Blog – Top of JC’s Mind

May Day!

Vote for Democrary #56

While May 1st is observed around the world as International Workers’ Day, it’s usually not a big thing in the United States, which observes Labor Day the first Monday in September.

This year is different.

Indivisible and other organizations are spearheading May Day Strong, calling for no work, no school, and no shopping today. There will be rallies in some places for those who are able with others, like me, participating from home. I’m wearing my “Presidents are not Kings” shirt and refraining from shopping today. (No work and no school are every day things for me.)

One of the messages today is “Workers over Billionaires.” The hope is that a show of economic power will draw attention to the unfair tax structure in the United States and the undue influence that wealthy individuals and corporations have over our government. This is also tied to current abuses of power by the government, trying to strip rights and protections under the law and interfere with elections.

As it happens, May 1st is also observed as Law Day in the United States. The Amercian Bar Association explains this year’s theme:

The 2026 Law Day theme is “The Rule of Law and the American Dream.” The rule of law—the idea that no person is above the law—is what ensures the rights of the people to live their lives as freely as possible and to pursue their dreams. The ABA encourages all Americans to recognize Law Day on May 1, 2026, and to reflect on how the rule of law ensures all Americans have the ability to fulfill their dreams.

This dovetails well with the May Day actions and No Kings, Hands Off, and other rallies that have been happening during Trump’s second term. Law Day seems even more urgent this year with the lawlessness of immigration enforcement and detention/deportation without due process, election interference, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and the decisions of the Supreme Court that fly in the face of precedence and the Constitution.

I don’t know what the impact of this May Day and Law Day will bring but I am looking at it as another step in the movement to restore the rights and freedoms of the American people, taking back the power from the corrupting influence of autocrats and oligarchs.

There is a third thing about May 1st that is important to me. It’s the first day of EDS & HSD Awareness Month. (EDS is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome; HSD is the related diagnosis of Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder.) I was diagnosed with hypermobile EDS (hEDS) in January, although as a genetic connective tissue disorder, it has always been there. I hope to do several posts this month to continue to raise awareness and to update my readers about my current treatment trajectory.

Of course, there will be more posts in my Vote for Democracy series, too. The caveat is that there will never be as many posts as I would like, unless/until I can clear the brain fog and get more energy back. There will be other topics popping up, as well. You can never tell what might be at the top of JC’s Mind!

Or maybe you can….

National Poetry Month ’26

Here in the United States, April is observed as National Poetry Month. While my writing and activities are constrained by my health, it was my privilege to be involved with a couple of poetry events this month.

I was able to read a couple of my poems as part of the Tioga Arts Council‘s Poetry Out Loud event. Area poets gathered to read poems, their own or others’. I especially loved hearing from some of my friends of the Grapevine Poets and from Dante Di Stefano, whose spouse is director of the Tioga Arts Council. The amazing thing about the reading was that there were a number of participants who had never before done a reading or even attended one. We also had a wide range of work read, including a poem in Bengali which was a combination of singing and speaking.

For the third consecutive year, one of my poems was accepted to the Write Out Loud event at the Fenimore Art Museum near Cooperstown, NY. The performance was the evening before the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton’s spring concert and I knew I would not have energy to sing dress rehearsal, scoot to Cooperstown for the evening, and sing an afternoon concert the next day, so I happily ceded reading duties to Sharon Rankins-Burd, who read my poem “The Bridge” so admirably last year. This year, my poem “Nor’Easter Numbers” was the first poem on the program. I’m looking forward to the recording of the reading becoming available. I’ll post when it is!

How did you celebrate poetry this month?

One-Liner Wednesday: O Canada!

I’m sharing this with love for our Canadian neighbors; when the singer’s microphone developed problems, the hockey fans in Buffalo took over singing the Canadian national anthem and it’s so beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes.

Please join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/04/29/one-liner-wednesday-almost-didnt-make-it/

Baltic concert

Last Sunday, I sang a concert of music from the Baltic region with the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton under the direction of John M. Vaida.

It was a great experience for us and for our audience. We got to perform pieces by composers that were new to most of us. I added languages to my personal list of sung texts, Swedish and Estonian. We also welcomed the Fair Winds Quintet as our guests, made possible by a grant from the United Cultural Fund of the Broome County Arts Council. They played a set before the sung concert and another to begin the second half of the program after intermission. It was wonderful to have these talented local artists join us for the concert.

One of my favorite pieces on the program was “Cantate Domino”, a setting of part of Psalm 98 by the Lithunian composer Vytautas Miškinis. Another highlight was Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Bogoroditse Devo” from his All-Night Vigil. I had first sung this under the direction of Dr. Bruce Borton with the University Chorus. Bruce had prepared a new edition of the Vigil for us to use and we later sang this movement in later programs, so it always reminds me of him. Bruce also became the second artistic director of the Madrigal Choir a few years before his retirement from Binghamton University. After the pandemic shutdown and the end of University Chorus, Bruce welcomed me to Madrigal Choir. Shortly after I joined, Bruce fell ill. I wrote about the last concert he conducted with Madrigal Choir here and about singing at his funeral and Madrigal Choir tribute here. This Rachmoninoff piece was part of a concert dedicated to Bruce at the University. I was grateful for the opportunity to sing it again, especially at Trinity Episcopal Church where Bruce had sung and volunteered for many years as a congregant.

I particularly loved the final piece of the program, a newly written hymn by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, set to the tune “Finlandia” by Jean Sibelius. Rev. Gillette is a local Presbyterian pastor and hymnist with over 500 hymns to her credit. This poem, “O God of Love, This Is a Time of Turning”, was written in January, 2026, after speaking with a seminary friend serving in Minneapolis. We printed the words in the program and invited the audience to join us in singing – and they did!

