading Crusaders don’t understand: Almost without exception, every first grader wants to be able to read, because they understand that reading gives them some measure of control over their world, in the same way walking does. 

And skilled teachers can teach almost all children–including the 5-20 percent who are dyslexic–to become confident readers.

Skilled teachers understand that reading–like walking–is not the goal. It’s the means to understanding, confidence, and control.  Children don’t “first learn to read and then read to learn,” as some pedants maintain. That’s a false dichotomy: they learn to read to learn.  

And so skilled teachers use whatever strategies are called for, beginning with the essential: Phonics, but including Word Recognition, what one might call Reading as Liberation, and more. 

Why Do We Have Schools?

John Merrow Uncategorized

Every state in our union has a compulsory school attendance law, but why do we require schooling? What is the purpose of school? Or the purposes?

Here are seven (perhaps overlapping) possibilities:

  1. Public Schools are Stepping Stones designed to give all children the opportunity to reach their potential. They are Ladders.
  2. Neither Ladders nor Stepping Stones, Public Schools exist to ratify the existing social and economic order.
  3. They exist to teach ‘The Three R’s’ of reading, writing, and math. Full stop!
  4. They are sorting machines, designed to separate winners from losers in our competitive capitalist system. They use standardized test scores and other measures to achieve this.
  5. They are instruments of Social Control designed to civilize the unwashed masses, ‘Americanize’ immigrants, and maintain the social order.
  6. Their purpose is to prepare citizens for life in a democracy–even though they are almost as undemocratic as prisons and the military!
  7. They are designed to indoctrinate. Why else would they have 5-year-olds–who have no idea what the words ‘pledge’ and ‘allegiance’ even mean–pledging allegiance?

I am giving a talk in about 10 days to a sophisticated audience, and I’d appreciate your thoughts. You can post a public answer (my preference) here or here, or you can write to me privately at john.merrow@gmail.com.

Thanks,

John

Reading is NOT a ‘Science’

John Merrow Uncategorized , , , ,

Reading is a skill. Full Stop.  

Reading is not a science! Full stop.  

Chemistry, Biology, and Physics are sciences, but reading is a skill, much like tuning a piano or an automobile engine, or throwing a pot or a frisbee.  Those who would have us believe that “A Science of Reading” exists, and that it reduces reading to a hard and fast set of rules are either devious politicians, opportunistic charlatans eager to sell snake oil curriculums, liars, or ignoramuses. 

But, while reading is a skill that can be learned, teaching reading is both an art and a skill.

However, the “Science of Reading” bandwagon shows no signs of slowing down. To date, 43 states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation relating to what is called ‘evidence-based reading instruction.’  I say that’s well and good if that means making sure teachers understand the importance of phonics.  Not so good, if it means hours of rigid drills in the sounds that letters make. 

Don’t laugh–that’s what happened the last time we fought ‘the reading wars’ back in the 1980’s. I remember being in public schools in Connecticut where reading had been reduced to about 30 discrete steps, which could be drilled and practiced.  Once the kids had mastered the steps, they were deemed to be readers.  Perhaps they could read, but all the kids I interviewed absolutely HATED reading!

Phonics–matching letters and groups of letters with the sounds they make–is the engine of reading.  But it’s not enough to know the rules of English because our language has almost as many ‘exceptions to the rule’ words as it has rules.  So learners need to know more than just the rules.  They have to recognize some words, the ones that break the rules.

Some of my favorite examples of our rule-breaking language:

If reading were a science, HE, SHE,  and THE should rhyme, so why don’t they? 

If reading were truly a science, PRIVATE, ESTIMATE, AND PRIMATE also should rhyme, but they don’t. 

If reading were a science, MAINTAIN, OBTAIN, and CAPTAIN would rhyme.

Say these three words aloud: ANGER, RANGER, and HANGER. If reading were a science, they should rhyme too, but they don’t.

Why don’t these words rhyme?  “Because reading is NOT a science.”

Let me give you one more example of our language’s irregularities: Say this word aloud: EAR.   Now put a B in front of EAR to make BEAR. By the rules of Phonics,  BEAR should rhyme with EAR….but it doesn’t

Now that you have learned to pronounce BEAR, it stands to reason that adding a D, making BEARD, will produce a word that is pronounced BARED.  But it’s not; it’s pronounced BEERD.

