The Blaisdell Blog

In this column, which I wrote almost twenty years ago, I spoke of the reverenced love I feel for my country.   I will never, never, forgive our current President and the people who enable and promote his venomous agenda, for turning that love into fear.   And yet, for my parents, my children and my grandchildren I WILL keep the faith.   My favorite 4 th of July moment happened in Philadelphia.   We were visiting the Liberty Bell, which no longer hangs in the belfry of Philadelphia Hall, but is housed, across the street, in the Liberty Bell Center.   We were there on July 8 th , which is the anniversary of the date when the bell was rung in 1776 to summon citizens to the first public reading of our Declaration of Independence.   It was hot.   There was a long line.   It didn’t matter.             Two things happened that day that will make me smile my whole life long.   The first happ...

The bassinet in which I placed my first child was the same one which my mother had used for me.   It was, in fact, the same bassinet that had held my mother and each of her sisters.     Every one of my cousins slept in that bassinet.   Eventually the bassinet was used for my grandchildren.   Not just my grandchildren, but my cousins’ grandchildren also used this same bassinet.   There have been five generations of babies who have used that sturdy, whicker basket.   The legs have been redone by skilled fathers.   The mattress and flowing draped cloth that formed the liner and skirt have been new with each family.   It has become the pride and honor of each of these mothers, whether members of this family by blood or marriage, to pass this bassinet to the next expectant member of my mother’s family.   The bassinet must have been built with incredible care, and it surely has been treated with equal reverence.   It has also been paint...

  This column about Memorial Day was written when we had a real President in the Oval Office.   It assumed we had a President who knew how and when to make an executive decision and had advisors around him who could offer competent advice to temper that President’s decisions.   Unfortunately, Trump makes his best guess about how to structure his day while moving his bowels at 3:00 a.m.—hopefully upon his gold toilet.   [Note to self: do not EVER touch Trump’s iphone!] So, keeping in mind that all genuine and serious Presidential decisions must be put on hold for the next 4 years, I offer up my column to honor those who fought and died for a much better America than Trump envisions.            Memorial Day is the day we honor those who died while serving in our nation’s armed forces.   The numbers of those honorees are staggering.      Civil War:        ...

  Getting rich is not what the Presidency is about.   It was never supposed to be about personal enrichment.   The Presidency, indeed, all levels of political office were supposed to be about service.   They were also supposed to be temporary.   Our founding fathers always envisioned two of our three co-equal branches of government to be places where men of good will would temporarily put their own lives and fortunes on hold while they served the common good, and then return to private life, poorer in the pocket, but richer in the soul.   But the best intentions also need laws to stiffen our all-to-human spines.               The Foreign Emoluments Clause, part of Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution, prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts, emoluments, titles, or offices from foreign governments or kings without congressional consent. This clause aims to prevent for...