Halloween in Berkeley Springs

Good morning, dear readers. I am still hoping that all my family and friends out there are actually reading this blog, despite so many problems recently. I have just lost a very long post once again, which my daughter Stephanie has partially resurrected. Thank you so much for doing that, Steph. I will try now to go on from there.

Writing a blog on the internet is not like writing on ancient cave walls, making marks on clay tablets more than 5,000 years ago, or writing on parchment. Some of those records have survived for thousands of years. My latest blog post could not even manage to stay put until the next day!

See the ancient clay tablet pictured in the draft, on this page about proto-cuneiform writing.

My own entries from 2009 are still there on the previous version of this blog, honduraspeacecorps.blogspot.com, yet yesterday’s very long post simply vanished. I am writing again now, as much as I can remember, with Steph’s help. This time it will be shorter.

I have written two books, still in print on actual paper. Do I ever reread them? Hardly ever, except when looking up something I am trying to remember. The printed page is much better than fuzzy memory. But this post will go up, ready or not, and can be corrected later—provided it is still there!

One thing I do remember from when I was ill and not going out for a while is that the local price of gas went from $3.99 a gallon to something like $4.34.

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Now for the Halloween decorations that my son and I saw in a front yard in neighboring Martinsburg. I would like to share those photographs here.

Halloween decorations in Martinsburg. Original photo by Joe Family.

More of the Halloween display. Original photo by Joe Family.

Another view of the decorated yard. Original photo by Joe Family.

Halloween figures beside the sidewalk. Original photo by Joe Family.

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An image of dancers also appeared in the lost post. It accompanied a New York Times review of New York City Ballet’s fall fashion gala. Here is the link to the review and its photographs.

New York Times: Review of the fall fashion gala, with Stevie Nicks, fashion and ballet.

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The Epoch Times reported that Benjamin Netanyahu expected answers soon about an attempted hijacking of an Israel-bound flight. The article and the photograph of Netanyahu can be found here.

Epoch Times: Netanyahu Expects Answers Soon on Attempted Hijack of Israel-Bound Flight.

I think Trump’s continuing support helps Netanyahu remain in power. American politics certainly has consequences far beyond our own borders.

According to a Pew Research Center survey published in June, the median share of adults across 36 countries expressing confidence in Trump’s handling of world affairs was just 23%.

Pew Research Center: How do views of Trump compare with other global leaders?

I am glad I never voted for Trump, but too many people actually did. His presidency will certainly be remembered for years to come, though perhaps not as he might have liked.

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The news about deportations to South Sudan brings me back to a place I know from my own travels. In June 2025, the Supreme Court temporarily lifted a lower-court restriction on deportations to countries not identified in immigrants’ removal orders. South Sudan was involved in that dispute.

SCOTUSblog: The Supreme Court order concerning deportations to third countries.

I traveled extensively in the region on a human rights mission in 2006, before South Sudan became an independent country in 2011. Here I am with a local woman whom I met on that visit.

With a woman I met during my 2006 visit to what is now South Sudan. Original photo from the Joe family collection.

Imagine how hard it was to find these photographs again, 20 years later. I had to search through many old blog posts and emails to recover them.

The woman in orange kept holding my hand during outdoor Catholic Masses. Women and men sat separately on folding chairs, the men on one side and the women on the other. Most people I met there spoke English.

The woman in orange whom I remember from the outdoor Masses. Original photo from my 2006 visit.

I also remember leaving my purse unattended in an open tent. It contained U.S. dollars, local currency, my passport and my plane ticket. Nothing was ever touched.

See the portrait of a woman in South Sudan used in the draft: photograph by Steve Evans, on Wikimedia Commons.

Returning to the present day, Salva Kiir has traveled to Kenya for talks. The report below includes the photograph of him waving before boarding a plane; its caption identifies that photograph as being from a departure for South Africa.

Sudans Post: Kiir leaves Juba for Nairobi for talks on elections and regional stability; article and photograph.

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And here are a couple of family photographs. Here I am with my granddaughter Natasha back in D.C., followed by her son De’Andre, a recent high school graduate.

With my granddaughter Natasha in D.C. Original photo by Joe Family.

Natasha’s son De’Andre, a recent high school graduate. Original photo by Joe Family.

This will be posted now, before it disappears once again!

Short and sweet

 

Sunday, October 4, 2026

Short and sweet

OK, my friends, here is another brand new post, starting out fresh and once again aiming for short and sweet. The last one somehow became much too long and tangled up, so let's leave that one behind and see if I can behave myself this time!