Back to the rules: EAR and HEAR rhyme, as they should, but HEARD isn’t pronounced HERE-D; instead, it’s pronounced HERD.

And if we add a T to HEAR to make HEART, we don’t get HERE-T.  No, it’s HART.

Back to hard core phonics:  By its rules,  DEAR, FEAR, HEAR, GEAR, and PEAR should rhyme…. Which they do, with one important exception. Let’s talk about the exception.  Let’s add an L to PEAR, to make PEARL.  It should be pronounced PAIR-L, but of course it’s not.  It’s PURR-L.

So, learning our weird language is not a walk in the park. Nonetheless, properly trained teachers can teach almost any first grader to read, because most children want to be able to read.  They understand, intuitively, that reading gives them more control over their environment. It’s learning with a purpose.  It’s why children want to learn to walk–to get somewhere– and to talk–to be understood.  The same applies to learning to read.

It’s painful but necessary to acknowledge that public schools have done a poor job teaching children to read over the years.  21% of American adults are functionally illiterate, and 54% of us read at a sixth grade level or lower. That’s embarrassing, tragic for those individuals, and damaging to our economy, but please do not blame teachers. 

It’s not their fault, because almost all of them were trained by education professors in thrall to the belief that children needed above all to recognize words, not sound them out. So, for years and years the fundamental principles of phonics (letters and combinations of letters make sounds!) have been ignored or, more likely, scorned in favor of what is called ‘Whole Language,’ the curious notion that children should be taught to recognize words, not sound them out.  (When Whole Language fell into disrepute, the name changed to “Balanced Literacy,” with equally disastrous results.)

Education bureaucrats compounded the problem with their catchy mantra, “First they learn to read; then they read to learn.” That’s utter nonsense!  They happen together.  

The craze for ‘The Science of Reading’ dates back to 2017, when a brilliant reporter, Emily Hanford of American Public Media, launched a podcast series called “Sold a Story.”  If you missed it, it’s still relevant.  She exposes the hypocrisy of education professors who continue to teach and preach ‘Whole Language,’ basically recognizing the shapes of words, as the one true way to teach children to read.

But I can’t imagine that Ms Hanford is thrilled with some of the unintended consequences, which I wrote about here in 2024. 

If you have the time and the curiosity, here’s a good teacher at work, making learning to read a journey of discovery and pleasure.

Reading, and learning to read, should not be politicized, but they have been and are. Somehow, Phonics became ‘Conservative’ and then ‘Republican,’ while Whole Language became left, liberal, and Democratic.   Ideologues in George W. Bush’s administration did a lot of damage.  

More recently, the so-called Mississippi Miracle, which saw its fourth graders making huge gains in reading and math, has been oversimplified, unfortunately.

There is hope.  The very red state of Texas has just issued a mandatory reading list of its public schools, and kids there will be reading lots of good books. Yes, there’s a Christian bias, but Texas isn’t giving in to the widespread idea that today’s children have such short attention spans that they can only read excerpts.  Bravo to James Traub for celebrating this in a recent New York Times column.

I realize that I’m suggesting a lot of additional reading (this in a nation where only about 16% of adults read for pleasure), but here’s one more important piece, “The End of Reading is Here,” by Rose Horowitch in this month’s Atlantic.

What can YOU do?  Read to your grandchildren and grandchildren; give them gift certificates for their local bookstore or Barnes & Noble. Support banning cellphones in school and at your dinner table.

One more thing: Get copies of Jim Trelease’s wonderful book, The Read-Aloud Handbook, now in its 7th edition, for everyone interested in having children read.  Jim was a special guy, a reporter in Springfield (MA) with an interest in education. He visited a lot of schools in the 1970’s and 80’ and became intrigued by what was called ‘sustained silent reading.’ He thought there might be a connection between being read to and loving to read.  There was, and there is. Turns out the more we read to children, the more likely it is that they will become readers.  

I don’t remember how Jim and I got connected, probably through my weekly radio program on NPR, but when Jim self-published “The Read-Aloud Handbook” in 1979, he asked me to write a blurb for the cover.  It was the first book I ever blurbed, and I wouldn’t mind if that fact were mentioned in my obituary, so significant was Jim’s book. 

