Structure, Function, Testing, and Clinical Implications

If you’ve ever had blood drawn during a bout of illness or a workup for heart disease risk, there’s a decent chance your doctor ordered a C-reactive protein test, usually shortened to CRP. It’s one of the most widely ordered lab tests in the world. CRP is one of the body’s most sensitive early-warning systems for inflammation. Understanding where it comes from, what it does, and how doctors use it reveals a lot about how the immune system operates and why chronic low-grade inflammation has become such a central concern in modern medicine. Warning: doctor talk will follow.

A Protein With a Peculiar Origin Story

CRP was discovered almost by accident in 1930 by William Tillett and Thomas Francis, working in Oswald Avery’s laboratory at Rockefeller University. They were studying patients with acute pneumococcal pneumonia caused by the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae and noticed that blood from acutely ill patients caused a specific bacterial substance to clump together. That substance was the “C polysaccharide” in the bacterial cell wall, which gave the protein its name.

For decades CRP was used as a crude yes-or-no indicator of serious infection. It wasn’t until the late 20th century that more sensitive lab techniques revealed its value for detecting the subtle, chronic inflammation now linked to cardiovascular disease and opening a major new chapter in preventive medicine. I had been in practice for several years before I even became aware of CRP.

Shape Matters: The Five-Sided Structure of CRP

CRP belongs to a protein family called the pentraxins, named from the Greek word for “five” because of the protein’s pentagonal shape. Under an electron microscope, CRP looks like five identical subunits arranged in a ring, roughly like five coins fanned into a disc. For history buffs, it resembles the five-star rank worn by General Eisenhower.

Each subunit carries a binding site made of two calcium ions nestled next to a small hydrophobic pocket. This is where CRP does its recognition work: the calcium-dependent sites allow it to grab onto phosphocholine (PC), a molecule found in the membranes of damaged and dying cells, as well as in the outer coatings of many bacteria and fungi. Phosphocholine is so widespread in biology that this single binding chemistry lets CRP respond to an enormous range of threats including microbial invaders and the body’s own dead cells.

CRP doesn’t always exist in this five-subunit ring form. The pentameric version (pCRP) circulates in healthy blood. But at sites of active tissue damage, such as inside an inflamed artery wall, it can break apart into individual monomers (mCRP). These two forms turn out to have strikingly different effects on the immune system.

What CRP Does

It’s tempting to think of CRP as a passive number on a lab report, but it’s actually an active participant in the immune response. It plays at least four major roles.

First, CRP is a pattern recognition molecule. Unlike the antibodies generated by your adaptive immune system which take days or weeks to respond to a specific threat, CRP responds immediately to general molecular patterns shared by pathogens and damaged cells. This makes it a first-responder tool within the innate immune system, the body’s rapid defense network.

Second, once CRP binds to a pathogen or dying cell, it acts as an opsonin, essentially a molecular flag that says “eat this.” Immune cells called phagocytes (macrophages and neutrophils) recognize CRP-coated targets and engulf them, accelerating the clearance of both bacteria and cellular debris.

Third, CRP can activate the complement system, a cascade of proteins that further tags pathogens for destruction. Crucially, CRP appears to stop short of triggering the most destructive steps of that cascade. The net effect is a measured, targeted immune response rather than an all-out inflammatory assault.

Fourth, and this is where things get interesting, the pentameric and monomeric forms of CRP have opposing effects. The pentameric form in circulation is primarily anti-inflammatory, quietly clearing dead cells without triggering unnecessary immune activation. But the monomeric form that appears at sites of tissue damage can amplify inflammation: activating platelets, recruiting immune cells to vessel walls, and stimulating the release of the inflammatory signaling molecule. CRP is neither simply good nor simply bad — it’s context-dependent, functioning as a careful janitor in healthy tissue but potentially fanning the flames in already-inflamed environments.

Fast, Sensitive, and Liver-Made

CRP is produced primarily by liver cells (hepatocytes) in response to immune signals. When immune cells detect infection or tissue damage, they release cytokines, which travel to the liver and switch on CRP production.

One of CRP’s great clinical virtues is speed. Levels can begin rising within four to six hours of an inflammatory event and typically peak within 24 to 48 hours. When the inflammation resolves, CRP falls just as quickly, its half-life in circulation is only about 19 hours. This fast-on, fast-off behavior makes CRP an excellent real-time readout of what the immune system is doing right now, not weeks ago. Because of this early availability, it is referred to as an acute phase reactant.

Under normal, non-inflammatory conditions, CRP in the blood typically measures below 1 milligram per liter (mg/L). During serious bacterial infection or major tissue injury, levels can spike above 400 mg/L — a several-hundred-fold increase. CRP also has a practical advantage for testing: it doesn’t fluctuate throughout the day, and fasting is not required before a blood draw.

The Many Uses of CRP in Clinical Medicine

The oldest application of CRP testing is detecting and monitoring bacterial infection. Very high values — generally above 100 mg/L — strongly suggest bacterial rather than viral infection, since viruses tend to provoke a much more modest CRP rise. In sepsis (the life-threatening systemic response to infection), CRP is one of several markers used to assess severity and track the response to treatment.

CRP is also routinely used to monitor autoimmune diseases. In rheumatoid arthritis, CRP is included in standard disease activity scoring tools. Tracking CRP over time helps clinicians judge whether treatments like disease-modifying drugs are working. One notable exception: in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), CRP often stays surprisingly low even during active flares.

Perhaps the most debated expansion of CRP testing in recent decades is its role in cardiovascular risk assessment. That story begins with the recognition that atherosclerosis, the plaque buildup inside artery walls, is fundamentally an inflammatory process, not just a plumbing problem caused by too much cholesterol. As that insight took hold in the 1990s, researchers began asking whether CRP could predict heart attack risk the way cholesterol does.

The answer was yes, but only with a more sensitive test. Standard CRP assays can’t detect levels below about 10 mg/L, which is fine for infections but misses the chronic low-level inflammation relevant to cardiovascular risk. A newer high-sensitivity CRP test (hs-CRP) can measure levels as low as 0.01 mg/L. Using hs-CRP, researchers found that even modest CRP elevations, within the range once considered entirely normal, carry meaningful cardiovascular risk.

The American Heart Association and the CDC use these hs-CRP thresholds for cardiovascular risk: below 1 mg/L is low risk; 1 to 3 mg/L is intermediate risk; above 3 mg/L is higher risk. A large UK Biobank analysis of nearly 450,000 people found that individuals with hs-CRP above 3 mg/L had a 34% higher risk of major cardiovascular events and a 61% higher risk of cardiovascular death compared to those below 1 mg/L.

The landmark JUPITER trial demonstrated that patients with low LDL cholesterol, but elevated hs-CRP (above 2 mg/L) still benefited substantially from statin therapy — in terms of reduced heart attacks and strokes. This reframed how cardiologists think about inflammation as a cardiovascular target independent of cholesterol levels.

