James M. Redwine

Peg

It Is On U.S.

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The title of a CNN article by Aaron Blake is, “Trump Launches the Regime-Change Effort in Iran that he Pledged to Avoid”. But President Trump did not start our wars with Iran, America did. We live in a republic where we choose our representatives. Their actions are our actions. The blame and shame for Israel sending three missiles into an elementary girls school in Minab in southern Iran to prevent the girls from developing nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, is ours. We murdered more than 100 children in what Israel called its preemptive opening act of self-defense. We share Israel’s shame and blame for this crime; but we did not have the right to elect Benjamin Netanyahu. No, our Supreme Leader, who enabled and abetted these war crimes, is in office because we chose him twice. Or, as Donald Trump says three times, due to what he calls the stolen 2020 election.

During the Viet Nam War we Americans were branded with our country’s public attitude as reflected by the stated military strategy against the people of Viet Nam and Cambodia. General Curtis LeMay said we were going to “Bomb them back to the Stone Age”. Fifty-eight thousand of our soldiers and over 1,000,000 Vietnamese were slaughtered in that endless and mindless tragedy. That is the same strategy Israel has been and still is applying in Palestine with our encouragement, weaponry and diplomatic immunity. Israel is using the same actions now in Lebanon and Syria.

Americans who opposed the Viet Nam War and those who now oppose the war with Iran are reminded of the 1960’s folk song by Phil Ochs, “Is There Anybody Here?”:

♫ ….
[Verse 3]

Is there anybody here
Who thinks that following the orders takes away the blame?
Is there anybody here
Who wouldn’t mind to murder by another name?
…. ♫

Or as pointed out by the war hero, Senator Mark Kelly, whom Secretary of War Pete Hegseth wants to court martial for pointing out what is clearly the moral and legal duty of the military that they should refuse illegal orders. Before Kelly flew all those combat missions during the Viet Nam War, he could have paid a medico to find bone spurs in his ankles and let some other “suckers and losers”, as Trump called D-Day’s heroes, go risk life and limb to serve their country in Viet Nam.

President Trump declared one of his main objects of our attacks on Iran was regime change. With Israel’s killing of Ali Khamenei and other senior leaders of Iran’s government, that objective has been met, not by ballots, but by bullets. America has the right to regime change also. We have several non-ballistic alternatives and all of them require citizen and elected representative involvement. Impeachment is one non-violent alternative.

But, to cast the blame on the narcissistic, megalomaniacal military decisions of one person out of 350 million does not absolve the rest of us. We are America; President Trump is one American. The blame and shame are on U.S. all.

Follow us on Facebook at “Jim Peg Redwine” or Substack “@gavelgamut”

 

The More Things Change

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Photo by Peg Redwine

President Trump gave his 2026 State of the Union address last night, 24 February 2026. He spoke for almost two hours on several topics. One of the most important was the survival of humanity as highlighted by his insistence that he would not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. After the world saw the destruction the United States rained down on Japan in 1945, rational people realized we humans had finally “progressed” to the ability to make ourselves extinct. Or as former mathematics professor turned folksong singer Tom Lehrer (1928-2025) wrote about WWIII during his stint on the television show That Was the Week That Was:

♫ So long Mom I’m off to drop the bomb
So don’t wait up for me
But while you swelter
Down there in your shelter
You can see me on your TV
….
I’ll look for you when the war is over
An hour and a half from now. ♫

Since our Manhattan Project, 1942-1947, the world has raced rapidly towards Armageddon. The Russians spied on us for nuclear secrets with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were executed, while the Israelis stole our nuclear bomb using Jonathan Pollard who was released by the USA and now lives the good life in Israel. Pollard’s Israeli handler, Aviem Sella, who recruited Pollard to spy against us was granted a full pardon by outgoing President Donald Trump on January 20, 2021.

Israel and Russia both have the bomb and the ability to deliver it anywhere in America, Russia by its own devices and Israel by our knowing enablement. Our traditional allies, Great Britain and France, possess nuclear weapons as do our traditional enemies, China and North Korea. Whether India and Pakistan are considered friends is a matter of debate, but both possess nuclear weapons. Other countries may have nuclear weapons programs also but in various stages of development. There is no doubt several nuclear bomb capable countries are already beyond Iran’s paper tiger status as far as being able to strike back at America if we were to try to disarm them.

