Civics for All! &c.

On fundamental education; Afghan refugees; the national fiscal house; major winning streaks; the late Michael Ledeen; and more

Photo by Anthony Garand on Unsplash

On Monday, I had the pleasure of being a guest on The Dispatch Podcast, hosted by Jamie Weinstein. (Hear us here.) One of the things we talked about was civic education: the importance of it, the need for a revival of it. When I was in ninth grade, I had a mandatory civics course, taught by Ms. Cynthia Payne. One of my favorite courses.

On Tuesday, the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, testified to the Senate. Maggie Hassan (D., N.H.) asked her, “What is habeas corpus?” Noem answered, “Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country.” “That’s incorrect,” said Hassan, correctly.

Plenty of people are hazy on habeas corpus and other basic republican concepts. But the secretary of homeland security? And a former governor? I don’t mean to pick on Noem (too much). I’m sure I have lacunae myself. (There’s a Buckley word.)

But don’t you think We, the People, ought to raise our game?

***

The issue of Afghanistan and refugees is very important to many of us. Many of us are involved in it, in some way. This news was hard to take. I have linked to an article that begins,

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced on Monday that the U.S. will terminate the temporary protected status program for Afghanistan, a move that could lead to the deportation of over 9,000 Afghans residing in the country.

I have written about this issue many times. Today, I will merely link to an old piece—a piece published in 2015. It was headed “A Question of Honor.” The subheading was: “As the wolves circle, Iraqis who helped us are pleading for visas.” The last paragraph begins,

Soon, we will have desperate Afghans to think about, or ignore.

***

A headline: “House GOP grinding ahead with Trump’s big tax cuts bill, but new report says it will add to deficit.” That report is from the Congressional Budget Office. The relevant article is here.

Someday. Someday, we Americans will get serious about the federal budget deficit and the national debt. When? When desperation strikes, I think.

There is an old saying: No one fixes the roof when the sun is shining. When the storm hits, we scramble up there, trying to plug holes.

(For a biggish piece of mine, on this big—and ever bigger—subject, go here.)

***

President Trump wrote, in his characteristic fashion, “Republicans MUST UNITE behind, ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!’” He went on to say, “We don’t need ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!”

(A) It’s a little amusing—isn’t it?—to hear Trump decry grandstanders. (B) What he really means, in his message, is: Stop thinking for yourself; stop making arguments; fall in line.

***

Another missive from Trump:

This, believe it or not, is the president of the United States. Nominated by the Republican Party three times in a row, elected by the people twice.

***

A reader writes,

I might be your only subscriber who graduated from Louisiana State University in Shreveport. Our NAIA baseball team is currently 54–0. Might want to look them up and give them a mention. Go Pilots.

Go Pilots indeed. Holy smokes.

Hudson, Michigan, is a little town in the far south of the state, whose population is about 2,400. When I was a kid, in 1975, the Hudson High School Tigers set a record—a record in football. They had won 72 games in a row.

The Pilots have reminded me of those Tigers of yore.

***

More news from Michigan—I mean, not news from 1975 (50 years ago!) but news from this month:

How much damage can a badly placed cup cause in a golf tournament? As the competitors at the 2025 NAIA Women's Championship found out May 13, quite a bit.

That article is found here. It continues,

In what was such a challenging hole that some golfers were reportedly “reduced to tears,” the fifth hole at Eagle Crest Golf Club in Ypsilanti overshadowed everything else that happened at the tournament, causing more than half the players to shoot double or worse on the hole.

What a fiasco. My friend Herb and I played Eagle Crest on its opening day, in 1989. Herb shot better than I did. I’m not sure how many players completed their round before we did. But I like to think that Herb held the course record, however briefly.

***

A little language? Nothing big—just a small point. Even a nitpick. In an article on Monday, I mentioned the latest opera by John Adams, Antony and Cleopatra, which has just been staged by the Met. (For my review, go here.) Let me quote from the Met’s program notes:

The score of Antony and Cleopatra is instantly recognizable as the work of John Adams yet also represents an evolution in his lyrical approach. The orchestra expresses both public and inner drama throughout. The musical colors are always changing, sometimes abruptly (such as when surprising news is delivered publicly in the Roman scene early in Act I or privately to Cleopatra soon after) and at other times imperceptibly (such as the underscoring of Antony’s confusion and self-doubt in Act II, Scene 1).

Hmmm. If colors change “imperceptibly,” how do we know?

But maybe I’m being foolish—nitpicky to the point of absurdity. I recall something that Lee Hoiby, the late composer, once said to me. I will paraphrase him, recalling his words the best I can:

Sometimes I change a few things in a score, underneath the melodic line, just to make everything come out better. The listener is not aware of it. Even the performer or performers aren’t aware of it. But it’s there. Sort of like a pad under a carpet. You’re not aware that the pad is there, but the carpet is nicer to walk on.

Okay.

***

Michael Ledeen, the foreign-policy hand, has died at 83. For his obit in the New York Times, go here. He had a crowded and colorful—and controversial—career. (That’s a lot of c’s, right?) I enjoyed knowing him. He insisted that the Iranian government—the Khomeinist regime in Tehran—was a bad, bad thing, and that the civilized world ought to oppose it as though its life depended on it.

I think that was wise.

Last night, I was going through some e-mail files. In 2012, I thanked Mike for writing a particular piece. “I could weep with gratitude,” I said. He answered,

tks. weep away. and catch the tears in one of those groovy old Roman vessels and send it to the Smithsonian, heh.

somebody gave us one as a wedding present in Rome a hundred years ago or thereabouts.

The vessels, for catching tears, are known as “lachrymatories.” Mike knew about things like that.

***

A lady I know—the best—says this about her great-granddaughter, age three or four:

She came in this morning at 6:30 as I pretended to be asleep. I said, “It’s too early.” She said, “But the sky is normal—regular blue.”

“Regular blue.” May your sky be the same! See you.