We sang, “May we stand firm for truth and peace and justice;
May we leave fear and hatred far behind.”

May it be so.

One-Liner Wednesday: for Earth Day

“A vibrant, fair, and regenerative future is possible — not when thousands of people do climate justice activism perfectly but when millions of people do the best they can.”— Xiye Bastida

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/04/22/one-liner-wednesday-decisions-decisions-2/

closures

Last Wednesday, I learned of two closures that are significant to me, one local and one further afield.

McCoy’s Chophouse closed abruptly due to health issues with long-time restauranteur Jim McCoy. McCoy had had a number of restaurants in the area over the last fifty years, most notably Number 5, housed in a renovated Binghamton (NY) fire station, complete with fire pole, which operated from 1978-2020. When Jim sold the Number 5 building in 2020, Lampy’s, the Endicott Italian restaurant Jim owned, became McCoy’s Chophouse, merging Number 5’s fine dining and Lampy’s Italian specialties. Of course, given that it was 2020, a lot of business was takeout at first due to the pandemic. As cases eased, more people chose to eat in the dining room or the bar/lounge, which featured its own, less formal menu.

While we splurged on the fine-dining menu for special occasions, we most oftened visited McCoy’s lounge on Wednesday to enjoy the $10 signature burger deal each week. The kitchen ground the trimmings from the prime steaks they prepared on the fine dining side for the burgers, topped with cheese, bacon, mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles. You could leave off certain toppings; I usually asked for no onion, no pickle. The burgers were served with freshly-made potato chips. If we had room, we would order luscious desserts from the always-tempting tray.

Everyone knew that Jim had been trying to sell the restaurant so that he could retire but no buyer materialized. Apparently, a health issue arose that caused McCoy to decide to close this week. Everyone was surprised at the news. We will miss going there but have many happy memories, including B’s retirement luncheon, held in McCoy’s private dining room.

That same day, I learned that Hampshire College will close at the end of the fall semester this year. When I enrolled at Smith College, Hampshire was less than ten years old. While also a liberal arts college, it followed an alternative curriculum where each student designed their own course of study. It was part of the Five College Consortium with Smith, Mount Holyoke, Amherst, and UMass. I had several Hampshire students in my classes at Smith.

Apparently, low enrollment and high costs combined to lead to the closure decision. Seniors will be able to finish their degrees in the fall semester and Hampshire will help other students find placement. The hope is that many of the remaining students will be able to finish their degrees by transferring to one of the other Five Colleges. I know that Smith has long had a process for self-designed majors which could be helpful for Hampshire students. Another option might be to transfer into a traditional department major with the major project that Hampshire students pursue becoming an honors project. These options would be more restrictive than Hampshire’s model and would involve grading, which Hampshire famously did not use, but would keep students in the familiar and beautiful Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts.

I’m sorry that Hampshire College will be closing and that US higher education will lose their unique approach. I am also concerned that so many fail to recognize the value of liberal arts education. Liberal arts institutions are dedicated to fostering the ability to think critically and creatively. These skills can then be applied to all aspects of one’s life, in work, personal and public life. It helps people adapt to change. One of the dangers that I see of using college as primarily job training is that too many jobs disappear. Many people work in different fields over their lifetime. Liberal arts colleges aim to educate the person rather than the worker, making their graduates more versatile and resilient.

My liberal arts education at Smith has been instrumental to my life, something that continues to bear fruit over the decades. I’m saddened that fewer of today’s students have the same opportunity that I had to learn and grow in this way.

One-Liner Wednesday: MCOB concert on Sunday!

Binghamton NY area folks are invited to Trinity Memorial Episcopal Church (opposite Binghamton High School) on Sunday, April 19, 2026, for a concert by the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton highlighting music of the Baltic region, beginning with the Fair Winds Quintet at 2:45 followed by the choral concert at 3:00.

This invitation brought to you through Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/04/15/one-liner-wednesday-id-rather-be/

One-Liner Wednesday: Congress, convene!

While I’m grateful that a partial ceasefire was declared in the Middle East yesterday, I call on the United States Congress to immediately return to Washington to remove Trump from office because he publicly threatend destruction of a civilization, also known as genocide, in violation of international and United States law.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! While this particular post of mine is very serious, many of the posts in this series are more fun or have lovely photos. Learn more about the series here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/04/08/one-liner-wednesday-im-not-opening-up/

No to war and war crimes!

Vote for Democracy #55

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

I wanted to add my voice to the millions in the United States and around the world that I am opposed to Trump and Israel’s war against Iran.

In particular, I want to say that it is absolutely unacceptable to bomb infrastructure that civilians use, such as power plants, roads, bridges, and desalination plants. To do so is a war crime, as recogonized by both US and international law. Military leaders given such orders have a duty to refuse them because they are illegal.

I have long feared that Trump is mentally ill and it seems his condition is deteriorating. He should be removed from office by the 25th amendment which provides for the removal from office of a president who is unfit to serve.

I fear, though, that no one will intervene and Trump will perpetrate war crimes against the Iranian public. As a US citizen, this action is undertaken in my name but I am disavowing it here, not that I expect it to have any impact.

I appreciate Pope Leo speaking so forcefully and so often on behalf of peace. If only Trump would listen to him and the millions of others trying to avert any more war, death, and destruction.

One-Liner Wednesday: MCOB Baltic concert!

Binghamton, NY area folks, please plan to join the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton and our special guests, the Fair Winds Quintet, for a concert of music from the Baltic region at Trinity Episcopal across from Binghamton High on Sunday, April 19th with Fair Winds at 2:45 and MCOB at 3:00 (NOTE NEW START TIMES)!

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! I’m double-dipping today so that I can also spread the news of Ellen Morris Prewitt’s book launch today!