A MESSAGE FROM THE PUBLISHER
By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.
As the holidays draw near, many of us turn our attention to preparing our homes for cleaning, decorating, and making space for family and friends. In my household, that preparation came with an unexpected lesson. We were being pestered, nagged, and flat-out intruded upon by what we thought were harmless fruit flies. You know the kind those little nuisances that dance around your kitchen like Muhammad Ali, jabbing left and right while your guests pretend not to see them.
Like any good homeowner, we tried every remedy we could find. Vinegar traps, dish soap, homemade concoctions, wipes, sprays everything short of calling on the ancestors. But those stubborn pests only multiplied.
Finally, we called in the professionals.
And to our surprise, these weren’t fruit flies at all. They were fungus flies, born not from our fruit bowl, but from the soil of our houseplants. They were living beneath the surface. To fix the problem, we had to take every plant outside, wash them down to the roots, shake off every bit of infested soil, and repot them in new, treated soil. A serious job. A messy job. But a necessary job.
And that, my friends, is where the real lesson begins.
America’s House Is Also Full of Fungus Flies
For years now, we have watched our nation swat at political pests little lies, big lies, scandals, corruption, threats, intimidation, and behavior that used to send elected officials into early resignation. We’ve convinced ourselves that we’re dealing with harmless “fruit flies,” a momentary irritation. Something we can ignore, outlast, or wish away.
But what we are living through is not harmless. And it’s not on the surface.
The chaos surrounding Donald Trump, his cronies, his enablers, and yes even members of a Supreme Court that increasingly behaves more like a political arm than a judicial body is not a mere annoyance. It is not a blip. It is not a fly you can swat with a rolled-up newspaper.
It is fungus rooted deep in the soil of our political life.
It spreads silently.
It feeds off neglect.
And it thrives when we tell ourselves, “It’s not that bad.”
The Problem Is Below the Surface
Like our infested houseplants, America’s roots have been shaken by a political movement grounded in grievance, corrupted power, and a willingness to undermine the very foundations of democracy.
What started as a few loud voices has become a culture of intimidation and lawlessness embraced by:
- elected officials who twist truth into a pretzel,
- supporters who chant for authoritarianism as if it were a holiday song,judges who confuse their personal beliefs with constitutional duty, and
- leaders who would rather burn down the house than lose an argument inside it.
This is not surface mess.
This is soil gone bad.
And unless we are willing to get our hands dirty, (I’m talking about root-deep dirty) we will keep dealing with pests that multiply faster than we can swat them.
You Cannot Fix Rot With Air Freshener
Many Americans especially Black Americans understand what it means to keep a home standing despite storms. We know what it means to build, repair, and rebuild again. But even we can fall into the trap of thinking a little political breeze will carry away all the stenches.
It won’t.
We cannot holiday-clean our way out of this moment.
We cannot pretend that the situation at our highest levels of leadership is normal when everything about it screams decay.
We cannot ignore the judicial activism, the extremist rhetoric, the violent intimidation, the attack on voting rights, the normalization of corruption, and the coordinated assault on democratic institutions.
We cannot, in good conscience, let the roots rot.
Time To Repot the Plants
The professionals who fixed our home didn’t tell us to spray and pray. They told us to uproot, wash, remove, and replace the soil.
America needs the same treatment.
- We must uproot corrupt leadership.
- We must wash away the soil of lies and misinformation.
- We must demand accountability from every elected official local, state, and national.
- We must demand a Supreme Court that respects the Constitution, not the political winds.
- We must choose leaders who nourish democracy, not feast on its decay.
This is not about partisanship.
This is about preservation.
And like our plants once we remove the rot, the nation can breathe again. Grow again. Thrive again.
As We Prepare Our Homes, Let Us Prepare Our Nation
This holiday season, as we set our tables, sweep our floors, and welcome family near and far, let us look around our national home with the same concern we show our personal ones.
Because when guests come into your house and see flies swarming, they don’t blame the flies.
They blame the homeowner.
America must decide what kind of home it intends to be.
One overrun with political pests?
Or one courageous enough to cleanse itself down to the roots?
The choice is ours.
But one thing is certain:
If we want a healthy democracy, we must start by changing the soil.
