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.

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.