Beyond infection, autoimmune disorders, and heart disease, elevated CRP has been linked to type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, chronic kidney disease, COPD, depression, and neurodegenerative diseases, all conditions where chronic low-grade inflammation is increasingly recognized as a contributing factor rather than just a side effect.

Measuring CRP: The Standard Test vs. the High-Sensitivity Test

CRP testing is straightforward, just a standard blood draw, no fasting required. Modern automated lab analyzers make it fast and inexpensive, which explains why it shows up so often in clinical workups.

The standard CRP test is the workhorse for detecting acute infection and monitoring inflammatory flares in hospitalized patients. The hs-CRP test uses more sensitive techniques and is the test used for cardiovascular risk assessment.

Because hs-CRP can fluctuate modestly from day to day, cardiovascular guidelines recommend averaging two measurements taken about two weeks apart. Acute illness, recent injury, or even a hard workout can temporarily elevate hs-CRP and produce a misleading result.

Several factors can push CRP higher independently of the disease in question: obesity, smoking, high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, low HDL cholesterol, and chronic low-grade infections such as gum disease. Age also gradually raises baseline CRP. On the other side, moderate physical activity, weight loss, and statins are all associated with lower CRP — which partly explains the broader cardiovascular benefits of statin therapy beyond cholesterol reduction.

What CRP Can’t Tell You

For all its usefulness, CRP is a nonspecific marker. A reading of 50 mg/L is consistent with a kidney infection, an autoimmune flare, a recent heart attack, or an abdominal cancer. CRP tells you that inflammation or tissue damage is happening somewhere; it doesn’t tell you where or why. Clinical context including symptoms, medical history, and other lab results, is essential for interpretation.

There’s also a genuine unresolved debate about whether CRP elevation actually causes cardiovascular disease or is simply a marker of underlying inflammatory risk. Animal studies in CRP-deficient or CRP-enhanced models have produced inconsistent results. Mendelian randomization studies in humans, a statistical technique that uses genetic variants to approximate a randomized experiment, have generally not supported CRP as a causal driver of heart disease, suggesting it may be more of a reaction than a root cause.

Finally, hs-CRP testing, despite strong evidence, remains underused in primary care, particularly in primary prevention. The 2024 European Society of Cardiology guidelines for chronic coronary syndromes did recommend assessing hs-CRP in patients with suspected coronary artery disease, which reflects accumulating evidence for its utility, but broader implementation lags behind the science. I have to admit, when I was still in active practice, I was unaware of the role of hs-CRP in primary prevention. At the time, it was generally thought to be of use in secondary prevention—actions taken after an initial event. Be sure and ask your doctor about it.

CRP is, in the end, a remarkably versatile tool — a protein that has been doing immune surveillance since long before medicine had a name for it, and one that continues to find new clinical relevance with each decade of research.

Medical Disclaimer

The information provided in this article is intended for general educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. It should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you have read here.

If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or your local emergency number immediately.

The author of this article is a licensed physician, but the views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not represent the official position of any hospital, health system, or medical organization with which the author may be affiliated.

Image generated by the author using ChatGPT

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America’s First Constitution

By John Turley

On June 26, 2026

In History, Politics

The Articles of Confederation: Birth, Failures, and Legacy

The United States Constitution, ratified in 1788 and implemented in 1789, is often treated as the nation’s true founding framework. Yet before it, there existed another governing document, one far less celebrated but no less essential to understanding the early republic. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union served as America’s first constitution from their adoption by the Continental Congress in 1777 to their replacement just over a decade later. Imperfect, fragile, and ultimately unsustainable, the Articles nevertheless provided the institutional bridge between revolution and nationhood.

To understand why the Articles were structured as they were—and why they ultimately failed we need to step back into the mindset of the revolutionary generation. The men who drafted them were not political theorists operating in calm conditions; they were wartime leaders grappling with uncertainty, scarcity, and deep suspicion of centralized authority. They had just rebelled against British tyranny, and they were determined not to allow such power on American soil. The result was a system deliberately designed to restrain national authority, even at the cost of efficiency. The Articles represented both a solution to immediate wartime needs and a reflection of deeply held ideological fears. Their story is not merely one of failure, but of experimentation, adaptation, and political learning.

Revolutionary Context and the Need for Union

The intellectual origins of the Articles stretch back well before independence. Colonial leaders had long recognized the potential benefits of intercolonial cooperation. Benjamin Franklin’s Albany Plan of Union in 1754 proposed a centralized colonial government capable of coordinating defense and managing relations with Native nations. Though ultimately rejected by the colonies, the plan foreshadowed later efforts at union by raising the fundamental question of how semi-autonomous political entities might cooperate without surrendering their independence.

That question became urgent during the American Revolution. When the Second Continental Congress convened in 1775, it functioned as a provisional government, but its authority was ambiguous and largely dependent on voluntary compliance. As the war intensified, it became increasingly clear that thirteen separate colonies could not effectively wage a coordinated struggle against the British Empire without some formal political structure. Congress needed legitimacy—not merely as a gathering of delegates, but as a governing body with recognized authority over military, diplomatic, and financial matters.

On June 11, 1776, Congress appointed a committee to draft a plan of confederation, even as another committee worked on the Declaration of Independence. The parallel timing was no coincidence. Independence required not only separation from Britain but also the creation of a new political order. The Articles were intended to provide that order, a framework through which the states could act collectively while preserving their individual sovereignty.

Drafting Under Pressure

The drafting process unfolded under extraordinary circumstances. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, a respected lawyer and political thinker, chaired the committee and produced the initial draft in July 1776. Debate over its provisions, however, proved slow and contentious. Congress was simultaneously managing a war, and immediate military concerns often took precedence over constitutional deliberation.

Disagreements over representation, taxation, and western land claims delayed progress for more than a year. It was not until November 15, 1777, while Congress was in exile in York, Pennsylvania, following the British capture of Philadelphia, that the Articles were finally approved. Even then, the document was widely understood as a compromise rather than an ideal solution.

Ratification presented an additional challenge. Because the Articles required unanimous consent, any single state could delay their implementation. The principal obstacle came from disputes over western lands. States with expansive territorial claims, such as Virginia, were reluctant to relinquish them, while smaller states like Maryland insisted that such lands should be held in common for the benefit of the union. Only after Virginia agreed to cede its claims did Maryland ratify the Articles on March 1, 1781, bringing them into full effect.

Structure and Principles

The Articles of Confederation established a national government that was intentionally limited in scope. At its core was a unicameral Congress in which each state, regardless of size or population, held a single vote. This arrangement reflected the primacy of state sovereignty: the union was conceived not as a single nation but as a “league of friendship” among independent states.

The national government possessed certain powers, including the authority to declare war, negotiate treaties, coin money, and manage relations with Native nations. However, these powers were constrained by critical limitations. Congress could not levy taxes directly, regulate interstate commerce, or enforce its decisions upon the states. Instead, it relied on requisitions, little more than requests for funds, which states frequently ignored or, at best, only partially fulfilled.

