Sunday Painting: "Evening Sail"

Day 56: Loyalty Tests

Day 56 — January 25, 2025

Americans serving in or applying for federal positions are now being met with loyalty tests to work for the government. The Associated Press reported that those “seeking jobs have been told they will have to prove their “enthusiasm” to enact Trump’s agenda and have been asked when their moment of “MAGA revelation” occurred.”

“An application form on the Trump transition website, for instance, asks candidates, “What part of President Trump’s campaign message is most appealing to you and why?” according to a link obtained by The Associated Press.

It also asks how they had supported Trump in the 2024 election — with choices including volunteering, fundraising, door-knocking and making phone calls — and to submit a list of their social media handles.”

“Dream of Freedom”

By Langston Hughes

My friend and mentor Judge Nathaniel Jones passed away five years ago today. One of the things that keeps me going every day is knowing that he is watching over me, and us, as we take on the challenges thrown this nation’s way.

Weeks before he passed, in his final public speech, he read this poem from Langston Hughes: “Dream of Freedom”

“There’s a dream in the land
With its back against the wall.
By muddled names and strange
Sometimes the dream is called.

There are those who claim
This dream for theirs alone—
A sin for which, we know
They must atone.

Unless shared in common
Like sunlight and like air,
The dream will die for lack
Of substance anywhere.

The dream knows no frontier or tongue,
The dream no class or race.
The dream cannot be kept secure
In any one locked place.

This dream today embattled,
With its back against the wall—
To save the dream for one,
It must be saved for ALL.”