Jim passed away in 2022, but his book is a living testament to a life well-lived. 

You will not regret buying “The Read-Aloud Handbook.”  (And if you happen to find a first edition, my mailing address is PO Box 1381, Edgartown MA 02539.) 

PS; I woke up in the middle of the night with a start, convinced that I had a copy of Jim’s book somewhere. Of course I got up and searched until I found it. It’s the 4th Edition from 1997. Jim signed it, “To John, my all-time favorite ‘footnote,'” and dated it 4-8-98. It’s a reference to his quoting what Captain Kangaroo told me about the negative affects of television on reading, on my NPR program. No blurb from me, or from anyone else for that matter. I’m still hoping to find a first Penguin edition from 1982 or, better yet, the self-published book.

PRETEND YOU’RE A DEMOCRAT

John Merrow Uncategorized , , , ,

No, scratch that. Imagine instead that you’re Chuck Schumer,  the Minority Leader of the United States Senate, a distinguished statesman who has served in the Senate since 1999, representing New York State.  A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Senator Schumer also served nine terms in the US House before winning his Senate seat.  

Now imagine that you’ve inserted yourself into the Senate race in Maine, first urging the Governor, age 78, to run.  That fizzled out, and when the nominee, Graham Platner, was forced to step aside, Maine’s Democrats nominated Troy Jackson, a veteran politician.  Almost immediately, Jackson said he wasn’t a fan of Senator Schumer and wouldn’t vote for him as the party’s leader.  “The Democratic Party needs to have a different approach — getting people back in the party, getting working-class, everyday people back in the party — and I don’t believe it’s going to happen with Senator Schumer,” he said.

So what now? Remember, you’re role-playing as Senator Schumer, the savvy  veteran politician. Perhaps you would immediately issue a statesman-like statement, something like:  

“I want Troy Jackson, and everyone in Maine, to know that, even if he doesn’t support me, I support him. I want everyone to know that I will do all that I can to see that he’s elected.  Once he wins, he will have a chance to get to know me, and perhaps he will change his mind.  That’s in the future. What matters now is gaining control of the Senate and the House so we can stop Trump and his cronies from robbing us blind, stop Trump from turning America into a fascist nightmare.”

Schumer didn’t say anything like that, not even close.  Instead, he behaved like a disgruntled 7th grader, saying the politician’s version of “Well, if he won’t support me, I won’t support him. So there!!”   His office tried to paper over the tantrum, but the incident perfectly encapsulates what’s wrong with the Democratic party in 2026.   

Troy Jackson isn’t the only disaffected Democrat who wants new leadership.

And many big donors have figured out that the rot at the top includes the Democratic National Committee, which is broke. It has about $16.3 million in cash but owes $18.5 million. Meanwhile, the Republicans are awash in cash.

So, what’s a good Democrat to do?  Well, you have options….

One option is Act Blue, which allows you to select which candidates you wish to support.

Another is Emily’s List, which supports pro-choice candidates.

Another (and perhaps more promising) option that we recently discovered is WAY TO WIN, which describes itself as a ‘strategic donor collaborative and strategy hub’ that uses new media to build coalitions.  Way to Win’s focus now is on retaking the House, and its specific attention is races in the south and southwest.  It’s data-driven, and its leadership comes across as smart and committed.  Please take a look….and, if you are as impressed as we are, donate and spread the word.

Remember, despair is not an option; nor is sitting on your hands until November. 

Turning Back the Clock

John Merrow Uncategorized , , , ,

Two years ago my son, Josh, gave me a fascinating birthday present, this clock that runs backward.  He engineered it himself, working with a cheap battery-powered wall clock.  He told me that he got it right on his third try.

Here’s a photo, taken this morning.  The clock reads 1:16

Underneath the clock is the ‘certificate of authenticity’ that accompanied Josh’s gift, which reads: 

THIS IS AN AUTHENTIC ‘HENCEFORTH ELECTRO-MECHANICAL SERIES 3’ TIMEPIECE. THERE IS NO NEED TO SET IT, AS IT IS ALREADY SET TO ITS OWN TIME.

TO FULLY ENJOY THE BENEFITS OF YOUR TIMEPIECE, IT IS ADVISABLE TO REMOVE, COVER, OR DISABLE ALL OTHER TIME-KEEPING EQUIPMENT IN THE AREA IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO ALREADY.