Equally significant was the absence of both an executive branch and a national judiciary. There was no president to enforce laws or coordinate policy, and no federal court system to interpret them. Administrative functions were handled by committees and departments accountable to Congress, resulting in a diffuse and often ineffective system of governance.

Amending the Articles required unanimous consent, a provision that made meaningful reform nearly impossible. While intended to protect state sovereignty, this requirement ensured that structural weaknesses could not be easily corrected.

Achievements Under the Articles

Despite their limitations, the Articles of Confederation were not without success. Most importantly, they provided a legal framework that enabled the colonies to prosecute and ultimately win the Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress, operating under the authority of the Articles, secured crucial alliances, most notably with France, and negotiated the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which formally ended the conflict and recognized American independence.

The Confederation government also achieved lasting success in western land policy. The Land Ordinances of 1784 and 1785, followed by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, established a systematic process for surveying, selling, and governing western territories. These measures ensured that new states would enter the union on equal footing with the original thirteen and prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory. This framework not only facilitated orderly expansion but also set important precedents for federal authority over territories.

The Articles also fostered a sense of national identity, however fragile. They affirmed the name “United States of America” and maintained a formal union during a period when regional differences might easily have led to fragmentation.

Structural Weaknesses and Growing Crisis

The weaknesses of the Articles, however, became increasingly apparent in the postwar period. Financial instability was among the most pressing issues. Without the power to tax, Congress struggled to pay war debts, fund the military, or support basic governmental functions. Inflation, currency devaluation, and economic dislocation further compounded these difficulties.

Interstate economic conflict added another layer of instability. In the absence of federal regulation, states imposed tariffs and trade barriers against one another, undermining economic cohesion. Competing currencies and inconsistent policies created an environment of uncertainty that hindered recovery and growth.

The lack of enforcement mechanisms proved equally problematic. Congress could pass laws and enter into treaties, but it had no means of compelling compliance. States frequently ignored national directives, and often violated provisions of the Treaty of Paris, particularly regarding the treatment of loyalists and British creditors. This inability to enforce national policy damaged American credibility abroad.

These structural deficiencies reflected the underlying philosophy of the Articles: a deep distrust of centralized power. By the mid-1780s, it was becoming clear that excessive decentralization carried its own dangers.

Shays’ Rebellion and the Turning Point

The crisis reached a breaking point with Shays’ Rebellion in 1786–1787. Economic hardship, particularly among farmers in western Massachusetts, led to widespread unrest. Burdened by debt and high taxes, many farmers faced foreclosure and imprisonment. When legal and political remedies failed, they turned to direct action, closing courts and attempting to seize the federal arsenal at Springfield.

The Confederation government was effectively powerless to respond. Lacking both funds and military authority, Congress could offer no assistance. The rebellion was ultimately suppressed by a state militia supported by private funds, underscoring the inability of the national government to maintain order.

The implications were profound. For many leaders, including George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, Shays’ Rebellion demonstrated that the existing system was untenable. A government that could not enforce laws or ensure domestic tranquility was doomed to collapse.

Toward a New Constitution

Efforts to address these problems began modestly. The Annapolis Convention of 1786, initially convened to discuss trade issues, concluded that broader reforms were necessary and called for a general convention in Philadelphia. In February 1787, Congress endorsed this proposal, though officially only to revise the Articles.

The Philadelphia Convention, however, quickly moved beyond revision. Delegates recognized that the Articles’ fundamental structure, particularly the reliance on voluntary state compliance, could not support an effective national government. The solution was to become an entirely new framework: the United States Constitution.

Ratified in 1788 and implemented the following year, the Constitution addressed the central weaknesses of the Articles by establishing a stronger federal government with the power to tax, regulate commerce, enforce laws, and operate through separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

Legacy and Historical Significance

It is tempting to view the Articles of Confederation solely as a failure, a flawed experiment quickly discarded in favor of a superior system. Such a perspective, however, overlooks their broader significance. The Articles represented a necessary first step in the creation of the American republic. They reflected the political realities and ideological commitments of their time, particularly the pervasive fear of centralized authority.

Their shortcomings provided invaluable lessons. The Constitution did not emerge in a vacuum; it was shaped directly by the experience of governing under the Articles. The framers understood, from hard experience, the dangers of both excessive centralization and excessive decentralization. The resulting system sought to balance these concerns, creating a government strong enough to function yet constrained enough to preserve liberty.

The Articles also demonstrated that political systems can evolve. They were not the final word on American governance, but an early chapter in an ongoing process of constitutional development. Their legacy lies not only in what they achieved, but in what they revealed about the challenges of building a nation.

In this sense, the Articles of Confederation were not a failure so much as an experiment, one conducted under extraordinary pressure, with limited precedent, and with stakes that could scarcely have been higher. They held the union together long enough for a more durable system to emerge. That alone secures their place in the story of American constitutional history.

Image generated by author using ChatGPT.

Sources

National Archives: Articles of Confederation (1777) — Primary Document

Library of Congress: Articles of Confederation — John Dickinson (1778)

HISTORY.com: Articles of Confederation — Weaknesses, Definition, Date

George Washington’s Mount Vernon: The Articles of Confederation

U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian: Articles of Confederation, 1777–1781

Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia: Articles of Confederation

Encyclopaedia Britannica: John Dickinson

Wikipedia: John Dickinson

Historical Society of Pennsylvania (via Panorama/SHEAR): The John Dickinson Draft of the Articles of Confederation

National Archives: John Dickinson Writings

University of Delaware Library: John Dickinson — Penman of the Revolution

EBSCO Research Starters: Analysis — Articles of Confederation

Wikipedia: Articles of Confederation

Wikipedia: Shays’s Rebellion

National Constitution Center: Summary of Shays’ Rebellion

American History Central: Articles of Confederation

SLCC Press / Attenuated Democracy: Chapter 12 — Articles of Confederation, Shays’ Rebellion and the Road to the Constitution

GovFacts.org: Why the Articles of Confederation Failed

Not All Fat Is the Enemy

By John Turley

On June 23, 2026

In Medicine

A Plain-Language Guide to Dietary Fats, What They Do, and How to Make Better Choices

The Fat Myth That Stuck Around Too Long

For decades, the American food industry sold us a story: fat is bad, and less of it is better. By the 1980s and 1990s, supermarket shelves sagged under the weight of fat-free cookies, low-fat chips, and reduced-fat everything. The problem, of course, was that when food companies stripped out the fat, they often replaced it with sugar and refined carbohydrates to maintain flavor — and Americans got sicker anyway. Heart disease rates climbed. Obesity rates climbed. And gradually, the nutrition science world came to a more nuanced conclusion: what kind of fat you eat matters far more than how much.

Today, the scientific consensus is clear enough that even cautious institutions like the American Heart Association and Harvard’s School of Public Health distinguish sharply between fats that harm us and fats that we actually need to survive. This article walks through the main types of dietary fat — where they come from, what they do in the body, and how the average American can make smarter choices without turning every meal into a chemistry lesson.

