A change is gonna come
We see it in the distance and as it approaches
Fall has put a spring in my step.
It’s been a couple of weeks now since I’ve resorted to air conditioning, the open windows in my house being enough to keep the inside comfortable. When I get up in the morning to feed Little Seba, the kitchen floor is cool on my feet, the air cool on my arms. It’s energizing. Orion, which disappears from our view in the summer, is now high in the southern sky in the morning, which stays darker longer. It’s a certain sign that seasons change, and so do I, you need not wonder why.
Though the autumnal equinox — the “official” first day of fall — is Sept. 22, meteorological fall, used for record keeping, was on Sept. 1. Being an optimist who has had quite enough of draining humidity and blinding sunlight, I’m going with that.
And though the last couple of days have been uncomfortably warm — well, that happens sometimes in the fall, doesn’t it?
It’s always been odd to me that New Year’s Day is in the middle of winter. It could be on the first day of spring, when the earth warms to the process of coming back to life and producing fruit. It could be now, as the earth prepares to slumber but we animals feel more energetic. Its choice seems somewhat random.
Physicists tell us that many things are unpredictable and incalculable, but nothing is truly random. When Seba leaps for a butterfly in the backyard, the tiny change in air pressure ripples through the atmosphere and eventually increases the hot air in Vice President JD Vance’s head.
I’ll think about that when I’m done thinking about a hundred other things, like why I’ve never listened to King Crimson and how to make my oatmeal creamy.
One morning last week, I found myself on Hanes Mall Boulevard with a little time to kill before running errands. I wandered down to the Little Creek Trail, behind the Hilton Garden Inn, which opened a few years ago. Tall trees cast shade over the concrete trail, and a cool breeze blew me to Little Creek Park, which I hadn’t known existed. A dirt path there took me deep into cool woods, a lone traveler, aimless. Random.
You’d think, after living here most of my adult life, I’d know every crook and nanny in our little town. Au contraire, mon frere. There’s always something new to learn.
I hope to learn new things as I board Amtrak later this week and head out west.
I don’t plan to post to “Meditations” while I’m gone. I’ve scheduled one of my previous essays to pop up next Sunday, which may be new to more recent subscribers. And I expect to post random sights and sounds to Facebook, so take a peek there from time to time if you like.
I leave the state, briefly, feeling optimistic about our future. Federal courts have been rejecting many of President and convicted felon Donald Trump’s fascistic excesses, including his unauthorized and harmful tariffs, his attempts to deport as many brown-skinned people as he can and his military occupations of blue cities. He’s lost 93% of his court cases, according to Democracy Forward, including many which were never fully reported by the media. The courts seem to get it: If a situation that has existed for decades is an emergency, the word has no meaning.
Of course, those rulings may shift once they reach the Supreme Court, where randomness often seems to prevail. But his authoritarian power grabs wouldn’t have reached those jaded halls unless they’d already been challenged and found wanting.
Protests continue to grow, as do crowds, as do repentant Trump voters who realize, as their crops rot in the field or their loved ones are kidnapped and deported, their error.
And states are stepping up to protect themselves. While Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. destroys the Centers for Disease (it used to be the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and Florida falls further into conspiracy medical theories, risking the health of its own citizens, Washington, Oregon and California have set up their own health alliance to protect access to vaccines (Hawaii joined them Thursday), as have nine northeastern states. Agency whistleblowers number in the double or triple digits, and they can’t all be the proverbial “disgruntled employees” regularly discounted by conservatives.
I don’t believe in fate, but these changes surely aren’t random. The arc of the universe, “you can fool some of the people,” exhaustion from Trump’s endless drama and deceit, it’s all catching up to him.
There’s so much more to be done. But we’re doing it. One day at a time.
Have a good couple of weeks; see you on the bridge when I get back.
….
Overflow:
Don’t forget, this afternoon:
Ice Cream Caravan!
We can’t let the summer pass without an ice cream caravan! In conjunction with Kevin Watson, publisher of Press 53, Mick Scott: Meditations is sponsoring a visit to two ice creameries in the arts capital of Stokes County, Danbury, NC!
My Amtrack trip:
First comes a brief stop in Washington D.C., where I plan to introduce myself to some of these veteran heroes standing up against the Trump administration. I’ll tell them I’m from Winston-Salem, where we appreciate what they’re doing.
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Then to another hotspot: Chicago, where local leadership is preparing to resist an unconstitutional military occupation. It is well worth watching Gov. JB Pritzker join California Gov. Gavin Newsom in resisting the tyrant:
Then to Denver for a week or so.
What’s going on in Denver? Something, I’m sure.
Two types of fall:
The Western Health Alliance:
https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/03/vaccines-oregon-washington-california-cdc/
And the Northeastern Public Health Collaboration:
https://www.wgmd.com/delaware-joining-regional-public-health-coalition/
Trump tried to deport an airplane load of children in the middle of the night. An attentive judge stopped him:
Trump continues to raise scandal after scandal, from his suppression of the Epstein files (and threats to those who want to release them) to his latest bitcoin scam to his military attack against what he claimed was a Venezuelan drug-running boat, but may well have been harmless immigrants. Of course.
And it’s hard for Trump to argue that “the United States is finally respected again” when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi responds to his tariff demands by walking hand-in-hand with Russian President Vladimir Putin into China’s anti-NATO summit.
Trump whined that they were “conspiring” against him. His jealousy at not being invited to meet with the other dictators is embarrassing.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-reacts-putin-kim-jong-xi-chinas-military/story?id=125201888
The argument seems threadbare, too, when Portugal President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa declares Trump to be “a Russian asset.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-russian-asset-portuguese-president-083500883.html
It gives me no pleasure to note the depths to which Trump has sunk the states of America.
But it does give me pleasure that more people seem to finally be waking up to his corruption, his inflated sense of self and other deficiencies.
Taking upon himself the authority to conduct military strikes in foreign waters won’t help:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/us-strike-venezuela-drug-boat-150631157.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/02/politics/us-military-strike-caribbean
.
Democracy Docket tells the tale of the rule of law vs. the lawless presidency:
Fighting Trump in the court of law and the court of public opinion:
Ninety-three percent loss: So much winning!
https://democracyforward.org/updates/trump-loses-93-percent-of-cases-we-know-because-we-win/
You can impress your friends and help feed Seba by buying one of my books!
My newer book, “Tiny Sliver of a Moon” is available from Bookmarks, Book Ferret, The Eclectible Shop.
My first book, “Stardust and Scar Tissue,” is available from Bookmarks, Book Ferret, The Eclectible Shop and from the publisher, Press 53.
Both available directly from me.
While Trump’s administration falls apart, we continue to meet regularly at the Green Street pedestrian bridge above Salem Parkway. Avengers Assemble!
4:30 to 6 p.m. every Monday
7:30 to 9 a.m. every Tuesday
10 a.m. to noon every Saturday
Thanks for being here today; if you know anyone who should be with us, send them along. And now, we’ll close with a song:
Safe travels Mick & thanks for representing Winston Salem with others on the way! 🇺🇸
I second the motion for “The Court of the Crimson King” . Enjoy and safe travels on your westward adventure Mick.