Adirondack Chronicles 2026: A Walk in the Woods
July 22, 2026
A few glorious weeks in the Adirondacks have reminded me once more of the essential work of the wilderness in sustaining life and health for our planet. The white pines towering above this landscape can be, in some places, older than the republic itself by a hundred years or more. The great trees of the northern forest provide cover and nourishment for all of the living things below, the smallest salamanders and chipmunks, the fertile deer and their fawns, the bears that roam through the mountains and forests, the large communities of birds of all species that call the trees home. And, oh yes, the trees nurture and nourish the physical and emotional lives of the humans who come to live among them — most for just a few weeks, some for all of their lives.
I was admiring the lush quiet beauty of the Adirondack forest preserve when I heard the news that the president of the United States, who has a tendency to say some weirdly dumb (with a “b”) things, accused Canada of failing to maintain its forests correctly because there has been a plague of wildfires this year in the northern boreal forest that stretches across the top of North America. The boreal forest is even denser than the Adirondack forest preserve, even older and even more remote. Indigenous people live in communities there, but most of the northern forest is inaccessible.
As I read about the president’s criticism of Canada for “letting” the wildfires happen (they were caused by lightening strikes in those deep forests, and such wildfires also burn in many places around the globe including in the United States), I could not help but contemplate the utter intellectual and emotional impoverishment of a person who seems to know so little about the natural world.
Has this man ever taken a walk in the woods?
Has he ever spent even just an hour of solitude in a forest, inhaling the aroma of balsam, walking softly across the duff underfoot, listening for the clatter of blue jays or rat-a-tat of woodpeckers or screeches of hawks high in the trees?
Has this man ever sat by the streams running down the forested slopes, the melt after the heavy winter snows?
Has he ever heard the haunting call of a loon at dusk, or watched a merganser lead her long train of young ones across a lake rimmed by the great tall evergreens of the north?
Has he ever watched a cedar waxwing greedily gobbling the serviceberries that keep the birds well fed into winter?
Does he know that the terrible destructive force of the wildfires is also life-giving for the forest, that after the burn new trees will grow again, and the forest will thrive once more?
Of course we know that his comments about the wildfires in Canada have nothing to do with the reality of the fires and forests. Political points are a short-term human game, devoid of care or respect for the long generational time horizons of the natural world.
But, still. Perhaps someone who apparently knows so little about his own forests here in the United States should refrain from criticizing another country’s forests. Perhaps he should take a walk in the woods and allow himself to discover the peace, joy and humility of understanding that we are all part of an ecosystem that sustains the life of the earth, including human life. Perhaps if he learned a bit about the wonders of the forest, he would also learn a bit about respecting human life in all of its amazing God-given diversity and beauty.
I’d be happy to take him for a walk along a forest road in the Adirondacks!
Continue reading →Read comments (0) Add CommentReflecting on America at 250
July 3, 2026
America has always been a fractious place. The United States was born out of a revolution sparked by cross-Atlantic tensions and conflict between the British rulers (King George III) and mostly wealthy colonial landowners (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, et al.) who had grown increasingly resentful of monarchial rule, particularly when the monarch imposed taxation without representation. July 4, 1776 was not the end of the fight, but rather, the rocket blast proclaiming independence that fueled the American Revolution and the creation of the United States of America.
But having triumphed over their English brothers and cousins, the newly empowered Americans also fought bitterly with each other, and the long-festering disputes over slavery and states’ rights erupted into a horrific Civil War that nearly extinguished the American experiment in the 1860’s. That immensely costly war ended slavery and set the young nation on a path to power, but the divisive forces simmered across the next century, erupting into violence at different intervals, and laying the foundation for our contemporary political and social ruptures.
As America observes the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we are rightfully proud of our nation’s triumphs, contributions to advanced civilization, and long role as a leader of the free world and model for the ideal democracy — to a point. It does not diminish our rightful pride in America’s achievements to express, as well, profound concern about the future of this democracy as we examine the worrisome signs and symbols of decay of our ideals and betrayal of our founding values at this moment in our history.