I have been writing this blog since 2009, first as honduraspeacecorps.blogspot.com and later here at honduraspeacecorps2.blogspot.com. Seventeen years is a pretty long time to keep anything going, especially on the internet.

So onward we go.

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Here we go again

Unfortunately, Donald Trump seems determined to keep bringing us back to subjects we thought we had already finished discussing.

He has even been criticizing Supreme Court justices he himself appointed when they don't rule the way he wants. But that is not actually how an independent Supreme Court is supposed to work.

And then there is South Africa again.

The Trump administration has announced new restrictions against South African officials whom it says are responsible for discrimination against whites and other minority groups.

I find Trump's special concern about white South Africans especially strange given how determined his administration has been to keep so many other immigrants out of the United States.

Associated Press report on the South Africa restrictions

America has always been a nation of immigrants. We still have enormous open spaces, an aging population and industries that depend heavily on immigrant labor. Immigrants are not some mysterious invading mass. They are individual people looking for work, safety and a future, just as earlier immigrants were.

Some of Trump's grievances seem to return over and over again even when the rest of us thought they had already been settled.

So what can ordinary people do?

We can vote. We can write our members of Congress. We can call our senators. We can support organizations helping immigrants, refugees, political prisoners and other people whose voices are easily lost when governments begin treating human beings as political abstractions.

None of us can fix Sudan, Gaza, Cuba, Ukraine, immigration policy or American politics all by ourselves.

But doing something is still better than deciding nothing can be done.

And after all these years, I think I still believe that.

Can the state try to execute somebody twice?

Here is something much less pleasant.

Christa Pike, who was sentenced to death for a terrible murder she committed when she was only 18, survived Tennessee's attempt to execute her by lethal injection. She remained alive after two doses of the execution drug and had to be taken to a hospital. Tennessee then halted further executions while what happened is investigated.

Reuters: Christa Pike survives Tennessee execution attempt

I have never supported the death penalty, just as I have never supported euthanasia or abortion. To me these issues are connected. This is sometimes called the consistent life ethic, or the “seamless garment”—the idea that human life has value from its beginning to its natural end.

Pike committed an appalling crime and should certainly remain accountable for it. But killing her now cannot bring her victim back. And after the state has already tried once to kill someone and failed, surely it should not get another turn.

If Christa Pike survives, I hope her sentence will be changed to life imprisonment. She can remain responsible for what she did while still having whatever years remain to her to make some kind of amends.

An eye for an eye has never brought anybody's loved one back.

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A measles update — unfortunately

I just wrote about Pennsylvania's terrible measles outbreak, so I won't repeat the whole story again.

Unfortunately, there has already been another development. Pennsylvania has now reported a fifth measles-associated death, while the outbreak continues across the state.

Washington Post: Pennsylvania reports fifth measles-associated death

This is what I find so frustrating about the present argument over vaccines.

When I was young, there weren't vaccines for most of the childhood diseases we simply had to endure. My siblings and I went through measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough and the usual quarantines because there was no alternative.

Now there is.

Having lived and worked in poorer countries where preventable disease can still disable or kill children, I find it very hard to understand voluntarily giving up protections that earlier generations would have been delighted to have.

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And another update on those taxpayer-funded Trump advertisements

I also mentioned these advertisements in the last post, but now we know something more about where some of the money came from.

The Washington Post reports that money Congress had provided for such things as border-security improvements, combating drug trafficking and memorials for officers killed in the line of duty was redirected toward television advertisements featuring President Trump. The administration calls them public-service announcements; critics say they look remarkably like campaign advertisements.

Washington Post: Campaign-style Trump ads use money meant for border security and memorials

I already said what I thought about these ads before, so won't repeat myself too much. But learning where the money came from certainly doesn't make me feel any better about them.

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Some genuinely encouraging news from South Africa

Now for something I would much rather write about.

A leopard photographed by a camera trap in South Africa's West Coast National Park was the first confirmed there in about 170 years. The animals had been driven out of that region in the 1800s and appear to be returning on their own rather than being deliberately reintroduced.

South African National Parks: First leopard photographed in West Coast National Park in 170 years

And apparently the news is getting even better, with additional leopards—including cubs—being recorded in the larger West Coast region.

Wild animals returning by themselves to territory from which people eliminated them is something worth celebrating.

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Manu-o-Kū get a little help from their human friends

My daughter in Hawaii sent me this story, which I especially liked. (Sorry, no picture here anymore of the bird. 

Recent storms knocked young manu-o-Kū, Honolulu's official bird, out of the trees where they perch and raise their young. Fortunately, volunteers, wildlife rehabilitators and ordinary Honolulu residents have been helping fallen chicks get back into trees or into rehabilitation when they are injured.

