By Sarah Becker Copyright (c)2026 Sarah Becker Happy New Year! America’s 250th anniversary [1776-2026] starts soon, and still incumbent President Donald J. Trump [R-47] does not get it. According to Pew Research voters are weary! In August 2025 Trump’s current job approval rating stood “at 38%, with 60% of U.S. adults expressing disapproval of his performance.” In April, 2025, the White House claimed “a nonstop deluge of hoaxes and lies from Democrats and their allies.” [https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/04/100-days-of-hoaxes-cutting-through-the-fake-news] Yet it is the Trumpster who falsely claims “Climate Change is a hoax.” The affordability crisis, too. Now Trump argues in favor of the U.S. withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Established in 1949, the NATO alliance was ‘the first peacetime military alliance the U.S. entered outside the Western Hemisphere.” President Truman’s goal then: “to deter Soviet aggression and ensure collective security.” In December, 2025, NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska travelled to the United States to speak personally with politicians, journalists and the public. President Trump, a Nobel aspirant, has yet to craft a peace deal satisfactory not only to Ukraine and Russia, but also NATO’s more outspoken European members. “So, this is what we do,” Shekerinska said. “Europe and America in NATO together! Two continents, 32 nations and 1 billion people. Standing together is how we stay safe in a world that has become very dangerous, very volatile and sometimes very unpredictable.” Gerrymandering, a partisan redistricting plan is a popular election strategy. Every 10 years, America’s 50 states “redraw their congressional and state legislative maps to account for changes in population,” the Gerrymandering Project explained. “In many states [Texas and California especially], the politicians who control this process draw district lines in a way that maximizes their party’s partisan advantage.” His popularity waning, Trump is desperate to keep the process alive. In 1812 Massachusetts Governor Eldridge Gerry signed a bill…
By Sarah Becker Happy holidays! Or should I say Merry Christmas? According to Pew Research’s Landscape Study, 62% of Americans identify with the Christian faith. Of those, the greatest number identify as Evangelical Protestant [23%]. Other Protestant categories include: Catholic [19%]; Mainline Protestant [11%] and Historically Black Protestants [5%]. Twenty-nine percent of Americans claim no religious affiliation. President George Washington was Anglican. Civil War President Abraham Lincoln [R-IL] had “no formal religious affiliation:” only a strong interest in “religious freedoms.” President and WWII General Dwight D. Eisenhower [R-KS] was baptized in 1953, while in office, in D.C.’s National Presbyterian Church. Said George Washington in his Farewell Address: “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” Given today’s divisive political climate readers now ask? To what extent are America’s politicians and religious leaders behaving like “potent engines?” Retired Alexandria Library Duncan Branch Manager Brack Stovall joins me for a Q&A. Born in1954 in Lynchburg, Virginia, Brack earned a degree in Philosophy and Religion. SARAH: President Donald Trump [R-NY, FL] is a life-long Presbyterian. In October 2025 Eric Trump, President Trump’s son said of his father’s administration: “We’re saving God. We’re saving the family, and we’re saving the Nation. DEI [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion] is out the window.” To what extent is Eric’s statement a concerning mix of politics and religion?” STOVALL: This statement seems to come from a place of arrogance, possibly stemming from a misunderstanding of how “God” and the world are connected. Eric Trump might not…
By Sarah Becker ©2025 Wrote poet Walt Whitman in 1867 in Old War Dreams: In midnight sleep of many a face of anguish, Of the look at first of the mortally wounded (of that indescribable look,) Of the dead on their backs, with arms extended wide, I dream, I dream, I dream… …Long have they pass’d, faces and trenches and fields.” Unlike the Civil War, World War I is referred to as ‘The Great War’…”the [global] war to end all wars.” WWI ceased temporarily on November 11, 1918, terminated as per the terms of the June 28,1919, Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty was signed in France, in the Palace of Versailles. ”It was President Woodrow Wilson [1913-1921, VA-D] who first proclaimed Armistice Day on November 11, 1919. Said President Wilson in November 1919: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…” The 1919 celebration was a day observed with parades, public meetings and a brief suspension of business. An Act, approved on May 13, 1938, [52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a)] declared November 11th not only a legal holiday-but also a Day to honor WWI veterans and further promote the cause of peace and justice. The title Secretary of War was abolished; changed to Secretary of Defense in 1947 [The National Security Act of 1947]. If only Trump’s self-described Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, a 2003 Princeton University graduate with a degree in politics, understood Congress’ 20th century changes Said Virginia Military Institute graduate…