The Founders of this nation had long and intense debates about the power of the executive versus the legislature and courts. While some clearly favored a more monarchial structure, the “no kings!” contingent prevailed and the Constitution enacted in 1789 clearly called for a balance of powers among the executive, legislative and judicial branches. The executive was never supposed to be an all-powerful ruler, but rather, a servant to the needs of governance with powers tempered by the actions of Congress and courts.
250 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the greatest danger to the future of democracy in the United States of America is the rise of a clearly authoritarian leader, someone who proudly proclaimed that he would be a “dictator on Day One” of his second term, and he is working hard and fast to fulfill that promise. The current president is asserting an unprecedented level of power with few guardrails — Congress is inert, the Supreme Court has conceded much of what he has asked for (with a few notable exceptions, see tariffs and birthright citizenship), and other courts are struggling to keep up with the tsunami of lawsuits his actions have prompted. From the War on Iran, to unleashing ICE agents and National Guard troops to cities across this nation, to squeezing huge concessions from universities and law firms and media companies, to engaging in outrageous acts of retaliation against his political opponents, to making a mess of the White House and other national monuments (see: reflecting pool) with his own decorations and weird notions of reconstruction, the current president has unleashed a frenzy of destructive actions that seek to force nations, institutions and people to bow to his will and whims. The consequences will shape this nation, for better or worse, for generations.
On this Independence Day, as we celebrate all that America has meant for the last 250 years, Americans should be mindful of our responsibility to ensure a vibrant future for this nation. America will not long survive if we continue to concede power to an authoritarian president whose goal is to bend everyone to his singular will. We must reassert the idea of “We, the People” as the true governors of our nation. We can start by reading and reflecting on what our founding document — the Declaration of Independence — calls us to do at this moment in our history.
In celebration of America’s 250th birthday, I present for your serious reading and reflection the text of the Declaration of Independence:
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
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Juneteenth: Renewing Hope for Our Shared Future
June 18, 2026
(Former presidents and first ladies gather to celebrate the opening of the Obama Presidential Center June 18, 2026)
Juneteenth, June 19, is the day we pause to remember the date in 1865 when slaves in Texas learned they were free…. it took two years for the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation to take hold in Texas, but freedom finally arrived — complicated, incomplete, but full of hope for a better future.
An extraordinary event occurred this year on June 18, the day before the Juneteenth holiday. The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago formally opened with a grand celebration including former Presidents Bush, Clinton and Biden along with Barack Obama, and the former first ladies, numerous other dignitaries and celebrities. But the most notable part of the event were the two addresses given — the first by former First Lady Michelle Obama, and the second by President Obama. The speeches are included below — no better way to observe this Juneteenth than to listen and reflect on these messages, and then determine to act with hope and purpose to ensure the future of our Democracy.
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Dean Mostowy on Voting Rights: The Battle Never Ends
June 8, 2026
Dean Thomas Mostowy, Dean of the School of Professional and Graduate Studies,
and Professor of Criminal Justice, offered these remarks at Trinity’s May 2026 Commencement:
Congratulations to the graduates and a special welcome to all the family and friends who supported them. We know that each of you has contributed to this day in your own way and that no one really achieves success alone. It’s a community effort.
Every year, when I sit down to prepare a graduation speech, I try to find a quote that I think is relevant, inspirational, or at least somewhat humorous to build my remarks around.
Last winter, for example, I chose James Baldwin and his thoughts on why education for working-class people is so important to a democratic society and, thus, why it is so frightening to those in power.
After watching some recent developments in government policies regarding higher education, I was severely tempted to return to that subject. Unfortunately, I was “saved’ from repetition by the US Supreme Court’s decision last month in Louisiana v. Callais .
So here’s a quote for you:
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
You don’t have to be a Constitutional scholar, or even a lawyer, to recognize section 1 of the 15th Amendment. Oh, and just to be sure not to leave anyone out, let’s not forget this one:
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
Yes, It took another 50 years after the 15th Amendment was ratified before women were extended the same right via the 19th Amendment.
Now, as I often point out in my criminal justice classes, possessing certain unalienable rights is a fine thing, until someone in power decides to take them away. Then what? The problem with the Constitution is that it sets out the rules, but doesn’t say what happens if someone decides to break them.