So, Mr. President, why are we readying another military attack on Iran who, according to you, if it ever had a military nuclear program, you and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu obliterated it in 2025? Why are you so eager to take us to war with Iran which has no nuclear bomb program when we are not attacking countries we know have bombs and the means to drop them on America? How about concentrating on the real national threats, such as the economy and our health care? Instead, we are acting like a cowardly schoolyard bully when it comes to weak, feckless, and according to you, nuclear harmless Iran.

We know China and Russia and perhaps soon North Korea might gladly stand up to us, but that Iran could not land a punch on our homeland even with non-nuclear missiles. Iran is the weakling a bully uses to glorify its power. Why don’t we just do what a true hero would do, and bring our troops home until and unless they are needed, as our Constitution provides, to defend our homeland?

We have allowed Russia to invade Ukraine, China to threaten Taiwan, North Korea to bully South Korea and we enable and support Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians because those countries are capable of striking back at us. Also, you apparently have failed to consider our own military personnel who will have to do the killing and dying.

Mr. President, our military is not a Christmas toy for a spoiled child to play with. Please reconsider your rush to abuse our citizens and those of other countries. You tout yourself as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. To be truly worthy of it, please make peace, by not ordering our country into another unnecessary war. As General Norman Schwarzkopf said, “It doesn’t take a hero” to order others into combat.

In your State of the Union speech, you spoke of Christianity and how, in your opinion, religion is integral to our Union. Jesus might refer you to his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:9), “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” Mr. President, real service, not lip service is true leadership.

One Thousand Years

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Photo by Peg Redwine

The first Olympic Games were held at Olympia, Greece in 776 BC. They were held at Olympia because they were a paean to Zeus who supposedly presided there. The games were designed to be held every 4 years until the Roman Emperor Theodosius the Great ordered them stopped because his Christian sensibilities were offended by the worship of Zeus. Theodosius was born in 347 AD and ruled from 379 AD until his death in 395. Rome had finally conquered the Achaean League (Greece) in 146 BC after about a century of strife.

What became known as Greece was a conglomeration of city states, Corinth, Athens, Sparta and the Kingdom of Macedonia, that competed and cooperated for several hundred years until the Romans used wily diplomacy and military stratagems as fatal wedges to divide the Greeks. However, the ancient Romans, much as contemporary peoples yet today, adopted much of Greek culture, such as art, literature and philosophy. That included the Olympic Games.

The theory of the Olympic Games that the ancient Greeks put into practice with their Greek neighbors was that a sacred truce, in the name of Zeus, would be declared if the neighbors were at war and peace would reign during travel to and from and during the games. Even after Rome took over, the games were not a problem for over 500 years. Then the flame was extinguished until the “modern” Olympic Games were reignited in 1896.

There were probably many fractures in the 1,000 years of laying down swords and beating them into ploughshares. However, the concept of feats of athleticism replacing warfare, even for a day or a couple of weeks, must have helped the Achaeans live in relative non-belligerence for many years. Also, this state of truce surely encouraged the interchange of cultural benefits. Perhaps this attitude of “Hey, can’t we all just get along?” if even for a short time every 4 years, helped the Greeks lay the foundation our Founders built upon.

After 4 years of war between Russia and Ukraine and battle lines being in place over much of our known planet, using the old “Champion System” where soldiers sheath their weapons and vie for medals that stand for physical excellence, not dominance or survival as those Greek heroes did, might assuage our wounds. It makes more sense than endless negotiations over the shape of the table as in our war with Viet Nam, or who gets to claim another Pyrrhic victory such as the endless bloodletting in the Middle East. This will be especially obvious soon when President Trump gleefully girds our military’s loins up about him and once again attacks Iran on Benjamin Netanyahu’s orders.

Bad Bunny vs. Bad Donnie

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Our version of a Puerto Rican cane field; a corn field in Posey County, Indiana. Photo by Peg Redwine

Metaphors are never perfect. If they were, they would be identical copies, not learning opportunities. A more perfect metaphor for Donald Trump’s vision of America versus Bad Bunny’s vision of how Donnie treats Puerto Rico would have had the New York Jets play the Seattle “Sharks” in the 2026 Super Bowl. This would have left no doubt of the half-time show message. My northeast coast bred wife, Peg, said about five minutes into the spectacular production of telephone poles, sugar cane bundles and salsa rhythms, “Hey, Jim, this is West Side Story!”