By Brack Stovall Following is the verbiage for the State Historic Marker: The house here at 1312 Wythe St. is the only original dwelling from the once – thriving, predominantly African American neighborhood known as Colored Rosemont. Virginia F. W. Thomas, a White real estate entrepreneur, inherited and purchased land in this area early in the 20th century. She sold home lots without restrictive racial covenants. despite their common use then. By about 1950, many Black middle-class families lived between Madison. Pendleton. N. Fayette, and N. West Streets. In the 1960s, the City of Alexandria expropriated property in Colored Rosemont, compensated the owners, and constructed a public housing project, undeterred by a lawsuit and vigorous opposition from the neighborhood. As regular readers of The Old Town Crier and followers of Sarah Becker’s column are aware, since January 2020, her column uncovered a hidden gem that was to be found in the Alexandria African American community of Colored Rosemont. Over the next several years through 2024, we discovered Colored Rosemont in the first of a two-part narrative, Colored Rosemont – A Black History Lesson (https://oldtowncrier.com/2020/01/31/colored-rosemont-a-black-history-lesson/) and Colored Rosemont Part 2 (June 2020) https://oldtowncrier.com/2020/06/02/colored-rosemont-part-two/). This narrative was followed in 2022 with details of the real estate entrepreneur’s vision of providing accessible housing for African American families, in Virginia Fitzhugh Wheat Thomas and Colored Rosemont (June 2022) (https://oldtowncrier.com/2022/03/01/virginia-fitzhugh-wheat-thomas-and-colored-rosemont/). Further details of Virginia Wheat Thomas life are given to us in Ms. Becker’s fourth installment, Virginia Fitzhugh Wheat Thomas – Abolitionist Angel (December 2023) (https://oldtowncrier.com/2023/12/01/virginia-fitzhugh-wheat-thomas-abolitionist-angel/). The fifth installment of this story is found in Colored Rosemont – Final Installment (August 2024) (https://oldtowncrier.com/2024/08/01/colored-rosemont-final-installment/), where the reader appreciates the extensive political and historical forces driving Virginia Wheat Thomas’s vision in spite of efforts from the status quo to thwart the movement towards racial equality and fairness in…
by ©2025 Sarah Becker Disease surveillance “is the continuing scrutiny of all aspects of occurrence and spread that are pertinent to control.” The increase in today’s measles epidemic boggles the mind. Measles, for example, are transmitted by droplet spread including oral contact (sneeze, cough) and hands (touch and contaminated surfaces). Disease occurs when cells in the human body are damaged as a result of infection. Infectious diseases are caused by living organisms including the measles virus; bacteria, fungi, protozoa and parasitic worms. Infectious diseases spread by direct contact: via vectors like the mosquito; contaminated food, water and blood; and airborne droplets. “Measles can cause serious health complications, especially in children younger than 5 years old,” the CDC confirmed. “If one person has measles, up to 9 out of 10 people nearby will become infected if they are not protected.” Measles affects multiple body systems, including the respiratory system—pneumonia being one of the most lethal complications. Beginning in 1861, concurrent with the Civil War, Louis Pasteur developed his germ theory of disease. In 1861 U.S. Army bacteriologist George Sternberg isolated the pneumococcus bacterium “that is responsible for pneumonia.” Sternberg’s announcement of his discovery “came almost simultaneously with Louis Pasteur’s statement of the same.” Infectious diseases account for a quarter of the deaths worldwide. As air travel continues, as weather patterns change; as food is now traded, as water and sanitation practices fail infectious diseases will spread. The city of Alexandria understood as early as 1810 excreta contaminated its groundwater. Revolutionary War General George Washington understood the maladies associated with infectious diseases. He survived smallpox as a youth. Washington favored smallpox inoculation, so much so he countermanded the Continental Congress and ordered the Continental army immunized. “Necessity not only authorizes but seems to require the measure, for should the disorder infect the…