That’s why section 2 of both Amendments said he same thing:
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
No problem, right? Enabling legislation to enforce voting rights should be pretty simple for such a clear mandate?
Perhaps not. For the next century after the 15th amendment was ratified, the South enacted poll taxes, literacy tests, white primaries, disenfranchisement laws and when all else failed, outright violence and intimidation. What we refer to as “Jim Crow” but was merely a way to preserves slavery by another name.
It took nearly a century after the Civil War for America to finally keep the promises it made in the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Regarding the passage of these laws, finally putting some teeth into the Civil War Amendments, President Lyndon Johnson said:
“In our system the first and most vital of all our rights is the right to vote. Jefferson described it as ‘the ark of our safety.’ It is from the exercise of this right that all our other rights flow”.
and
“[T]he vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men”.
But privately, according to journalist Bill Moyers, he also lamented: “We have lost the South for a generation”.
If anything, Johnson underestimated the strength of anti-democratic forces in America.
While it took the nation nearly two centuries to finally recognize the fundamental rights of all its citizens, The Supreme Court decided, just 45 years later in 2010, that all the work to repair those injustices was now complete. In Shelby County v. Holder, John Roberts said that “the country has changed, and… Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions” as he cut one leg supporting the 15th Amendment off at the knee. Apparently over 3 centuries of legal discrimination had been remedied in just 45 years.
Finally, last month in Callais, Sam Alito chopped off the other leg in deciding that the Voting Rights Act’s purpose has been served, stating, “vast social change has occurred throughout the country and particularly in the South.” He even claimed, without any sense of irony, that prioritizing electoral map-making to boost minority political power somehow violates constitutional prohibitions against racial discrimination.
So where does this leave you? Newly minted graduates and future leaders of your communities. It means your education will provide opportunity to flourish in your careers, but I hope it also instills a sense of responsibility. My generation mistakenly thought the battles for democracy and equality had been won, but the battle never truly ends because those in power will always fight to maintain their inherited privilege. It’s now your time. Yes! Use your education to do well for yourself and your family, but remember it is also intended as a tool for good in you community, your society and the world. All politics is local and your community needs you.
Congratulations and best wishes!
Continue reading →Read comments (0) Add CommentAmerica300 and the Legacy of the Class of 2026
May 19, 2026
(Photo credit: Timothy Russell)
Envisioning America300: The Legacy of the Class of 2026
President Patricia McGuire
Remarks for the 123rd Trinity Commencement
May 15 and 16, 2026
To Trinity’s Class of 2026: your graduation from Trinity this year coincides with the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, a date revered as the birthday of the United States. We will spend some time this summer enjoying many festivities — marching bands, fireworks, field trips to historic sites or watching Ken Burns on the American Revolution — or even, I hear, viewing some kind of professional fight on the White House lawn. What could be more American?
But if all we do at this important chalkstripe across history is remember the past and nosh on hot dogs, we will have wasted both time and opportunity to do something far more important. Instead of looking back through a romantic haze of mythology about our nation’s founding, let’s look ahead with a fierce determination to make sure that these 250 years spent in earnest pursuit of the great American Dream do not vanish in a cataclysm of lost hope and authoritarian impulse.
You, the Class of 2026, will be celebrating your 50th reunion at Trinity in the Year 2076. (That seems impossibly distant right now, but having just celebrated my own 50th reunion, believe me, time flies!) 2076 will also be the 300th Birthday of the United States — our national Tricentennial. So, it seems reasonable to ask in 2026, as we celebrate America250: what will your legacy be to ensure that our nation will be strong, united and still free at its 300th birthday?
How will your Trinity education contribute to that legacy?
You have earned your degrees in many major fields — nursing, occupational therapy, counseling, teaching, science, journalism, business, criminal justice, law, global affairs, nonprofit advocacy, to name a few. But while your specific knowledge and skills may vary, if Trinity has done her job well you should have a strong set of shared values and philosophies that will guide your future work as citizen leaders and stewards of families and communities. What are those shared values?
Our banners and logos proclaim Trinity’s commitment: Education for Justice. Working for justice is our foundational value, received from our founders, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, arising from the Catholic teachings on social justice and shared by most faith traditions. What does justice mean in this context? It means respect for the dignity and worth of every single human life, lifting up each person regardless of race or gender or disability or immigration status or who they love or what language they speak or the size of their bank accounts.
