James Perry

July 3, 2025 And on July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, declaring: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed...

As at the time of the Civil War, "we are now, once again, facing a rebellion against our founding principle as a few people seek to reshape America into a nation in which certain people are better than others." heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-3-2025

The President’s Constitutional Power to Do Stupid Things Federal appeals court lets President Trump keep control of California's National Guard

Deploying National Guard troops was "a dreadful idea," but "sometimes the law allows the chief executive to do stupid things." staytuned.substack.com/p/the-presid...

Coming to the Table Brings National Racial Healing to St. Paul A national racial healing gathering comes to St. Paul June 12–15. Circle process, truth-telling, and trauma healing are the core of the event.

“Coming to the table is easy,” DeWolf said. “Staying at the table is the hard part, and the most important part.” #racialhealing #antiracism #Juneteenth spokesman-recorder.com/2025/06/16/r...

Juneteenth Celebrates an End to Slavery — But Northern States Still Allowed It "Modern descriptions of American slavery often paint the North as slavery-free, abolitionist states, but this isn’t true."

Kudos to @TeenVogue for acknowledging that northern states continued to practice slavery after it was outlawed in the defeated states of the Confederacy. #Juneteenth www.teenvogue.com/story/junete...

As we celebrate #Juneteenth, a reminder that this holiday commemorates the end of slavery in the South. Many northern states still permitted slavery, and would do so until passage of the 13th Amendment: www.tracingcenter.org/blog/2016/06...

“Churches are really anxious about declining membership. If you want to get more people in the pews, then thinking about the barriers to access seems like a very obvious place to start.”

Churches are ignoring the Long COVID crisis. Some say it’s at odds with Christian values. - The Sick Times COVID-concerned Christians and Christians with Long COVID feel abandoned by their religious institutions, alongside other institutions — a blow they believe contradicts the clear connections between C...

“As Christians, we’re called to protect others.”

Yet “with every church service, they are creating more people who are sick and vulnerable.” thesicktimes.org/2025/06/06/c...

RFK Jr. says Covid-19 shot will no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women | CNN US Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday said the Covid-19 vaccine will no longer be among the recommended vaccines for pregnant women and healthy children on the US Center...

Reminder that scientific and medical experts still strongly recommend routine COVID-19 vaccinations for both healthy children and pregnant people. www.cnn.com/2025/05/27/h...

Opinion | We Are Not Being Asked to Run Into Cannon Fire. We Just Need to Speak Up.

"We are being asked not to charge into a hail of Minié balls and artillery fire but only to speak up and to stand up in the face of foundational threats to the principles for which they gave the last full measure of devotion." www.nytimes.com/2025/05/26/o...

Not looking forward to the randomized placebo trials for seatbelts and traffic lights and everyone driving on the right side of the road in the US. I assume those must be coming, because there's no other way to know anything, right?

R.I. church confronts its history with the slave trade - The Boston Globe While the Trump administration tries to downplay matters of race and racism in US history, the minister of a Providence church says, “History is real, and it has to be acknowledged.”

“We had hoped to find abolitionists among the early white leaders, but we found none. We found, instead, that church leaders were in the forefront of an anti-abolitionist expression in Providence during the 1830s and 1840s.” www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/06/m...

"... preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

www.archives.gov/founding-doc...

‘The pandemic broke us’: Mass. superintendents see long road to recovery for students - The Boston Globe Dozens of Massachusetts superintendents said it will be years before students catch up to pre-COVID levels.

Once again, if student performance is "still falling," then it probably isn't the fault of pandemic closures.

There are other clues, too: this article notes superintendents frequently cite chronic absenteeism, a rise in disabilities, and student "dysregulation." www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/24/m...

This should be interesting.

Harvard has the law firmly on its side, and can afford this fight.

It also has the resources to outlast Trump.

‘Not everyone was Paul Revere’: Mass. historians reimagine America’s founding tale - The Boston Globe Historians around the state are revisiting the nation's origin story with fresh eyes, centering on communities that have often been left out.

“The country was really built by everybody.” www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/25/m...

kevinmlevin.substack.com/p/why-presid...

'These are facts.' Cincinnati's Freedom Center fights Trump's version of American history When the National Park Service rewrote the Underground Railroad's story, it pulled Cincinnati's Freedom Center into Trump's war over history.

"The Underground Railroad was not a 'Kumbaya moment' of racial cooperation. It was a resistance movement." www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2...

Which US will tourists find when they visit? Recent changes by the Trump administration are affecting how US museums and institutions tell the nation's multicultural history to travellers.

"If it didn't matter, they wouldn't try to stop us. You cannot understand the U.S. today without understanding our history with regard to race, slavery, Indigenous people, genocides - all of these things that are 'bad'."

— Ashley Rogers, Whitney Plantation www.bbc.com/travel/artic...

"89% were unaware British merchants had enslaved people in the Caribbean for more than 300 years."

There has been widespread outrage in Britain over recent efforts to remember the history of slavery and its ties to the present day. The argument is generally that we now overemphasize this aspect of history—yet it is clear the opposite remains true.

Most Britons do not know scale of UK’s involvement in slavery, survey finds Vast majority unaware how many people were enslaved and for how long, although poll finds support for reparations is rising

Education is the first step towards addressing the legacies of slavery and racism. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Pay particular attention to the data showing patterns based on race, ethnicity, and class.

These students are generally hit hardest by any challenge, and have the fewest resources to compensate. But also, the pandemic hit their communities the hardest—and still does.

Simple, proven public health strategies like masking, testing, cleaning the air, and staying home when sick reduce absenteeism, increase learning, and decrease the known impact of repeated COVID-19 infections on children's ability to learn.

Why is this important? Because the answer isn't just to double down on teaching.

After those two months, many students immediately returned to in-person school. Many others spent a year learning online, which worked better for some than others.

This doesn't explain persistent and often increasing declines in academic achievement.

The pandemic does.

New England’s students remain half a year behind, new analysis shows, with few bright spots - The Boston Globe Maine and Vermont students have experienced the largest declines in reading of anywhere in the country.

"The results ... underscore how the aftershocks of the pandemic shutdowns continue to this day."

Those shutdowns lasted two months. Five years ago.

It's the pandemic, not public health measures taken against it.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/14/m...

‘We really never came back to each other’: Five years after COVID, we’re more divided than ever - The Boston Globe After a brief moment when Americans came together to battle a virus, the pandemic accelerated divisions of all kinds. If it happens again, could we come back together?

"Public trust in science ... took a massive hit during COVID."

And worse, we are essentially devoid of leadership willing to call this out. Instead, we see a competition to deny science, tell the people what they want to hear, and reinforce our worst instincts. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/05/b...

‘It’s shameful’: Silence on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from major medical groups draws criticism - The Boston Globe Some prominent physicians and scientists who have long opposed Kennedy’s work against vaccines see deep-seated anxiety over the potential consequences of speaking out.

“I think what’s happening is that academic medical centers and groups of providers are concerned about the implications of what can be done in terms of funding.” www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/08/n...

AHA–OAH Statement on Executive Order “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K–12 Schooling” The American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians have released a joint statement on the presidential executive order “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K–12 Schooling.”

"We reject the premise that it is 'anti-American' or 'subversive' to learn the full history of the United States with its rich and dramatic contradictions, challenges, and conflicts alongside its achievements, innovations, and opportunities." www.historians.org/news/aha-oah...

And please don't blame chronic absenteeism. Naturally, if you can't make it to school, for whatever reason, you're at risk of falling behind.

The question is: why are students now more likely to be chronically absent? Perhaps because they're frequently sick, or suffering from Long COVID.