SHOULD THERE BE A PROBLEM, ONE OF OUR TECHNICIANS WILL ARRIVE JUST BEFORE IT OCCURS. YOU HAVE PLENTY OF TIME!’

“Turning back the clock” is a perennial fantasy, brought to life vividly in Jack Finney’s 1970 novel, “Time and Again,” and in “Back to the Future,” the memorable 1985 film starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd.  Both of those plots involve a child’s parents meeting and falling in love, but I’m interested in having readers fantasize about world events, not personal ones.  

So, here’s the question: If you could turn back the clock, what would you change, not in your personal life but in the larger world?  Not big stuff like dropping the second A-Bomb or assassinating Hitler or Stalin, but small events that, done differently, would have had a profound impact on our lives.

No doubt some of you have already thought about having Fred Trump wear a condom!

Me, I’d somehow convince President Reagan not to do his deal with Rupert Murdoch that did away with the ‘fairness doctrine’ that required equal time on TV and radio for different points of view.  That deal has given us Fox, NewsMax, MS Now, and all the unbalanced crap that pollutes our airwaves. 

And I would have George W. Bush first read and then take seriously the FBI warnings that the ‘foreign-appearing’ men who were taking flying lessons weren’t interested in learning how to land the planes.  That probably would have prevented 911.

I’d change at least three votes in the Senate if I could. 1) I’d have Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a medical doctor, abide by his Hippocratic oath and vote against confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services; and 2) I’d have Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa vote against confirming Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense and 3) (going back to Trump’s first term) I’d give Senator Susan Collins the courage to vote against sending to the full Senate the nomination of Betsy DeVos to be Secretary of Education.

It’s now 36 minutes later, but on Josh’s clock it’s 36 minutes earlier!! 

Alas, as Omar Kayyam wrote, 

“The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”

While we cannot change the past, much of what will happen tomorrow is subject to our control.  So if you, like me, are unhappy with the direction that Trump is taking our country, get involved.  Support the ACLU and groups that are working to protect voting rights.  Write postcards. Donate to promising political candidates.  

The clock is ticking….

VICTORY!!

John Merrow Uncategorized

We did it!  The goal had three simple parts: My job was to  ‘bike my age’ (85).  And then 85 people would each donate $85, for a total of $7,225, to the MV Island Housing Trust, which builds attainable, affordable housing for essential workers and their families here on Martha’s Vineyard. 85 times $85

Well, I biked 86 miles, which was just barely–1.1%–above the stated goal.  

In all, 101 different people donated, which is an impressive 18.8% above the stated goal.

And those 101 people donated $27,845 to MVIHT, which is a mind-boggling 385% above the stated goal.

And on my blog and in these emails, about 3,000 of “my closest friends” have read about IHT, a truly remarkable organization that has built homes and apartments for hundreds of families here on Martha’s Vineyard.  More than 500 beds, with hundreds more in the pipeline.

To be candid, once I learned that more than 85 people had donated, I began hoping for 100.  And we made it, thanks to you.

And now that we are so close to $30,000, I’m hoping that a few more of you will go here and make your tax-deductible donation.  We need just $2,155.

But, whatever, my heartfelt thanks….

John

(PS: Planning is underway for next year when I will turn 86 (Lord willing and the creek don’t rise).  However, in this political climate ‘86’ is interpreted as encouraging assassination, and so the plan is to try to bike 100 miles.)  

Everything Trump Touches…..

John Merrow Uncategorized , , , ,

On the pre-game show before the World Cup final, Fox reporter Jinny Taft asked President Trump which team he favored.  “You can’t bet against Messi,” he said, more than once, basically choosing Argentina to win the World Cup.

What then happened:  Messi all but disappeared and Argentina played poorly (and thuggishly), losing only 1-0 in extra time, but the score would have been 5-0 or worse but for their remarkable goalie, who made a record 11 saves.

Before the World Cup semifinal games (England v. Argentina and Spain v. France), Trump predicted that England would prevail because of Harry Kane, England’s captain and striker. 

What then happened:  Kane played poorly, and England lost.

When an American player, Folarin Balogun, received a red card and therefore a ban for the team’s next game, Trump intervened, the red card was ‘suspended,’ and Trump took full credit.