The Chemistry, Simply Put

You don’t need a biochemistry degree to understand dietary fat, but a little structural context goes a long way. All fats are built from molecules called fatty acids — long chains of carbon atoms linked together, with hydrogen atoms attached. The difference between fat types comes down to how those hydrogen atoms are arranged.

Saturated Fats

Saturated fats are “saturated” with hydrogen atoms — meaning every carbon in the chain is bonded to as many hydrogens as it can possibly hold. This gives them a rigid, tightly packed structure. The practical consequence? Most saturated fats are solid at room temperature — think of the white fat marbled through a raw steak, or a stick of butter sitting on a counter.

Unsaturated Fats

Unsaturated fats have at least one double bond between carbon atoms in the chain — which means they are missing some hydrogen atoms. That double bond creates a “kink” in the molecular chain, preventing the fat molecules from packing tightly together. The result is that Unsaturated Fats

Unsaturated fats have at least one double bond between carbon atoms in the chain — which means they are missing some hydrogen atoms. That double bond creates a “kink” in the molecular chain, preventing the fat molecules from packing tightly together. The result is that unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature, olive oil being the most familiar example.

Within unsaturated fats, there are two important subtypes based on how many double bonds exist. Monounsaturated fats (MUFAs) have exactly one double bond. Polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) have two or more. Both behave very differently in the body than saturated fats and generally, much more favorably.

Trans Fats: The Artificial Villain

Trans fats deserve their own brief mention because they are the one type of fat that virtually every credible nutrition authority agrees should be avoided as completely as possible. Most trans fats are artificially created through a process called partial hydrogenation — taking liquid vegetable oil and pumping hydrogen through it under high pressure to make it solid and shelf-stable. The result is partially hydrogenated oil, which was found in margarine, shortening, packaged cookies, and countless processed snacks for most of the twentieth century.

The FDA banned the addition of partially hydrogenated oils to U.S. food products based on overwhelming evidence that industrial trans fats raise “bad” LDL cholesterol, lower “good” HDL cholesterol, and significantly increase cardiovascular risk. Small amounts of naturally occurring trans fats are found in animal products like beef and dairy, and these appear to be metabolically distinct from industrial trans fats — less concerning but still something most experts recommend limiting.

Saturated Fats in Detail

Where They Come From

Saturated fats are found predominantly in animal products and a handful of tropical plant oils. The major food sources include fatty cuts of beef and pork, poultry skin, full-fat dairy products (butter, whole milk, cream, cheese), lard, and beef tallow. On the plant side, coconut oil and palm oil are notably high in saturated fat — which surprises many people who assume all plant-based oils are heart-healthy. Coconut oil in particular has been heavily marketed as a “superfood” in recent years, a claim that runs in conflict with the science.

What They Do in the Body

The relationship between saturated fat and cardiovascular health has been one of the most debated topics in nutrition science for the past two decades. The original view, dominant for most of the 20th century, was straightforward: eating saturated fat raises LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, and higher LDL raises the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. That basic chain of reasoning is still supported by substantial evidence.

However, the picture has grown more complicated. Research over the past decade has raised legitimate questions about whether all saturated fats are equally problematic, and whether saturated fat in isolation — rather than as part of an overall dietary pattern — is the right thing to be measuring. A study cited by the National Institutes of Health found that replacing saturated fats with refined carbohydrates (which is what happened when Americans went fat-free in the 1980s) did not reduce cardiovascular risk. The key variable isn’t just removing saturated fat — it was what you replace it with.

The evidence clearly shows that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats reduces cardiovascular risk. Replacing them with sugar and white flour does not. That distinction has become the cornerstone of modern dietary fat guidance.

How Much Is Too Much?

Current guidance varies slightly between major health organizations, but the general range is consistent. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends keeping saturated fat below 10% of total daily calories. The American Heart Association is more conservative, recommending below 6% — which for a 2,000-calorie diet works out to about 13 grams per day, roughly the amount in a single tablespoon of butter combined with a small handful of cheese.

Monounsaturated Fats (MUFAs)

Where They Come From

Monounsaturated fats are the dominant fat in olive oil, avocados, peanut oil, canola oil, and most nuts — including almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts. They are the nutritional backbone of the Mediterranean diet, which has been studied more extensively for cardiovascular benefit than perhaps any other dietary pattern in history.

Health Benefits

The evidence in favor of MUFAs is robust . Monounsaturated fats lower LDL cholesterol while maintaining levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol when they replace saturated fat in the diet. A clinical trial called the OmniHeart study found that shifting to a diet rich in monounsaturated fats — compared to a carbohydrate-rich diet — lowered blood pressure, improved cholesterol profiles, and reduced estimated cardiovascular risk. Beyond the heart, research suggests that swapping saturated fats for MUFAs may also support modest weight and body fat reduction even without changing total calorie intake.

MUFAs are also notably stable at cooking temperatures, which makes olive oil a practical and healthy choice for most everyday cooking — sautéing vegetables, making salad dressings, or roasting proteins.

Polyunsaturated Fats (PUFAs) — The Essential Fats

Polyunsaturated fats are, in many ways, the most scientifically interesting category because they include the only two dietary fats that the human body genuinely cannot produce on its own and must obtain from food. These are called essential fatty acids, and they fall into two families: omega-3s and omega-6s.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

What They Are and Where They Come From

Omega-3s are the fats most Americans have heard of in the context of fish oil supplements. The three main types are ALA (alpha-linolenic acid), EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). ALA is found primarily in plant sources — walnuts, flaxseeds, chia seeds, and canola or soybean oil. EPA and DHA are found in fatty fish — salmon, sardines, mackerel, herring, and trout — as well as in algae-based oils, which is where fish get their omega-3s in the first place.

The body can convert ALA into EPA and DHA, but only very inefficiently. For practical purposes, regular fish consumption is the most reliable way to maintain adequate EPA and DHA levels. The American Heart Association recommends at least two servings of fatty fish per week for this reason.

Health Benefits

Omega-3 fatty acids are structural components of cell membranes throughout the body and serve as precursors to signaling molecules that regulate inflammation. Their most well-established benefits are cardiovascular: they reduce triglyceride levels, stabilize heart rhythms, and appear to lower the risk of sudden cardiac death. Beyond the heart, research suggests they play important roles in brain development (particularly during fetal development and infancy), may reduce the risk of certain neurodegenerative conditions, and have documented anti-inflammatory effects relevant to conditions like rheumatoid arthritis.

A recent review published in the journal Foods found that omega-3s may help delay the onset of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, reduce depression, and contribute to cancer prevention, though the authors note that more research is needed to fully understand these relationships.

Omega-6 Fatty Acids

What They Are and Where They Come From

Omega-6 fatty acids are found in most vegetable oils — corn oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil — as well as in nuts, seeds, and poultry. Linoleic acid (LA) is the primary dietary omega-6 and is the only one classified as truly essential.