by ©2025 Sarah Becker In 1821 Mexico declared its independence from Spain and the American Colonization Society established the West African republic of Liberia. General Andrew Jackson was appointed governor of the Florida territory; New York’s Emma Willard started the first female collegiate-level school, and Quaker abolitionist Benjamin Lundy published The Genius of Universal Emancipation. President James Monroe (VA-DR) was again inaugurated President and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams (MA-IR)—retired President John and wife Abigail Adam’s son—delivered America’s Fourth of July address. On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress voted to draft a declaration of independence. The war-related Declaration was accepted on July 4th and copies were sent to the thirteen colonies for review. The parchment original was signed—in Philadelphia on August 2, 1776. The Declaration of Independence “was the first solemn declaration by a nation of the only legitimate foundation of civil government,” Secretary of State John Quincy Adams said. “It was the cornerstone of a new fabric, destined to cover the surface of the globe. It demolished at a stroke the lawfulness of all governments founded upon conquest…From the day of this declaration the people of North America were no longer the fragment of a distant empire, imploring justice and mercy from an inexorable master in another hemisphere…They were a nation, asserting as of right, and maintaining by war, its own existence.” The United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, in Paris, on September 3, 1783—thus ending the Revolutionary War. “Fifty-six men came forward to sign the Declaration of Independence,” President Ronald Reagan explained in his July 4, 1986, New York Harbor address. “It was noted at the time that they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors. And that was more than rhetoric; each of those men knew the penalty for high…
By ©2025 Sarah Becker What is it about the change of seasons, from spring to summer that keeps me looking upward to the sky? It is the change in the sky’s blue hues, the deeper blue color. Maybe that’s why—on April 14, 2025—Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin sent an all-female seven person crew into space to observe Earth’s atmosphere. NASA studies the mixed gaseous mass in order to better understand Earth’s chemistry, air quality, weather patterns, and climate change. Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to travel in space—on June 16, 1963. Tereshkova made 48 earth orbits in 70 hours. America’s first female astronaut—Sally K. Ride—departed on June 18, 1983, aboard NASA’s Challenger space shuttle. All are remembered for their springtime adventures. In 1901 American scientist, astronomer, and mathematician Simon Newcomb [1835-1909] “predicted that man would never fly.” Said Newcomb in 1903: “The desire to fly like a bird is inborn in our race, and we can no more expect to abandon the idea than the ancient mathematician could have been expected to give up the problem of squaring the circle. The example of the bird does not prove that man [or woman] can fly.” Also in 1903: the Wright brothers, Orville [1871-1948] and Wilbur [1867-1912] made four successful test flights in a gasoline-powered heavier-than-air machine over Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Their flights marked the beginning of aerial navigation. To dream: to imagine; think of as a possibility; to invent. The principles of atmospheric flight [the physics and chemistry of Earth’s lower and middle atmospheres] are a lesson not only in physics, but also technology and history. When I think of the physics of history I think of my niece B., textbooks in hand. Until the airplane, hot air balloons provided the only means of human flight. Joseph Michel…
By ©2025 Sarah Becker The U.S. federal judiciary was created in 1788, with the Constitution’s ratification. Article III, Section 1: “The judicial Power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” Congress first exercised its power in 1789. It is Congress that “has the authority to organize and structure the federal court system,” the National Archives agreed. Inferior, as defined by the American Heritage dictionary: “Low or lower in order [inferior courts], degree, or rank.” The inferior federal courts in descending order: District [1789] and Appellate [1891]. President Donald Trump [R-FL, Nos. 45 & 47] explains inferior as an “estimation:” his estimation of the many “bad judges” now ruling against him. In early March Trump-47 accused U.S. District Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of “crooked behavior.” The case: a deportation matter related to