Washington has changed in the last few years, our national politics has, and not for the better. We got a full-blown demonstration last month with the debt ceiling/debt reduction fight.There are at least three ways our politics have changed.1. Republicans. Republicans used to be the party of restraint: Slow down; think again; reconsider. They played a constructive role. After the New Deal and the Fair Deal, we had the genuinely conservative presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, which slowed the growth of government and was in some ways more skeptical of foreign entanglements than the presidencies of Truman or Kennedy.The GOP is no longer the party of restraint but of stop, block and knock down.We have gone from Bob Taft, who advocated national health insurance, and Ike, who won a world war and built the federal highway system, to wreckers like Rand Paul and Eric Cantor.There are still a few Eisenhower and Taft Republicans around, but their voices have been muted. They have been driven into the hills.The debt deal, which is only a beginning and far from perfect but is amazingly better than the ugly process that produced it, was passed by moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats, but it was shaped by Tea Party Republicans. They then voted against the legislation that they helped produce. That’s how fundamentally uninterested they are in government and legislating.Barry Goldwater was a legislator. The Tea Party Republicans are not Goldwater Republicans but nihilists, pure and simple — wreckers who don’t know how to build and have no interest in building.If you doubt they have taken over the national party, consider that Mitt Romney came out against the debt deal. His alternative to default? Zip. His own alternative debt reduction plan? Nada.The Republicans are not what they once were. And we have lost something important.2. The press. The national press has also changed. Indeed, it is no longer called the press, or “the working press,” as it sometimes was, but the media.The press informed.Sometimes it educated.The media distracts and entertains with reality TV news.TV journalism is a joke — a combination of gossip and shout-fest. There is no Edward R. Murrow, no Eric Sevareid. No one even a little like them. Just Keith Olberman yelling. And Bill O’Reilly yelling louder.Instead of the sober, rational and calm Huntley and Brinkley, we have Wolf Blitzer in a perpetual whirl of hyperventilation.We have traded Walter Lippmann’s thought for Maureen Dowd’s archness.National commentary is mostly about style and impressions today. The pursuit is not of insight but a clever putdown — a one-liner that will be repeated at cocktail parties.Ask yourself: Do I ever learn anything from Dowd or Peggy Noonan? Is there ever a new fact or a fresh line of reasoning presented?Instead, we have an ongoing review of a high school dance. Frank Rich was a theater critic and that is how he writes about Washington — as a reviewer reacting to performance, not as an analyst struggling for understanding.There are exceptions: The Financial Times is a great newspaper, and Nicholas Kristof at The New York Times is an honest journalist who both teaches and seeks. Jay Newton Small at Time actually understands Congress and attempts heroically to cover it. Ezra Klein at the Washington Post digs deep into budgets and fiscal policy.But our journalism is being overcome by gossip and prejudice.3. Respect. There is less and less respect in our politics, as in our society, and that is a devastating change.Students commonly curse their teachers, and on the floor of the House of Representatives, as well as on op-ed pages, it is acceptable to deride the president of the United States.Washington was once a place of giant ghosts, and, occasionally, giant men. Those men had deep reverence for the buildings, monuments, heritage and folkways that preceded and would outlast them in that city. They respected the office, if not the man. They respected each other.One doubts that Lyndon B. Johnson would have refused to take a phone call from President Eisenhower.Everett Dirksen (who helped LBJ pass the great civil rights legislation) and Jerry Ford led the Republican opposition to John Kennedy and Johnson, but they never attacked either man personally.Mike Mansfield, William Fulbright and Sam Ervin referred to Richard Nixon, whose politics they loathed, as “the president,” and addressed him as “Mr. President.”We used to have respect for institutions in this country. We knew they were not perfect. But today, everything gets a pie in the face, cynicism and a dollop of barstool opinion based on nothing.What makes people feel bad about what we have seen in the in Washington is not the debt deal, but what accompanied it — the gossip, meanness, and disrespect.“Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out,” says the emperor Claudius, in one of Robert Graves’ novels.We have let the poisons hatch out.Now what? Keith C. Burris is editorial page editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester.
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One systemic consequence of slavery is the loss and obscuring of the histories of those who were enslaved. Records were often not kept about where Africans had been stolen from or who they were related to. Families were torn apart, leaving nothing but the faintest traces of the past. The delineation point, where genealogists can no longer trace histories back, is refered to this as the “document wall.”
Today, 250 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence and more than 160 years since the Emancipation Proclamation, there is a growing effort to restore some of the history stripped from enslaved people and their descendants. Among the leaders of these efforts is Mills, president of the Alex Breanne Corporation, a nonprofit organization that works to identify previously anonymous Black Americans from history and connect them with their living relatives.
The work began with Mills’ sister, who started digging into their family’s past in the 1990’s and introduced him to this emerging world of genealogy. Through that process, the Mills family discovered their great-great-grandfather, Ned Mills, who had been enslaved in Texas. His last name came from his final enslaver and remains the family surname. Through their research, they found that the document wall directly affected their ancestor, who learned of his liberation on June 19, 1865, now commemorated as Juneteenth.
“For the first time,” Mills writes on his website, “American slavery wasn’t something that had happened to anonymous people in a history book. It had happened to my family.”
The discovery gave Mills a familial pride he had been missing for years. That pride fueled his desire to help others find their own history. In 2023, Mills received his certificate in genealogical research from Boston University. He has used his expertise to help descendants of enslaved people uncover histories they never dreamed of learning.