With my small-town Southwest upbringing I got it a little more slowly, but I had to agree. Donald Trump’s MAGA view of America (the white Jets) was juxtaposed to Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio’s Puerto Rico (the Sharks). Themes of immigration, bias, and what America is truly about were punctuated by throbbing music and ecstatic dancing. In less than fifteen minutes, Bad Bunny celebrated the culture of the United States and of Puerto Rico and Spanish speaking peoples, including soccer, but reaffirmed America’s triumphant football talisman by personally carrying a “real” football.

Bad Bunny has stated that the only thing stronger than hate is love. He described his “fifteen minutes of half-time fame” as the desire for Americans to conquer hate with love, especially through music and dancing. Bunny, dressed all in white, joined that endless legacy of dreamers such as Jesus, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and our Founding Fathers (and Mothers) who advance the hope that love will conquer hate. I am less sanguine, but it is probably better to keep an open mind even in the face of thousands of years of contrary evidence.

I am familiar with Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story but confess I had never heard of Bad Bunny until Super Bowl LX. On the other hand, I had never heard of Taylor Swift until she started showing up at Kansas City Chiefs games. I do know a few songs by that earlier “Elvis the Pelvis” who drove my generation’s parents to distraction and to whom Bad Bunny is compared for what the Donald calls Bunny’s pornographic movements and song lyrics (does Donald even understand Spanish?). Although, if anyone should recognize pornography it might be someone judged by a jury with sexual assault. Unfortunately, the endings for both Romeo and Juliet and for Tony and Maria were not love conquering hate but tragedy.

If football is America’s new substitute for great literature, the Super Bowl half-time show may have become the type of looking glass through which we see and seize our country’s future. Will we celebrate another 250 years of our Constitutional republic and a striving for what even our most mundane athletic contests offer: Due Process and the Rule of Law as interpreted by impartial officials? Or will we finally have reached the final gun as so many other cultures have done? Bad Bunny says he is betting on love while Donald proudly professes hate for his enemies.

If sports are a metaphor for our country’s life, Super Bowl LX’s half-time show with its “Love conquers all” message may draw upon the “Better Angels of our nature”. Hey, it could happen.

 

Tick Tock

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Photo by Peg Redwine

It is 3:00 am and the moonlit prairie outside the cabin window supplies the quiet solitude that is required for my contemplation. Most of my thoughts that become writings occur when my daytime procrastination eases into compelling concerns about the past or the future. Most of the past is a jumble of warm memories punctuated by occasional regrets; wasn’t that pleasant intertwined with why did I say or do that and why can’t I re-live the good and re-do the painful? And most of my forecast of the future is paved with unrealistic hopes and dread I will repeat missteps in spite of learned lessons I should be able to apply to similar new experiences. My circadian rhythm probably developed much as my correct recollections of my past are intertwined with those my memory provides to enhance the good and assuage the regrets. I suppose, Gentle Reader, you also are in a similar constant struggle with what you have lived and what you hope or fear may follow. With me, what I am aware of when awake and alert versus what occasionally forces its way into my psyche I ascribe to sleep habits developed by the yin and yang of my life and those who have affected it, either directly or through culture. My family has provided the greatest influence upon my memories and the manner in which I dread or hope about the future.

My father was the 20th of 21 children. He was born in Indian Territory in 1905 in what became the state of Oklahoma in 1907. Some of his earliest memories were formed when he was 9 years old and he had to quit school because his father, a Baptist minister, was killed in a church camp meeting accident. My mother’s earliest memory was riding from her birthplace in Kansas to her new home in Oklahoma in a covered wagon; she was 3. Her father moved the family because he found a job in a cement making plant. The dust from that plant contributed to his death from lung cancer. My father and mother met because my father had moved from his home to work in the same plant. Dad died from lung cancer also. Both Grandfather and Dad were strong supporters of unions.

My first job was at age 10 in Mrs. Juby’s restaurant. My brother Philip, age 11, and I worked in the kitchen washing pots and pans and peeling potatoes. When I refused to include the rotten parts in with the rest of the mashed potatoes, Mrs. Juby complained to my parents who had Phil and me change to mowing lawns at $5.00 per.