The Omega-6/Omega-3 Imbalance

Here is where things get complicated in a uniquely American way. The typical Western diet contains far more omega-6 fats than necessary and not nearly enough omega-3 fats. The ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in the diet is thought to be somewhere between 4:1 and 1:1. The actual ratio in the average American diet is estimated at anywhere from 15:1 to 20:1 — a dramatic imbalance driven by the ubiquity of processed foods and vegetable oils in the food supply.

This matters because omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids compete for the same metabolic pathways in the body. While omega-6s in appropriate amounts are essential and beneficial, a chronically elevated omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is associated with increased inflammation and higher risk of coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and some neurodegenerative conditions. The goal is not to eliminate omega-6s but to bring the ratio back into better balance — primarily by increasing omega-3 intake.

What a Healthy Fat Profile Actually Looks Like

Putting all of this together, what does a well-balanced dietary fat intake actually look like? The evidence points toward a few consistent principles.

In a typical healthy diet, 20–35% of total daily calories can come from fat. Within that total, the composition matters enormously. Unsaturated fats — both mono and polyunsaturated — should make up the bulk. Saturated fats should be limited to under 10% of daily calories by federal guidelines, or under 6% if you are following the American Heart Association’s more aggressive recommendation. Trans fats, the industrial kind, should be avoided as close to completely as possible.

The two truly essential fats — linoleic acid (omega-6) and alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3) — must come from the diet because the human body cannot synthesize them. Everything else the body can manufacture from raw materials, given enough of the right building blocks.

For omega-3s specifically, the WHO and EFSA recommend at least 250 mg per day of EPA + DHA. And recommend 1.6 grams of ALA per day for adult males and 1.1 grams for adult females. Most Americans fall well short of these targets.

Practical Ways to Shift Your Fat Intake

Dietary change works best when it’s specific and sustainable — not when it involves a complete pantry overhaul overnight. Here are evidence-based adjustments that can meaningfully improve the fat profile of a typical American diet.

Replace Saturated Fats With Unsaturated Fats at the Cooking Stage

Instead of frying or sautéing in butter, lard, or palm oil, switch to olive oil, avocado oil, or canola oil. This single substitution is one of the most consistently supported interventions in dietary fat research. For those who prefer a buttery flavor, using a small amount of butter blended with olive oil is a practical middle ground.

Eat Fatty Fish Twice a Week

Salmon, sardines, mackerel, herring, and trout are all excellent sources of EPA and DHA omega-3s. The American Heart Association’s recommendation of two fish servings per week is a well-established and achievable benchmark. Canned fish — particularly canned salmon and sardines — is inexpensive and just as nutritious as fresh. Tuna is an option but requires an larger serving.

Add Nuts, Seeds, and Avocados

A handful of walnuts (a particularly good plant source of ALA omega-3s), a tablespoon of ground flaxseed in yogurt or oatmeal, or half an avocado on toast are all straightforward ways to shift your fat intake in a healthier direction. Nuts and avocados are also rich in monounsaturated fats that support cholesterol health.

Choose Leaner Cuts of Meat

Selecting leaner cuts of beef and pork — those labeled “loin” or “round,” or ground meat that is 90–95% lean — can substantially reduce saturated fat intake without eliminating meat from the diet. Removing skin from poultry before cooking similarly reduces saturated fat in a simple and inexpensive way.

Read Labels for Trans Fats — Carefully

Food packaging can legally claim “0 grams of trans fat” if a product contains less than 0.5 grams per serving. If you eat multiple servings of such products, those fractions add up. The safeguard is to check the ingredient list for “partially hydrogenated oil” — if it appears anywhere, the product contains industrial trans fats., regardless of what the front label says.

Limit — Don’t Necessarily Eliminate — Saturated Fat

A realistic goal is not to strip all saturated fat from your diet but to keep it within the recommended range. Full-fat dairy in moderate amounts, an occasional burger, or butter used sparingly are unlikely to cause harm in the context of an otherwise balanced eating pattern. What matters most, as nutrition experts now emphasize, is the overall dietary pattern — not any single food or nutrient in isolation.

The Bottom Line

Fat is not a dietary villain. It is an essential macronutrient that the body depends on for energy, vitamin absorption, hormone production, brain function, and cell membrane integrity. The question has never really been whether to eat fat — it has always been which fats to prioritize.

The evidence points consistently in one direction: lean toward unsaturated fats (olive oil, nuts, avocados, fatty fish), keep saturated fat in check, avoid industrial trans fats entirely, and pay particular attention to getting enough omega-3 fatty acids, which most Americans chronically under-consume. These adjustments don’t require extreme dietary measures. They require informed choices made consistently — and that, ultimately, is the most sustainable kind of nutrition science.

Illustration generated by author using ChatGPT

Note: The core findings in this article — that unsaturated fats are preferable to saturated fats, that omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are essential, and that industrial trans fats are harmful — are supported by decades of research and endorsed by major health authorities including the American Heart Association, the NIH, and the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. Some nuance remains in the saturated fat debate (particularly regarding specific saturated fatty acid subtypes and their varying cardiovascular effects), and the research on omega-3s and neurological disease is still evolving.

Medical Disclaimer

If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or your local emergency number immediately.

Sources

Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee — Food Sources of Saturated Fat (2025)

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health — Types of Fat

American Heart Association — Saturated Fats

American Heart Association — Fats in Foods

Mayo Clinic — Dietary Fat: Know Which to Choose

Mayo Clinic — Trans Fat Is Double Trouble for Heart Health

Healthline — Saturated vs. Unsaturated Fat: Know the Facts

Healthline — Omega-3–6–9 Fatty Acids: A Complete Overview

NCBI/PMC — Monounsaturated Fat vs Saturated Fat: Effects on Cardio-Metabolic Health and Obesity

NCBI/PMC — The Role of Omega-3 and Omega-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Supplementation in Human Health (Foods, 2025)

Linus Pauling Institute — Essential Fatty Acids

NIH — Omega-3 Fatty Acids Health Professional Fact Sheet

OCL Journal — The Omega-6/Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratio: Health Implications

VA Nutrition Services — Common Fats and Oils (2024)

UMass Medical — Tips on Reducing Saturated Fat

MedlinePlus — Facts About Trans Fats

Brown University Health — The Truth About Trans Fats

University of Nebraska Extension — Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids

Who Gets to Decide? The Modern Battle Over Books in America

By John Turley

On June 19, 2026

In Commentary, Politics

If you thought book banning was a relic of the past, think again. The United States is experiencing the most intense wave of book challenges in modern memory. Over the last four years, thousands of books have been removed from school and library shelves, sparking a national debate about parental rights, free expression, education, and the role of government.

At the center of the controversy is a simple but powerful question: Who gets to decide what children and communities are allowed to read?

We were casually looking for books to read with our grandson this year. He loves baseball so we were looking for books on that topic. Somehow we got on a site about banned books and, yes, there was a baseball story on the list, curiosity got us. The book is Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki and Dom Lee. This is the story about a baseball field that was created in a Japanese internment camp in during World War II and the prejudice they faced when they returned home after the war. The story, written on a fourth grade reading level, is about how the boys played baseball during their internment and how it helped them to survive. This is a banned book?? Why??

