From ‘A Book, an Idea and a Goat,’ Andru Volinsky’s weekly newsletter on Substack is primarily devoted to writing about the national movement for fair school funding and other means of effecting social change. Here’s the link:  https://substack.com/@andruvolinsky?utm_source=profile-page

By ANDRU VOLINSKY

Some readers were surprised by the content of my last column concerning life without parole. Why didn’t I write about the atrocities perpetrated by President Trump or his abject betrayal of law enforcement in his pardon of violent insurrectionists? Why didn’t I write about the other voting blocs that supported him who will next be betrayed?

Here is how I intend to proceed on this Substack going forward in the context of our new reality of (more) rampant corruption and forsaking of the rule of law under President Trump. I intend to continue to write fact-based columns once a week published on Wednesday mornings. I’ll write about topics of public policy that I know well, can explain to others or about which I think my readers may be able to influence decisionmakers. I’ll try to help readers frame issues and suggest messaging. I’ll continue to offer comparisons of actions taken in my home state of NH to what is happening in other states. No state is unique and we can learn from each other’s successes and failures.

There is a lot wrong with America. When Bernie Sanders called out the oligarchs during his 2016 presidential race, he wasn’t being prescient. He was being honest. The problems caused by an overt (celebrated?) concentration of wealth are here. Tax policy, in part, is affected by this concentration and I will continue to write about tax policy as it affects schools and NH property taxpayers and, by implication, taxpayers in other states. School vouchers also affect the concentration of wealth and I’ll continue to write about this topic.

Trump and his allies have made clear their intent to target minorities and people who are different. I won’t hesitate to call out this bullying but will primarily do so in the context of education policy. Do not think that I condone the targeting or that I am cowed into silence because I do not write about every instance of policy intended to harass some group or enrich those in power. I have also not forgotten or forgiven the grave injustices visited on the Palestinian people by the war criminals who set policy in Israel or the US officials who aided and abetted those war criminals.

This column is not how I will respond to Trump and his mendacity. There are other Substack writers and (a few) media outlets who will make it their business to expose and respond to the criminal conduct of elected and appointed national office holders (who I can’t bring myself to call “leaders”). There are others better positioned to write about national politics than I. Subscribe to them, even if you don’t agree with the label they adopt or that is applied to them. The neoliberals got us here. Don’t look to them for solutions.

I don’t believe it does much good for me to contribute to the doom scrolling by repeating what has already been written elsewhere. We need to figure out how to stay best informed, to resist and to call out the crimes that are committed but I don’t have to repeat descriptions of the “felony of the day” just to appear virtuous. We also must watch out for our own wellbeing and that of those we know and about whom we care.

Amy and I spent Inauguration Day with our grandchildren. We stayed off our screens. It wasn’t too cold to go out, so the little boys and our son hiked across a frozen lake as we watched. I shoveled snow. Our granddaughter drew and played with blocks as Amy set up a loom for weaving. Our daughter-in-law got to read a book. Quietly, we know how privileged we are. As hard as we tried to avoid it, concerns were whispered among the adults as the kids played. We know their America is in trouble and we’ll do what we can about it.

Given my heritage, I know about the Nazis and the Holocaust. I’ve read about the Gilded Age, the robber barons and the Supreme Court justices who did what they could to stymie FDR’s efforts to create a New Deal. None of these, however, was personal to me.

Ronald Reagan was personal. I remember Reagan and how we were crushed at his election then adapted and persevered and prospered. We know not everyone prospered but we survived Reagan.

Amy lost her Legal Services job when Reagan cut the organization’s funding and the newest lawyers were laid off. We lived in Knoxville, TN at the time. We adapted by moving to New England to be near her home. I left my teaching job at Tennessee Law and became a NH Public Defender. I continued to defend death penalty cases on a pro bono basis after entering private practice in NH.

Reagan appointed William Rehnquist to be the chief justice of the Supreme Court. Rehnquist focused on death penalty cases. He repeatedly changed the rules on how to qualify jurors to decide these cases. Jurors in death cases literally determine if the defendant will live or die. One juror’s dissenting vote could save a defendant’s life. Every time defense lawyers mastered the new approach engineered by Rehnquist; the court changed the rules to make things even more diabolical.

In 1986, I found myself before Rehnquist and his court challenging the selection of a particular juror, Mrs. Bounds, in an appeal from a murder trial that occurred in Mississippi. As a very young and inexperienced lawyer who didn’t know better, I got into it with Rehnquist during the argument. At one point, he swiveled his chair and turned his back on me as I quoted his words about fairness in jury selection back to him. Scalia, another Reagan appointee, then came after me.

Months later, David Gray’s death sentence was reversed, 5-4. Justice Powell provided an unexpected key vote against his chief. Perhaps the chief’s disregard for fairness impacted Powell. If my case had come to the Supreme Court one term later, Gray would have been executed because Powell retired and was replaced by Anthony Kennedy who would have voted with his chief. Kennedy was also a Reagan appointee.

For what it’s worth, Justices Roberts and Alito came to the Department of Justice under Edwin Meese, who was Reagan’s Attorney General. They are now leading the Supreme Court to infamy.

Amy and I both come from working class families. My dad was a mechanic. Her dad sold paint. They both served in WW II. We know how privileged our educations have made us and we’ve taken advantage of that privilege to protect and provide for our family but we’ve also worked hard to help others and to fight back through community service, pro bono legal work and holding public office. We’ll continue to do so and I hope, within the limits of your personal situation, that you will do so as well.

Get off your screens and do something.

Hug your loved ones.

With hope for a better future,
Andru