the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. Chief Judge Boasberg found cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt of court in mid-April. U.S. Representative Brandon Gill [R-TX], a member of Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) House Oversight Subcommittee for Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) also favors Judge Boasberg’s impeachment. On April 9 House Republicans passed the No Rogue Rulings Act [219-213], an Act intended to limit the scope of Judges injunctive relief. President Trump’s comprehension of the executive branch: its power and or the absence of wears. It is Congress that has “the power ‘To lay and collect taxes, duties [taxes on imported goods], imposts and excises [U.S. Constitution Article 1, Section 8].” Elon Musk machinates as a SGE: a temporary, 130-day Special Government Employee who willfully ignores conflict-of-interest rules. As of April 8 DOGE has laid off more than 280,000 federal employees, some by mistake. Trump continues…
By ©2025 Sarah Becker Character, as defined by the Oxford American Dictionary: “the collective qualities or characteristics, especially mental or moral that distinguish a person [or country].” A nation’s character, like that of an individual, is elusive,” World War II Navy and Marine Medal recipient John F. Kennedy professed in 1946. “It is produced partly by things we have done and partly by what has been done to us. It is the result of physical factors, intellectual factors, and spiritual factors. It is well for us to consider our American character, for in peace, as in war, we will survive or fail according to its measure.” “Inspired by a deeply religious sense, this country, which has ever been devoted to the dignity of man, which has ever fostered the growth of the human spirit, has always met and hurled back the challenge of those deathly philosophies of hate and despair,” Kennedy continued. “We have defeated them in the past and we will always defeat them.” Perhaps no one has investigated contemporary character more completely than Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People [2004]. Reviewing the early success literature Covey found that “almost all the literature focused on the Character Ethic—things like integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience, industry, simplicity, modesty, and the Golden Rule.” “In contrast,” Covey said, “the success literature of the past 50 years was filled with social image consciousness, techniques and quick fixes.” Curious, I conducted a small survey, one that crossed the generations. Only one family declined my request to participate. None of the respondents referenced the Golden Rule. God, the Creator was mentioned once. The Survey’s No. 1 character quality: honesty. The No. 2 character quality: honor. The next six character qualities in descending order: integrity, rectitude, respectful behavior, reliability,…
by ©2025 Sarah Becker “From the inauguration of the movement for woman’s emancipation the Bible has been used to hold her in the ‘divinely ordained sphere,’” suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton age 80 wrote. “The canon and civil law; church and state; priests and legislators; all political parties and religious denominations have alike taught that woman was made after man, of man, and for man, an inferior being, subject to man. Creeds, codes, Scripture and statutes are all based on this idea.” In 1895 President Grover Cleveland was in the White House [D-NJ, 1883-1889 & 1893-1897]. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Sherman Anti-trust Act applied only to monopolies involved in interstate commerce; the Populist Party collapsed, and Stanton, born in 1815, published Part One of The Woman’s Bible. “Woman’s suffrage is inexpedient,” Cleveland told the Ladies’ Home Journal. Inexpedient, as defined by the Oxford dictionary: “not practical, suitable, or advisable.” “Man has his work,” Cleveland continued. “Woman has hers. But neither should invade the other’s province…It is a mistake to suppose that any human reason or argument is needful or adequate to the assignment of the relative positions to be assumed by man and woman in working out the problems of civilization.” Said suffragist Susan B. Anthony to journalist Nellie Bly in 1896, “[B]icycling has done more to emancipate women than anything else…I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. It makes her feel as if she were independent.” Formerly enslaved black males achieved the right to vote in 1870 [Amendment 15, Section 1, of the U.S. Bill of Rights]. Yet women, as represented by Stanton, Anthony and Frederick Douglass’ American Equal Rights Association [1866-1869] were excluded. “The whole system needs changing,…
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