This made us wonder what it means to be on a “banned book list”. Just because it’s on the list does every library or school have to ban it? The answer is no, thank goodness. Members of library boards and school boards and parents play an important role and they have a lot to consider. Here are some interesting details about book banning in its current evolution.

The Scale of the Movement

The numbers are striking. According to PEN America, nearly 23,000 book bans have occurred in public schools since 2021. During the 2023–24 school year alone, more than 10,000 individual book bans were recorded. The following year saw nearly 7,000 additional bans affecting more than 3,700 unique titles.

Florida has led the nation in book removals for three consecutive years, followed by Texas and Tennessee. The American Library Association (ALA) documented more than 4,200 unique titles challenged in 2025, making it one of the highest years ever recorded.

Not every challenge results in a permanent ban. Some books are removed temporarily while review committees evaluate complaints. Others are eventually restored to shelves. Yet the sheer volume of challenges has significantly reduced access to books for many students and library users.

Supporters argue these actions protect children from inappropriate material. Critics view them as a growing campaign of censorship.

Which Books Are Being Targeted?

The books most frequently challenged share common themes.

According to the ALA, many complaints focus on books that discuss race, racism, gender identity, sexuality, or LGBTQ+ experiences. Others involve sexual content, abuse, violence, or mental health issues.

Among the most challenged books in recent years are Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Looking for Alaska by John Green, and several novels by Sarah J. Maas.

Classic works have also been caught in the controversy. Schools and districts in several states have removed or restricted books such as The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, and even George Orwell’s 1984.

Critics of the banning movement note that many of these books have been available in schools for years or even decades. They argue that the current challenges are less about newly discovered concerns and more about broader cultural and political disagreements.

Who Is Driving the Challenges?

One of the most significant developments is the changing source of complaints.

The ALA reports that in 2025, 92 percent of book challenges originated from organized groups, government officials, or political activists rather than individual parents. Twenty years earlier, most challenges came from local citizens raising concerns about specific books.

This shift suggests that book challenges have become part of a larger political movement rather than isolated local disputes.

Among the most visible organizations is Moms for Liberty, founded in Florida in 2021. Originally focused on opposition to COVID-19 school policies, the group later turned its attention to curriculum issues and library books. It now claims chapters in dozens of states and has become a major force in school board elections and library controversies.

Other organizations, including No Left Turn in Education, Citizens Defending Freedom, and various state-based groups, have pursued similar goals. These organizations often share lists of books to challenge, provide guidance to local activists, and coordinate campaigns across multiple communities.

Supporters describe these efforts as parental advocacy. Critics see them as organized attempts to impose political and ideological restrictions on public education.

The Political Connection

The book-banning movement has become closely associated with broader conservative politics, particularly the MAGA movement.

Moms for Liberty has maintained ties with the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that developed Project 2025. The Heritage Foundation has sponsored Moms for Liberty events and honored the organization with awards recognizing its activism.

The relationship became even more visible when Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice left the organization to lead the Heritage Foundation’s parental-rights initiative.

Former President Donald Trump has also embraced many of the same themes. He appeared at a Moms for Liberty national summit and has frequently criticized educational institutions, libraries, and schools that he believes promote what he describes as inappropriate or politically biased material.

Supporters view these alliances as part of a broader effort to restore parental control over education. Opponents argue they demonstrate that book challenges have become deeply intertwined with national political agendas.

Project 2025 and Libraries

Much attention has focused on Project 2025, the policy blueprint produced by the Heritage Foundation.

The document calls for stronger action against what its authors characterize as inappropriate materials in schools and libraries. Critics have highlighted language suggesting that educators and librarians who provide access to certain materials could face legal consequences.

Supporters argue that such proposals are intended to protect children from explicit content. Opponents contend that they would create a chilling effect, discouraging educators and librarians from offering books dealing with controversial subjects.

The debate reflects a broader disagreement about where the line should be drawn between protecting minors and preserving intellectual freedom.

How Libraries and Schools Are Responding

Responses vary widely across the country.

Some school districts remove challenged books immediately. Others establish review committees consisting of teachers, librarians, administrators, parents, and sometimes students. These committees examine books in their entirety before making recommendations.

Public libraries have generally been more resistant to removing books. Most rely on formal collection-development policies and challenge procedures designed to balance community concerns with principles of intellectual freedom.

Many libraries have retained challenged books after review, arguing that public libraries serve diverse populations and that parents should make reading decisions for their own children without limiting access for others.

At the same time, librarians in some states report increasing pressure from elected officials and advocacy groups. Concerns about funding, employment consequences, and potential legal liability have led some libraries to avoid purchasing controversial titles altogether.

Critics refer to this phenomenon as “preemptive censorship” because books disappear before formal challenges even occur.

State Governments Enter the Fight

Several states have moved beyond local challenges and enacted statewide policies.

Utah, South Carolina, and Tennessee have adopted mechanisms that allow certain books to be removed from schools statewide. Florida has expanded parental authority over educational materials and library collections.

Supporters argue these measures provide consistency and protect children across entire states. Critics counter that statewide restrictions eliminate local decision-making and reduce access to books for students whose families may have no objections to the material.

The controversy has occasionally reached dramatic levels. In Randolph County, North Carolina, county commissioners dissolved the public library board after it refused to remove a children’s book featuring a transgender character.

Such disputes illustrate how library policy has become a flashpoint in cultural conflicts.

The Courts Push Back

Many of these policies have faced legal challenges and the results have been mixed.

In Iowa, a federal judge blocked portions of a state law that prohibited books containing descriptions of sexual activity, ruling that the restrictions likely violated First Amendment protections. In the Rutherford County, Tennessee case, the first legal challenge to that state’s expanded book statute — a federal judge declined to issue a preliminary injunction, writing that a school board “has not prohibited students from reading the books or acquiring them elsewhere; instead, it has merely opted not to carry them on school library bookshelves.”

Courts have often struggled to balance competing interests. School boards possess significant authority over educational materials, while students have constitutional protections related to access to information.

The legal outcomes remain uncertain, but the judiciary has become one of the primary battlegrounds in the debate.

Voters Respond

School board elections have become another arena for the conflict.

In several Texas districts during 2025, voters removed incumbents who had championed aggressive book-removal policies. Similar results appeared in other states, suggesting that many voters are uncomfortable with the scope of current restrictions. At the same time, candidates supporting stricter controls continue to win elections in other communities.

The mixed results indicate that Americans remain deeply divided on the issue.

A Growing Countermovement

Opposition to book bans has generated its own political response. Organizations such as PEN America, the Authors Guild, the ALA, and numerous local advocacy groups have organized campaigns defending intellectual freedom. Several states have considered legislation designed to make book removals more difficult.

Minnesota, for example, has considered legislation that would prohibit the removal of books based primarily on ideological objections and would place greater authority in the hands of professional librarians.