What then happened: The American player all but disappeared on the pitch, and the American team played poorly and was routed by Belgium, 4-1.  In its celebration, Belgian players mocked Trump and his infamous dance.

In June Trump announced that he wanted to go to Madison Square Garden in New York City to see the Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs play for the NBA Championship. He would be the first sitting US President to attend an NBA championship game.

What then happened: The Knicks, who hadn’t lost a single playoff game, lost Game 3 to the Spurs, 115-111, and Trump was booed, even more loudly than the Spurs.

Do you detect a pattern?

Before the 2025 Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, Trump publicly and loudly supported the Chiefs, announcing his friendship with the family of KC quarterback Patrick Mahomes.Do you see the pattern?

What then happened: The Chiefs were routed, 40-22, a score that looks much closer than it was because the Chiefs scored 16 points in the last few minutes of the game.

Trump invested in the World Football League, a wannabe competitor to the National Football League.

You know what happened: The WFL went belly-up,  bankrupt.

If Trump’s deadly impact were restricted to sports, this would be comical, but, unfortunately, the Trump jinx (or curse) isn’t limited to sports, because the full truth is that EVERYTHING Trump touches turns to sh*t.

…..Including six casinos, Trump steaks, Trump Airlines, Trump University, and more.

…..Including the lives and reputations of men and women who signed to work for him.  We’re looking at you, Bill Barr and Lindsey Graham and Tulsi Gabbard and Marco Rubio and JD Vance and on and on.

…..Including lots of Washington DC, like half of the White House, The Kennedy Center, Lafayette Park, and the reflecting pool by the Lincoln Memorial.

….Including, tragically, the US Government and institutions like the CDC, the FBI, and the Departments of Justice, Defense, Homeland Security, and Health & Human Services. 

While it will take years to rebuild our country after Trump’s destructive reign of error and terror, the work is underway. You and I can help by contributing generously to the American Civil Liberties Union and by signing up to work with groups that are actively working to protect the vote this November and beyond.  

Here are five:  Indivisible, Protect the Vote, The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and Defend 2026.   

Flush Trump…..

Wanna Bet?

John Merrow Uncategorized , , , ,

Tune in to watch any major sporting event–football, hockey, basketball, women’s softball, etc–and you will be buried in a deluge of invitations to wager from Draft Kings and other companies.

And millions are accepting the invitation. One American adult in five is participating, wagering nearly $11 Billion.

(Journalists are trained to ask “Cui bono?” Who benefits? I will come back to that.)

If you check sports schedules on the ESPN App, you learn who’s playing, who’s favored, the betting line, what the over/under is, and more. In short, everything you need to know to place your bets!

Anyone with a smart phone can place bets, 24-7, and millions are, including a growing number of young people. “People in their early 20s are the fastest-growing group of gamblers, according to recent research. And many kids are starting younger than that. Nearly two-thirds of adolescents, ages 12 to 18, said they had gambled or played gambling-like games in the previous year.”

No secret why professional sports leagues and mega-wealthy owners like Jerry Jones, who owns football’s Dallas Cowboys, and Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, are all in with gambling: They know a fundamental truth: most Americans–particularly young ones–are financially illiterate, or close to it. They know that, while gambling is a sucker bet because the house always wins, investing in gambling seems to be a license to print money, given the number of suckers (i.e., undereducated people) in the audience.

The old saw, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” is incomplete. Add “…and we don’t do enough to teach them about money.”

Kristina Vorndran, writing in the Harvard Kennedy School publication, asserts, “Millennials and Gen Z want financial education, and 88% of adults support mandatory school courses on financial literacy.[iii] In response, 26 states now require high school personal finance courses, up from just 7 in 2019.[iv] Utah led the push for financial literacy in 2003 with its General Financial Literacy Program, but it took 18 years for over 10 states to follow suit. Now, just over half of the states require financial literacy for high school graduation, still leaving gaps, especially in underserved communities.”

The organization WalletHub surveyed financial literacy in our 50 states and concluded that Minnesota, Colorado, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Virginia do the best job of teaching financial literacy. Worst, they say, are Arkansas, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Alaska, and Louisiana. Here’s another interesting source: https://www.theapef.org/ I am not vouching for either of these surveys, and a good friend, the Minnesota educator Joe Nathan, says that ranking his state #1 cannot be accurate because its requirements are not being implemented. And I cannot recall Joe ever steering me wrong!

