"Family and friends," he said, "then home – where you live, your neighborhood, your town, your city – then your state, then your region, then your country." My father was explaining to me when I was 11 or 12 why he went to war when he didn't have to. He was driving me to Boy Scout camp, and we had some time to talk. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he was an engineer, and his company had government contracts that could keep him here. At almost 33, he was also getting long in the tooth for war. My mother would also have me tell you he also had two small children, my brothers, one eight months, and the other five. He joined the Navy a week after Pearl Harbor. "Those are the priorities in the order of priority," he continued. "But if your country is threatened, really threatened, everything flips. If your country, this country, falls, everything in that lineup falls, everything in that lineup is at mortal risk." "So, I'll know when it's country first?" "You'll know," he answered. Last week, I shared the mayor's plan for peacefully enduring, if not gaining, from the National Guard presence in our city. That was last week. This week changed everything. This week, the president called an extraordinary meeting. He and the secretary of defense addressed a room of some 800 generals and admirals called from their command posts around the world to hear the president's words in Virginia. He told our country's top brass their attention would soon be turned inward. That they would be commanding military operations in our cities against the "enemy within." Further, he said that they should hold military training exercises in our cities. Never mind what Secretary Hegseth told them. His message was as empty as his suit. He basically told them they had to shave and lose weight. The Commander in Chief told them their enemies are Americans, and that their field of battle would be Democratic cities. The great power and might of America's military would be turned toward its own.
Toward here, people. Not here in general terms, here in very specific terms. Memphis is an official battlefield. "Family and friends," he said, "then home – where you live, your neighborhood, your town, your city ..." As the rest of the world rages, the president told his top military leaders that we will disengage from the protection of our interests and those of our allies and attack the political enemies of our president, root out the "radical left," crush "the woke," seal our borders against mighty Venezuela, and reduce blue cities and states to whimpering vassals of the federal government. The president who would be king. Before this week, he commanded the justice department to intimidate and threaten, even indite, his political enemies including a former director of the FBI, and DA's in Georgia and New York. A president can't do that. Not just because it's blatantly personal and political. Not just because it's abuse of power, petty, and childish. Because most if not all of what he's doing is straight-up, in-your-face, unconstitutional. It is, in fact, just the latest additions to the long list of unconstitutional that defines the dangerous actions of this man. You know this is wrong. No what-about this or that. You know this is wrong. No bemoaning the awful state of something or somewhere. You know this is wrong. Nothing excuses this. Nothing. Now, he has openly told the military that anyone in America that challenges him is the enemy, and where they live the new front. The National Guard deployed here will be unarmed and have no power to arrest. They are a camo-covered smokescreen, eye candy for the cameras disguising what will really be going on, click bait for the internet. We now know that Trump and his minions are sending hundreds of ICE agents and FBI agents to Memphis, not to mention a small army of Justice Department prosecutors and investigators. The mission is to arrest, prosecute, incarcerate/deport as many people as possible.
Pam Bondi, U.S. Attorney General, was here this week to tell us that, along with Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, and Stephen Miller, Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff. Not to mention, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, looking very much like he was waiting to be told wat to do, bless his heart. Here, ready to rumble. Who wasn't here or invited was Steve Cohen, the duly elected Democratic representative in Congress of all the people who will be in that rumble. Republicans should be every bit as alarmed as Democrats – every American should – because every time Trump stomps on the Constitution, he leaves that boot print on every one of us. Or, as the very first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, famously put it, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Due process and habeas corpus are becoming quaint reminders of a once proud nation of constitutional laws and justice. What happened in that room in Virginia this week, and what happened out at Shelby Farms give us more than a hint of what could follow the National Guard to Memphis. "So, I'll know when it's country first?" "You'll know," he answered.
One man has put 340 million people at risk of losing this democracy. Just as surely as he's made the Oval Office look like a bad imitation of royal chambers at Versailles, just as surely as he's made the majority of both house of Congress look like lackeys waiting to empty the king's chamber pot, just as surely as he's turning the Constitution into a Mara-a-Lago doormat, just as surely, he's coming for us. You're right, Dad. I know. I'm a Memphian, soon under siege. (Lt. Frank E. Conaway Sr., 1943)
Memphis writer Dan Conaway, who helped found the @dailymemphian.bsky.social & comes from a century of local journalism, has just been censored by his own publication.
Here’s the column they wouldn't run.
Please consider writing:
barnes@dailymemphian.com
mcashiola@dailymemphian.com
Stand with Dan.