Supporters argue such laws protect access to information. Critics contend they diminish parental influence and local control.

The Bottom Line

The modern book-banning movement is unlike anything seen in recent decades. Its scale is unprecedented, its organization is sophisticated, and its connections to broader political movements are well documented.

Supporters view the effort as a legitimate exercise of parental rights and community standards. Critics see it as an organized campaign to restrict access to ideas, experiences, and viewpoints that some groups find objectionable.

The debate is unlikely to disappear anytime soon. It touches fundamental questions about education, democracy, free speech, and the role of public institutions.

Who should decide what belongs on library shelves? Parents? Librarians? Teachers? School boards? Legislatures? Courts?

Americans have not reached a consensus on those questions. Until they do, the battle over books is likely to remain one of the most visible fronts in the nation’s ongoing culture wars.

Illustration generated by author using Chat GPT

Sources

PEN America — Book Bans Overview

PEN America — The Normalization of Book Banning (2024–25 Report)

American Library Association — Censorship by the Numbers

ALA — Most Challenged Books

NPR — ALA Releases 2025 Most Challenged Books

NPR — PEN America 2024–25 Report

Authors Guild — Voters Reject Book Restrictions, 2025

Washington Post — Trump, Moms for Liberty, Heritage Foundation

New Jersey Monitor — M4L Summit and Project 2025 Ties

GLAAD — Moms for Liberty and Book Bans

EveryLibrary Institute — Project 2025 and Libraries

I Love Libraries — Book Challenges Update

Freedom to Learn Foundation — 2025 State of Book Banning

Cracked But Not Broken: The Facts and Fictions of the Liberty Bell

By John Turley

On June 15, 2026

In History

There it sits in a climate-controlled room in Philadelphia, drawing roughly 1.5 million visitors a year — a 2,080-pound bronze bell with a crack running through it that everyone recognizes and almost no one fully understands. The Liberty Bell is arguably the most mythologized object in American history, which is saying something in a country that has turned its founding era into something close to civic religion.

But here’s the thing: the myths aren’t just harmless embellishments. Many of the most beloved stories about the Liberty Bell — when it rang, why it cracked, how it got its name — turn out to be products of 19th-century fiction writers, political activists, and the particular American genius for turning complicated history into a clean, inspirational tale about how a relatively obscure object became one of the most powerful symbols in American culture.

Before It Was the Liberty Bell

Let’s start with a basic fact that surprises most people: the bell wasn’t originally called the Liberty Bell at all. For the better part of a century, it went by the rather mundane name of the State House Bell, because that’s exactly what it was, the bell that hung in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall.

The bell was commissioned in 1751 by the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly to mark the 50th anniversary of William Penn’s 1701 Charter of Privileges, Pennsylvania’s founding constitutional document. It was cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London and arrived in Philadelphia in 1752. The inscription it carried — “Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof” — comes from Leviticus 25:10, a biblical passage about the Jubilee Year, during which debts were forgiven and slaves were freed. It was selected by Quaker Isaac Norris, speaker of the Assembly, as a fitting tribute to Penn’s legacy of religious tolerance.

The bell didn’t become the Liberty Bell until the 1830s, when anti-slavery activists seized on that Leviticus inscription as a powerful rallying cry. It first appeared as the “Liberty Bell” in an 1835 abolitionist publication, and the name was subsequently popularized through William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator. Ironically, the object that Americans associate most with the founding of a free nation earned its famous name not from the Revolution, but from the fight to end slavery, a cause the Revolution had conspicuously left unfinished.

Did It Actually Ring on July 4th?

Here’s the myth most Americans carry around: the Liberty Bell rang out joyfully on July 4, 1776, to announce the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It’s a great image. Practically cinematic. And historians are fairly confident it didn’t happen.

The problem is straightforward: the Declaration wasn’t publicly announced on July 4th. The Continental Congress voted on independence, but the first public readings of the Declaration didn’t take place until four days later, on July 8, 1776. It was on that date that Philadelphians gathered to hear the document read aloud and yes, bells around the city were reportedly rung in celebration. Whether the State House Bell was among them is genuinely unknown.

There’s an additional wrinkle: historians believe the State House steeple was in poor condition at the time, possibly too deteriorated to support bell-ringing. As John C. Paige noted in a historical study for the National Park Service, there simply is no way to confirm whether the steeple was structurally sound enough to ring the bell that day.

So where did the famous image of the bell ringing on the Fourth come from? Mostly from one man: a journalist named George Lippard. In January 1847, he published a short story in the Saturday Courier depicting an elderly bellman waiting anxiously in the steeple, doubting that Congress would have the courage to declare independence, until his grandson bursts in crying “Ring, Grandfather! Ring!” It was fiction and was presented as fiction, but it was republished repeatedly, eventually winding up in history books and school primers as if it were fact. That’s how myths work.

The Mystery of the Crack

The crack is the bell’s most defining feature, and its origin is almost as murky as the ringing story. What we know for certain is that the bell has cracked multiple times.

The first crack came almost immediately — the bell cracked during its initial testing after arriving in Philadelphia in 1752. It was judged unusable and recast twice by local metalworkers John Pass and John Stow (whose names you can still see on the bell today). Their second casting is what we look at today.

The later, more famous crack, the wide fissure visible in every photograph, developed sometime in the first half of the 19th century after roughly 90 years of use. Popular tradition long held that the bell cracked in 1835 while tolling for the funeral of Chief Justice John Marshall. It’s a great story but historians largely reject it. The evidence points more convincingly to February 1846, when the bell was rung to celebrate Washington’s Birthday. In an attempt to prevent the crack from spreading, metalworkers widened it — a repair technique of the era and ironically created the wide, distinctive fissure we recognize today. The repair didn’t hold, and the bell has been silent ever since.

The Road Trip Nobody Talks About

This is the part of the Liberty Bell’s history that tends to get overlooked in favor of the Revolutionary founding mythology. Between 1885 and 1915, the cracked bell was loaded onto railroad cars and sent on seven separate tours around the United States, stopping in cities and towns so that ordinary Americans could see it up close.

The post-Civil War tours were explicitly about national healing. After the devastation of that war, the Liberty Bell became a symbol of unity: a reminder of something Americans had once fought for together. Crowds mobbed the bell at every stop. In Biloxi, Mississippi, Jefferson Davis, the former President of the Confederacy, visited the bell and gave a speech calling for national unity. That’s a remarkable image: the Confederacy’s leader paying homage to a symbol of American liberty. Whatever you make of his sincerity, it illustrates how powerfully the bell had been woven into the country’s emotional fabric.

The 1915 tour to San Francisco was the last. By then it was clear the bell’s condition couldn’t withstand further travel, and it has stayed in Philadelphia ever since.