About a dozen years ago I was visiting elementary schools in Japan, and in a couple of classrooms the teachers had given students the super-market inserts from local newspapers. Students were told they had a certain amount of money and had to buy enough food for their family for a week. No ‘right answers’ but lots of good discussion.

I know teachers who ‘gave’ their middle school students an (imaginary) monthly budget–but not enough money to pay for everything they wanted. Again, no right answers, but lots of learning.

About 30 years ago the great Johns Hopkins economist Arnold Packer and I created a curriculum for Baltimore public high schools, with the goal of raising achievement levels in math and English. (We didn’t think about it at the time, but we were teaching financial literacy!)

I dug around in boxes and found 3 CD’s (or CD-ROM’s?) from the project, and then I discovered that it ran for 3 years, 97-99. I doubt anyone has the records, and, sadly, my good friend Arnie died about 10 years ago.  (BTW, Arnie was the architect of SCANS, the Secretary’s Commission for Achieving Necessary Skills, a worthy GOP initiative in the Labor Department.)

True story: It was probably in 1994 that he and I attended some sort of education/economics meeting, which we both felt was largely BS. Afterwards we went to a bar and (after quite a few beers) came to the conclusion that we could teach kids the essential English and math skills by having them do real work. I remember that we sketched out a design on bar napkins!! We kept talking, and, when the US Department of Education announced a huge grant program to fund innovative ways to teach those basic skills, Arnie pounced. “Let’s apply,” he said. We partnered with Baltimore City Schools and asked for $14M, I think.  

We made the first cut, but fewer than half of the those remaining would get grants.  Months later I was on a bus in rural Germany with a bunch of educators and happened to sit next to the Department’s key tech person, the one in charge of those grants.  While we did not discuss that grant program, a few months later we got the grant.

My small production company made the videos and produced the CD materials. Although I was based in NYC, I spent a lot of time in Baltimore in “our” classrooms. It was really exciting, seeing those students taking on the challenge of creating a business from scratch. 

I have always believed that kids rise to meet expectations, and this experience cemented that view.

All the money, time, and energy devoted to “closing the achievement gap” is wasted unless we acknowledge and do something about our persistent “expectations gap,” which is most often based on race and social class, and sometimes gender as well.

Here’s how our curriculum worked: Small teams of students created businesses in an imaginary shopping mall. They had to choose a product, figure out where they would get it wholesale, what they would charge, what kind of storefront they would rent, how many employees, salaries and benefits, advertising, loans and interest rates on those loans, and so on. They also had to develop a business plan…and then present it in person to real, honest-to-God business people.

We helped train English and math teachers to use the curriculum, and we persuaded (with $$ from a Department of Education grant) some high schools to adopt it, which required changing schedules to allow for team-teaching and extended periods.

Because in every participating high school, not all English and math teachers were involved, some students got our curriculum, and some did not. A pretty cool research study because they all had to take the Maryland state tests.

Guess what? Our kids showed dramatic improvement in both subjects, far outperforming those in traditional English and math, and not just once but for a couple of years running.

But guess what happened next? The high schools abandoned the curriculum, saying that schedule changes were causing too much disruption, or team-teaching was too much work, or it was making the regular teachers look bad. (Oh, and our Department of Education grant was used up.)

What have I learned? That we as a society do not care enough to see that all kids get real opportunities to learn how money works, or to create and produce real knowledge. It’s cheaper to do drill-and-kill, and it’s easier and cheaper to give kids multiple-choice tests–even though nothing in adult life resembles a multiple-choice test.

So let’s ask that fundamental question, “Who benefits from widespread financial illiteracy?” In Christ’s time, it was the money lenders in the temple. Today, it’s pretty much the same crowd, offering bitcoins, expensive college loans, ‘free’ chances to bet, etc etc.

The losers aren’t stupid, however. At some point at least some of them will wake up and realize that they are being duped. That may happen in the November elections….

While most states now require some sort of financial education, it’s clearly not working. Parents and everyone else who wants a healthy society need to demand that public elementary schools develop dynamic curriculums that teach kids how money works, even when that means critiquing capitalism.

Will that happen? Wanna bet?