These little white terns are rather unusual city residents. They don't even build conventional nests, but lay their eggs directly on tree branches right in busy Honolulu. Somehow they have learned to live right alongside people, and people in Honolulu have learned to look out for them.

That seems like a nice arrangement for everybody.

After Storms Blow, Humans Help Manu-o-Kū Return To The Trees — Honolulu Civil Beat

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A few things closer to home now.

I recently had lunch at Coolfont, the hotel where my son works.https://coolfont.com/#

And here again is our dog outside as the leaves begin changing color.

More fall colors are beginning to emerge here in West Virginia.

Fall really is a beautiful season here, although of course it also announces that winter is coming right behind it.

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And now dessert

Enough politics and world affairs for a moment.

This is a Caramel Apple Parfait from Goodness, my older daughter's food service in Florida. https://www.goodnessco.co/

If I lived in Florida where she could deliver her food right to me, I'd probably eat her dishes every day. We once tried having them shipped all the way to West Virginia and that simply produced one enormous mess.

So nowadays I eat them virtually.

Much less cleanup that way.

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That's enough for today.

Short and sweet?

Well...shorter, anyway.

I'm back on track, but with the usual struggles with technology

September 29 – October 1, 2026

Sorry, folks!

This post somehow became duplicated and scrambled while I was working on it, so I am starting over with one cleaner version. There is certainly enough happening in the world without my blog adding to the confusion!

I am also going to try something a little different here—giving readers links to the articles I am talking about instead of copying so much of the articles themselves. That should make the blog shorter and perhaps easier for everybody to follow.

Meanwhile, the leaves are starting to change color here again in West Virginia. Fall has arrived whether the rest of us are ready for it or not.

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The very greatest president ever?

Donald Trump certainly likes being called the greatest. But the people who actually study American presidents don't quite agree with him.

The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project, a survey of presidential scholars, gave Trump a score of only 10.92 out of 100—the lowest score of all the presidents evaluated. Barack Obama, whom Trump so often criticizes, ranked seventh. That certainly is quite a difference between how Trump sees himself and how presidential scholars see him. Presidential Greatness Project study

And Americans themselves don't seem terribly happy right now either. A new AP-NORC poll found that 65 percent of Americans blamed Trump's policies more than outside factors for persistently high prices, while only 17 percent approved of his handling of the cost of living. Groceries, gasoline and everything else still have to be paid for no matter what politicians tell us. AP: Most Americans blame Trump for high prices as midterms approach

Another long-running Trump matter also came back into the news this week. A civil jury had found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll and awarded her $5 million. Trump has now ended his fight over that $5 million verdict. Quite a lot of legal trouble for somebody who spends so much time telling us how wonderful he is. Trump ends court fight over the E. Jean Carroll $5 million verdict

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And what has happened to the Kennedy Center?

This one especially caught my attention after living in Washington for so many years.

The Washington Post examined 15 years of Kennedy Center financial records and found that the institution was financially stable when Trump took control, but donations and ticket revenue subsequently plunged and the Center has been borrowing money and drawing down reserves.

Why take something that belonged to the whole country and turn it into something so politically identified with one person? Artists and audiences apparently have been asking themselves the same question. Washington Post: The Kennedy Center was solvent when Trump took over. Then its finances collapsed.

Then there are the new television ads praising Trump that look remarkably like campaign advertisements even though taxpayers are paying for them. Money intended for Customs and Border Protection has been used for these advertisements, drawing criticism from both Democrats and Republicans.

If something is really a “public service announcement,” shouldn't the public service part be rather more obvious? Report on taxpayer-funded pro-Trump advertisements

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Immigration, Israel and the Middle East

Here is another story that seems particularly strange. The Trump administration is trying to deport Yehonatan Ovadia, a Hasidic Jewish religious teacher, because of his participation in a protest against Israel's actions in Gaza. His attorney called the suggestion that Ovadia is antisemitic absurd. Immigration enforcement seems to be reaching into an ever-widening variety of political disputes. Trump administration seeks to deport Hasidic Jew who protested Israel

Meanwhile, nearly all Senate Democrats supported a measure that would have required the State Department to report on Israeli settler violence and human-rights conditions in the West Bank. It failed 51-47. Washington Post: Senate blocks West Bank reporting measure

Gaza has certainly not recovered, nor does that look likely in the foreseeable future. And now reports that Benjamin Netanyahu may have received warnings before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack have become an issue in Israel's election. Netanyahu denies having had advance knowledge of the attack, but Israelis understandably want to know what their government knew and when it knew it. Washington Post: Reports about Oct. 7 warnings dominate Israeli election

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Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings — history keeps getting more complicated

Here is something entirely different, although it concerns another American president.