Justice is the value that fueled the passion of the Founders of this nation when they proclaimed “self-evident truths” in the Declaration of Independence, with God-given equality being the first of the “unalienable rights” including “…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The later preamble to the Constitution enumerates one of the purposes of government “to Establish Justice.” We speak of justice every time we pledge allegiance to the flag — “with liberty and justice for all.” “Equal Justice Under Law” is carved into the stone over the entrance to the Supreme Court.
Justice is the bedrock value on which our freedoms flourish. But today, the threats to justice are everywhere. The Supreme Court has diminished the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is being warped and twisted to protect the very interests it was enacted to oppose, undermining the rights of the people it was designed to protect. Officials at both the federal and state levels are rolling back the gains of prior eras, forbidding schools from teaching about diversity and inclusion that are manifestations of justice; banning books about racial and gender justice, scrutinizing the syllabi of college professors to find out if they are teaching “divisive concepts” like the role of slavery in the colonial economy; threatening employers and institutions that uphold ideals of equity and justice not only for Black and Latino and Asian persons but also for women and immigrants and LGBTQ persons and others who do not fit the notion of what’s acceptable to the prevailing power structure.
Government officials have imposed steep penalties on universities that once were champions of free speech and equal opportunity — no more, as school after school bows to federal pressure to step back from principles of justice and equity. The government is investigating colleges for enrolling too many Black students. (Just this past week, the Department of Justice opened an investigation into Yale Medical School claiming they favor Black students over others — just 44 Black students are at Yale Medical out of 553 total students.) Recently opening an investigation into Smith College, seems that the Department of Education now wants to tell women’s colleges who we may enroll and teach.
We women’s colleges and minority serving institutions are not reflecting pools to be painted over at the whim of the executive! We reflect our own shimmering commitments to mission rooted in social justice; our values are not subject to governmental edicts!
It took nearly 90 years from the nation’s founding in 1776 to abolish slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War. But Reconstruction did not guarantee equality. It took another 100 years of bitter struggles, sometimes violent confrontations, constant advocacy and courageous action for this nation to enshrine equal justice under law into federal and state laws on equal opportunity, civil rights, voting rights, women’s rights. It took another half century for the impact of those laws to emerge in more level playing fields for people who once suffered historic racial oppression and gender discrimination. But today, in 2026, it’s taken just two years for the hard-won gains of the last two centuries of the American struggle for equal justice to be shattered.
It may take the next 50 years to repair the damage that’s been done — there’s no time to lose!
250 years ago, the Founders debated and rejected the idea of monarchy for their new nation. We hear echoes of that debate as we grapple with the now-contemporary question of how this nation will move away from the precipice of authoritarian rule. Our government is profoundly out of balance right now — Congress and Courts seem increasingly beholden to the will of the executive. We, the People, must use our votes, raise our voices, exercise our rights to insist that public officials act with respect for the Constitutional design of our government — a balance of powers, not a monarchy. No kings!
In 1863, on the battlefield at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln beheld a broken, bloody nation, not yet 100 years old, torn apart and killing itself over the most important issue left unresolved by the Founding Fathers — slavery. The Civil War was, in many ways, a consequence of the failure of the Founders including Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton and others to do what they knew was right — abolish slavery at the founding and bring “all men” truly into the sharing of equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Their failure simmered for decades and burst forth in the worst war the United States ever fought, the war with itself. Some now say that war never really ended.
At Gettysburg, Lincoln honored the thousands who died and prayed, “…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
May that be your prayer and call to action, my friends in the Class of 2026! May you use the gift of your Trinity education to serve your students and patients and clients and children and co-workers and neighbors well; and may you always be advocates and activists for the renewal of the American promise of justice, peace, equality and freedom for all people.
May you and your children and grandchildren stand proudly on the occasion of America 300, looking back with pride and satisfaction in the knowledge that you were part of replenishing and strengthening the values that once, and then again, lift up this nation as a beacon of hope, symbol of peace and prosperity for all in the global village.
May the blessings of the Trinity go with you on this journey through all the days of your lives.
Congratulations, 2026!
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