In our home my sister and my two brothers and I did our school work on a shared card table in the living room. To get the use of the table I had to do my studies late at night. I expect this was the true beginning of when my mind required late night solitude to function. My memories of my home life are all good. If I minded sharing our one card table and our one bathtub, I do not have any complaints now and do not recall my parents or siblings complaining either. Actually, we all seem to have enjoyed our shared lives quite a lot. I often wish I could revisit those good times.

When I got married and we had a son I think back to living in a 10-foot by 48-foot house trailer on the Indiana University college campus with its one Formica table my wife and I shared as a desk. My fondest memories are marveling at our son’s young body growing so fast and later trying to comprehend how that child I so much enjoyed having under our care somehow became an Airborne Army Ranger who saw combat in two wars while we spent every day fearing a knock on the door from two uniformed messengers; fortunately, they never came and he did return. Now his son is an Army Airborne Ranger and we still worry.

Well, Gentle Reader, it is now 5:30 am and maybe I can put down my pen and give you and myself some relief. All-in-all it has been and still is gratifying to engage my nocturnal musings as I work around my diurnal obligations. I hope your memories are full and good and your regrets “too few to mention”. So, for now, I will enjoy my first cup of coffee and build a fire in the fireplace as Peg busies around in the burgeoning sunrise. We spend a great deal of our lives together, but find she prefers to do her work when I am unengaged and vice versa except for those best of times when our biorhythms are attuned, about four hours each of night and day.

So, for now, I wish you a conjoined “good night and good day”.

Legends

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Photo by Peg Redwine

What turns a passing incident into a legend? Fear is often involved or at least, apprehension. Hatred perhaps or maybe just sublimated envy. Villains and heroes, sinners and saints, hangers-on and barely aware casual observers may be recognized or may be unnoticed. Accurate observations may be misidentified while surmise and self-fulfilling yearnings might be confused by societies distracted by the sturm und drang of living. What we can be assured is that an occasional legend is required if we are going to sublimate our daily ennui and manage to muddle through.

Great legends of history often arise on a “just-in-time, just-in-place” happenstance. Often, they appear as individuals but, more often, individuals are named while the legends involve groups. Military exploits such as Achilles and the Greeks at Troy, or Eisenhower and the Allies at D-Day are examples. Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King led, but many others also sacrificed. It is impossible to honor or even acknowledge the millions who contributed to the legends, so we usually coalesce upon one or a very few to crown with being the legend. There is nothing we can do about this human approach; we are human.

Another area we choose in which to anoint representative heroes is athletics. The legends are often only cogs in the great Circle of Life that helps the hero showcase his or her talents but who would not advance without many spokes supporting them. Fortunately, often our legends recognize and acknowledge these facts and often say so as they share the credit.

So, as we glorify Curt Cignetti and Fernando Mendoza and all the rest of the 2025-2026 Indiana Hoosier football team who are the College Football National Champions, as well we should, we should follow their lead and thank the many before them and along with them who helped them inspire us. Here’s to ball-boys, water-girls and the generous boosters among countless others such as IU’s administration.

One of the best attributes of current glory is, if our contemporary heroes have character, and these do, they acknowledge the foundation upon which they stand and often refer to our heroes of IU’s illustrious more than 200-year history. When the media dwells upon past losses we should remind the world of past glories. Indiana University was founded in 1820, not 2024.

When I would walk across the Indiana campus from the Law School to the Gables Restaurant, I often thought of that other law student, Hoagy Carmichael, who had been in there dreaming of “Stardust” when he probably was supposed to be trying to fathom the intricacies of Marbury v. Madison (1803). But what always drew my attention was the gigantic mural above the Gables lunch counter that portrayed our undefeated football team of 1945; war veterans who had helped save the world while enhancing IU’s proud history.

And another good aspect of our 2025-26 Rose Bowl Champions is their exploits recall those of our 1967-68 Rose Bowl team. It has been particularly gratifying to see Coach Lee Corso on TV giving credit to our 1979 Holiday Bowl victors. Neither Curt Cignetti nor countless others failed to honor our university’s long and proud history of culture and accomplishments. IU’s record of football losses is a mite in the pantheon of our proud traditions. Our 2025-26 team is our most recent reminder, we are not losers, we are Hoosiers!

The current chapter of the IU legend may be a new beginning or but a moment. Regardless, it is sure fun now and that is due to the efforts of a whole lot of other dreamers who are, after all these years, as amazed and gratified as Peg and I and the rest of the long cream and crimson line of co-commiserators and winners are.