New research involving DNA recovered from a lock of Thomas Jefferson's hair has added evidence connecting Jefferson directly to descendants of Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman with whom historians have long concluded he fathered children.

It is rather remarkable that a single lock of hair preserved for two centuries can still tell us something new about American history. The Times: Thomas Jefferson's hair and the Sally Hemings descendants

And the story is hardly just ancient history for the people involved. Jefferson's white and Black descendants are still wrestling with questions about ancestry, slavery, belonging and even who is recognized as part of the Jefferson family. ABC News: Thomas Jefferson's descendants wrestle with a complicated family legacy

History has a way of refusing to stay conveniently in the past.

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A few other things that caught my eye

A huge Kelvin wave of warm Pacific water is moving toward California and could raise coastal water levels before an El Niño winter. As if California needed another thing to worry about! USA TODAY report: Massive Kelvin wave headed toward California

And a recent nor'easter uncovered wooden wreckage on Nantucket that may belong to the Warren Sawyer, a three-masted schooner that ran aground there in December 1884 while carrying cotton and scrap iron from New Orleans to Boston. Happily, contrary to something I had written earlier, the crew was rescued. More than 140 years later, pieces of the old ship are still emerging from beneath the sand. AP: Experts investigate Nantucket shipwreck remains

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Measles is back

This is much less charming.

Measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000, yet Pennsylvania is now dealing with a very large outbreak. State officials reported 890 cases across 39 counties by late September.

I find the retreat from routine childhood vaccination terribly disturbing. We already know how to prevent diseases such as measles. Children should not have to rediscover the consequences because adults have decided to distrust vaccines that have protected generations of children.

New York Times: Pennsylvania measles outbreak grows to nearly 900 cases

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And here is a gray wolf

After all that politics, here is something considerably better to look at—a gray wolf looking back at us from the wilds.

Rather than trying to summarize all the different federal and state wolf rules here, readers who are interested can find the current information directly from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wolf protections are different in different parts of the country, which is one more reason a link is probably better than my attempting to squeeze all of it into the blog.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Gray Wolf Recovery

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Finally, something good to eat

And after presidents, politics, measles, wolves and shipwrecks, we certainly deserve something pleasant.

Here is something from this week's menu at Goodness, my older daughter's food service in Florida:

HOT HONEY MUSTARD SHREDDED SALMON BOWL

Yum.

And that seems like a much better place to stop for today.

Posting this from my draft pile.

 

Wash. Post, U.S., Russia stripped human oversight from global AI weapons pact

Wash. Post, Trump rejects Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, restart peace talks

Trump started this war all on his own, so this now is his war, meaning that he alone will decide when and how to end it.  Iran has little to say in the matter.

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The Guardian

Five arrested on terrorism charges after explosives found near RAF base used by US

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The New York Times

Some Republicans Issue a New Call on Trump’s War With Iran: End It Now (He will end it when he's good and ready.)

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Lesbian and gay bars have seen shrinking attendance as folks now just meet on line.

Most such bars have already been closed now, marking the end of an era.

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Here below is a recent message from a former Cuban prisoner who was released 42 years ago, a release which I had facilitated and witnessed back then. He is a man whose memoirs and even poetry I'd then later translated into English completely pro-bono, without ever mentioning my own name there as translator. (No translator is even mentioned.)

In English, we always want to be concise and direct. In Spanish, we would usually not say something so very bluntly, rather would embellish it a bit.  I don't know how Google handles such nuances in its online translations.  Every language has its own particular style, reflecting the cultural practices associated with it.

So get out your own Google translator right now.  I suspect that most translations are done currently by artificial intelligence.  So are they also being culturally sensitive? 

Ernesto Diaz	Sat, Sep 26, 3:22 PM (19 hours ago)
to me

Querida Barbara: De acuerdo a lo que yo recuerdo, la excarcelación y salida de parte de los presos que habían extinguido previamente la totalidad de sus sanciones, fue debido a una gestión, en 1984, del reverendo Jesse Jackson.  Nada tuvo que ver, que yo sepa, ni en eso ni en el traslado a USA del grupo de los excarcelados, la organización Hermanos al Rescate.     

.... Un abrazo. 

Ernesto Diaz

           Yes, I was right there, right then.  Of course, I still remember Ernesto and he still remembers me.