To do this, he uses a process called “reverse genealogy,” identifying a person from the past and working forward to discover their descendants. Along the way, Mills has found some remarkable people who fought for freedom on American soil, some of whom were never freed.
Pay Bill for Robin Starr’s service in the Continental Army.Courtesy the Alex Breanne Corporation
At the Cornwall Historical Society event, Mills will present the stories of four Connecticut families: Job Lathrop of Norwich, the son of Pirmus Armes, about whom Mills has published a book; Prince Mortimer of Middletown, also the subject of a book by Mills;, the three sons of London Wallace of Simsbury; and Robert “Robin” Starr of Danbury, who later lived in Cornwall and Sharon.
A few years ago, Cornwall Consolidated School social studies teacher Will Vincent reached out to Mills for research guidance on a local history project his students were undertaking. Together, they learned about Naomi Freeman of Cornwall. After purchasing an acre of land on Great Hollow Road in 1828, Naomi Freeman became the first Black female landowner in Cornwall.
The students petitioned the town to rename a road after the historic Cornwall resident In April 2025, Great Hollow Road was officially renamed Naomi Freeman Historic Road. U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes joined Mills and the Cornwall Consildated School students for a presentation of their research.
Since then, Mills has guided the students in their quest to learn more about Starr’s story. Starr was a Revolutionary War soldier who joined the Continental Army to earn enough money to buy his own freedom, receiving the Badge of Merit in the process. The stories of his descendents’ services are equally worthy of their own books.
In recognition of Mills and the students’ work, First Selectman Gordon Ridgway proclaimed Feb. 8 as Robin Starr Day.
Preregistration is required for the event at the Cornwall Historical Society. To learn more about Mills’ work, visit
alexbreanne.org.
John Mills speaking at Quinnipiac University.Courtesy the Alex Breanne Corporation
Stephanie Saetta runs Charlie Chicken Bones, a sanctuary in Salisbury.
Dogs have been at the center of Saetta’s life since childhood. She remembers going to the library to research different breeds and trying to convince her parents the family needed a dog. She had her heart set on an Irish Wolfhound, but she was more than happy when her mom brought home a West Highland terrier.
After college, she adopted Charlie as a puppy from a rescue on Long Island. He was a hound-shepherd-Rottweiler mix who suffered from intense seizures. Some veterinarians recommended euthanasia, but Saetta wasn’t ready to give up on him.
When Charlie would have an episode, she would sit with him, nose to nose, talking him through it. She learned to look for the moment he began to come around — when he could smell her again and his tail started to wag.
“You only get one or two of these soul connection dogs, so I do this in his honor,” Saetta said. “I like to think that all the dogs that come through are going to have that person that they connect with just the same.”
Through a network of women working to rescue animals in Texas, she learned about the desperate situations facing many dogs.
With limited space, some public pounds euthanize even healthy animals to make room. Limited access to veterinary care leaves sick dogs or unvaccinated puppies especially vulnerable.
Saetta saw that reality firsthand with a puppy named Gus, a Labrador mix she fostered who has since been adopted. Gus and his sisters had been dumped beside a road, where they were living under an abandoned car. People would leave food for them, but no one would take them to the pound.
“Even the people who rescue animals down there were like, ‘sadly, the best place for them to be is on the side of the road,’” she said. “That’s safer. Someone might actually help them that way.”
Saetta knows that there are far more dogs than any one person can save, but she also knows that helping one dog means one fewer on the street.
Stephanie Saetta,with her rescue dog George and Blue (left), a shepherd mix awaiting his forever home.Madi Long
Charlie Chicken Bone Sanctuary operates entirely through foster homes, a model that Saetta believes is best for the dogs and the humans hoping to adopt them.
Rather than moving directly from a difficult environment into a permanent home, the dogs have a chance to settle into a quieter setting. They can learn what it’s like to live with a family, sleep somewhere comfortable and receive affection without fighting for attention. Fostering also allows the rescue to really get to know each dog.
“As fosters, we’re honest,” said Saetta. We’ll tell you everything that’s been bad, everything that’s been good. What their temperament is and how they’ve responded to all the things they’ve experienced.”
A successful adoption is not just about finding a dog a home; it’s about finding the right home where the dog and family can thrive together.
Saetta is looking for more people willing to open their homes to foster dogs. She understands that the thought of growing attached and eventually saying goodbye can feel daunting. But she sees that goodbye a little differently.
Fostering means being part of a dog’s journey, even if only for a short time. It gives dogs a safe place to rest, the chance to trust again and the love they have gone without for much of their lives. And when the time comes for them to leave, it is not really a loss. It is the reward of knowing they are moving on to a forever home.
Blue, Saetta’s current foster, is hoping to find his perfect home.
Blue, a 7 year-old Shepard mix, is waiting for his forever home. Madi Long
Now around 7 years old, Blue spent most of his life wandering the streets of Texas. People sometimes left food out for him, but his mangy, dirty coat kept them from stopping to pet him. Today, he has a chance to experience something different.
Blue is still waiting for his forever home. Saetta believes he would do best as the only dog in a household or alongside another senior dog. He will need someone willing to continue working with him on his training and understand that a dog with his history needs patience.
But what he gives in return is a whole lot of love.
“He’s so enthusiastic, he’s so excited for life, he’s so friendly, and he’s got such a good heart, and he loves to cuddle,” Saetta said. “He’s a good, good, good dog.”
For more information on adopting Blue or how to foster, visit ccbsanctuary.org.
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