The 4th of July.
A date.
A month.
A national holiday.
A day honoring our country’s formal Declaration of Independence from British rule under a mad tyrannical king in a world ruled by men, a document signed by male delegates only representing 13 American colonies.
Or, as anti-Trumpster Congresswoman Liz Cheney stated this week: “We still live in a world ruled by men. And these days, that is not going very well.”
Then, last Monday, a 26-year-old woman, a top White House aide named Cassidy “Cassie” Hutchinson, stood up to America’s bully, former President Donald Trump.
“Cassie” broke the silence coming from the male-dominated West Wing of the White House and exposed more than a whiff of “evil” in Trump’s Oval Office.
Hutchinson, a top aide to Trump’s White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, was the first person under oath to paint a fill-in-the numbers landscape of an angry president’s movements on Jan. 6, 2021, the day the nation’s Capitol was attacked by a vicious mob of loyal Trump “patriots” and armed loud boys.
What Hutchinson swore she heard was astounding: a furious president planning to lead his “patriots” to the steps of the Capitol and telling the Secret Service to give a green light to his followers“ to go beyond the magnetometer checkpoints (even if they were carrying weapons) in a desperate attempt to stop the counting of the official presidential vote.
Hutchinson’s shocking testimony under oath Monday at a U.S. House Select Committee hearing on the attack on America’s House was not only riveting and destined for the history books, but it drew the ire of Trump the texter, who immediately claimed he did not know this woman whose office desk was a 15-second walk from his Oval Office.
Her words were calm, clear and respectful, her demeanor quietly strong and unflappable.
Cassie Hutchinson was no longer going to be one of “his” people.
Cheney, who is vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, praised Cassidy for “bravery and patriotism awesome to behold” during a speech in California before Ronald Reagan Republicans Tuesday night.
Operating above the fear and/or hesitation of others, it took the courage of a young woman to walk up to a microphone and lead her country to the room where it should never have happened.
A holiday memory…
For me, this holiday began as a memory of my father and an uncle now back home from a world war, closets hung with military uniforms never to be worn again, and watermelon seed spitting contests in my grandparents’ backyard.
It was a time populated by aunts cooking and uncles laughing in a small town, breadbasket USA backyard surrounded by lilac bushes, fences entwined with sweet peas, a mutt named Nippy who nipped, and babies born during war now begging to take turns working the ice cream churn.
It was an extraordinary family time that would never happen again in my life, a Brigadoon moment ended by a booming post-war economy propelling my parents and relatives to join the Dakota diaspora to better jobs all over the country.
And then as night follows day, things changed.
Raised in the peace and prosperity of the 1940s and ‘50s, the excitement of the ‘60s filtered into decades of sexual revolution, women’s liberation, and women’s fight for equality just as I was exiting college and entering a workforce as a teacher, one of the few career choices for my generation of women.
Following decades of subsequent advances in chipping away at the glass ceiling, 50 years of guaranteed constitutional reproductive choice for women was suddenly ending in the wake of our July 4th holiday this weekend.
Men may still rule the world, but … for the first time in the 178-year history of the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, we welcomed aboard our first female executive editor, Jennifer Kho.
May wonders never cease.
Welcome, Jenn.
The Trump Ticker…
Yikes!
The Trump bots are at it again.
And it looks like I may have blown “another” chance to contribute 800% to Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign via his Save America PAC.
At last peak, The Donald texted:
“I emailed you.
“My son, Don, emailed you.
“Sarah Palin emailed you.
“Team Trump emailed you.
“And now I’m emailing you one more time.
“We must win in November.”
The $$$$ request: … An “impact” increase of 800% to crush Trump’s fundraising goal to win in November.
Memo to The Donald: It’s in the mail … 800% of nothin’!
Sneedlings…
Saturday birthdays: actress Morena Baccarin, 43; actor Zachary Quinto, 45, and comic Wayne Brady, 50; Sunday birthdays: NBA player Al Horford, 36; tennis champion Rafael Nadal, 36. and first lady Jill Biden, 71, and a belated happy birthday to Chicago labor leader Terence J. Hancock, 63.