Movements, Meanings, and the Justice Bell

One of the most interesting things about the Liberty Bell’s history is how many different movements claimed it as their own. After abolitionists gave it its name, suffragists were next. In 1915, the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association commissioned a replica called the Justice Bell, with the same inscription as the Liberty Bell but two extra words — “establish justice” — borrowed from the Preamble to the Constitution. The clapper was chained so it couldn’t ring, symbolizing women’s silenced political voice. When the 19th Amendment passed in 1920, the Justice Bell finally rang at Independence Hall. It’s now at the Washington Memorial Chapel at Valley Forge.

Later in the 20th century, civil rights activists gathered at the Liberty Bell. It became a backdrop for Cold War messaging about American freedom. During the 1960s it was a site for protests of various kinds. The bell has proven remarkably elastic as a symbol — capable of representing almost any cause that frames itself in the language of liberty.

What’s Actually True

To be fair, some important facts about the Liberty Bell are both true and underappreciated. It did ring for significant events during its functional lifetime — not just vaguely, but for specific occasions: the signing of the Constitution, and the deaths of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson. It was genuinely used for decades as a civic alarm clock, summoning legislators to session and citizens to public meetings.

And when the British occupied Philadelphia in 1777, Patriots really did smuggle the bell out of the city, along with other bells, and hide it in the floorboards of the Zion Reformed Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The concern was legitimate. British forces routinely seized metal church bells and melted them down for cannon shot. The Liberty Bell sat hidden there for nearly a year before returning to Philadelphia after the British withdrew.

The Bell We Deserve

The real lesson of the Liberty Bell’s history might be this: the gap between its legend and its reality says as much about American culture as the bell itself does. Americans in the 19th century needed a tangible symbol of their founding ideals, and the bell, already old, already cracked, already inscribed with a verse about proclaiming liberty, was right there waiting to be mythologized.

The abolitionists who named it, the fiction writer who gave it its most famous story, and the railroad men who carted it around the country in the 1880s were all, in their different ways, helping to construct a national icon that could absorb whatever freedom meant in their particular moment. The Liberty Bell is not important because it rang at a specific hour in 1776—there is little evidence that it did. It is important because Americans, over generations, chose to invest it with meaning. That’s not a cynical observation. It’s inspiring that a cracked, imperfect bell became the symbol of a cracked, imperfect republic still trying to live up to its inscription.

Image generated by the author using ChatGPT

Sources

Wikipedia – Liberty Bell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Bell

Constitution Center – 10 Fascinating Facts About the Liberty Bell: https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/10-fascinating-facts-about-the-liberty-bell

USHistory.org – The Liberty Bell: https://www.ushistory.org/libertybell/

Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia – Liberty Bell: https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/liberty-bell/

Visit Philadelphia – Liberty Bell Center: https://www.visitphilly.com/things-to-do/attractions/the-liberty-bell-center/

Professor Buzzkill – Liberty Bell Myths: https://professorbuzzkill.com/2016/07/07/liberty-bell-myths/

Study.com – The Liberty Bell: History & Importance: https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-liberty-bell-facts-history.html

Sky History – Debunking Famous Myths About the Declaration of Independence: https://www.history.co.uk/articles/debunking-famous-myths-about-the-declaration-of-independence

Philadelphia Visitor Center – Liberty Bell: https://www.phlvisitorcenter.com/libertybell

Mr. Local History Project – Weird Facts About the Liberty Bell: https://mrlocalhistory.org/liberty-bell/

Two Wheels, Full Throttle, No License

By John Turley

On June 12, 2026

In Commentary

How Young Riders Are Turning E-Bikes Into Motorcycles — And Paying the Price

Walk around any suburban neighborhood, school parking lot, or boardwalk on a warm afternoon, and you’ll spot them — teenagers zipping past on e-bikes that look suspiciously like small motorcycles. They’re leaning into the throttle, barely touching the pedals, weaving through traffic with the confidence of experienced riders and the inexperience of kids who’ve never had a driver’s license. It’s a scene playing out all across America, and it’s landing more and more young people in emergency rooms.

E-bikes — short for electric bicycles — have exploded in popularity. According to the American College of Surgeons, more than 1.1 million e-bikes were sold in the United States in 2022, with projected annual growth of around 10 percent. They’re cheaper than cars, faster than regular bicycles, and — crucially — they don’t require a driver’s license or registration in most states. For teenagers who can’t yet get behind the wheel of a car, an e-bike can feel like the next best thing. Sometimes it’s marketed that way, too.

But the gap between what parents think they’re buying and what these machines can do is widening dangerously and regulators, pediatricians, and trauma surgeons are all sounding the alarm.

A Classification System Built for Adults, Ignored by Kids

Under federal guidelines, e-bikes fall into three classes. Class 1 bikes use pedal assist — the motor only kicks in when the rider is actually pedaling, and it cuts out at 20 mph. Class 2 bikes come with a throttle, meaning the motor engages without any pedaling at all, topping out at 20 mph. Class 3 bikes are pedal-assist only but allow speeds up to 28 mph. The American College of Surgeons and most safety advocates have noted that Class 2 bikes — the ones with throttles — most closely resemble mopeds in how they really function.

The throttle is the key word here. On a Class 2 e-bike, a rider can twist the grip, lean back, and let the motor do everything. There’s no need to pedal. No need to exert any physical effort. The bike simply goes. A teenager who’s never ridden anything faster than a 10-speed now has access to a motor vehicle — because legally, in most states, that’s not what it’s called.

Some e-bikes complicate things further by allowing riders to toggle between classes, sometimes without the rider or parent even knowing it. A California lawsuit alleged that one manufacturer falsely marketed a bike as Class 2 when it could easily be switched to Class 3 operation. Colorado state lawmaker Lesley Smith, who co-sponsored legislation addressing this, put it plainly: “The biggest issue is e-bikes that switch from a power-assisted bike to essentially a motorized scooter.”

And then there are outright counterfeits and gray-market products — machines marketed as e-bikes that are functionally electric motorcycles. Researchers at the American College of Surgeons noted that some controllers can be deactivated by a magnet or a few keystrokes, unlocking speeds above 37 mph. Conversion kits available online can boost motors to more than 1,000 watts — well above federal limits. These aren’t bicycles by any meaningful definition, but they’re being sold and ridden as if they were.

Nobody’s Pedaling — And That’s the Point

Ask any parent who’s watched their kid ride an e-bike for more than five minutes and they’ll tell you: the pedals are mostly decorative. Young riders, especially those on throttle-equipped Class 2 models, are operating these bikes like mini motorcycles — right hand on the throttle, both feet tucked back, no pedaling whatsoever. It’s intuitive, it’s fun, and it’s exactly what the design invites them to do.

Manufacturers market throttle operation openly. One company describes it this way: “Throttle mode lets you control speed with a handlebar twist or button, requiring no pedaling — similar to a motorcycle.” Another notes the throttle “works like a regular throttle on a motorcycle.” The pitch is freedom and convenience. What isn’t mentioned in the branding is the risk profile that comes along with operating a motor vehicle without any training, licensing requirement, or mandatory safety course.

The legal fiction that these are bicycles and therefore unregulated as motor vehicles is doing a lot of heavy lifting for the industry. E-bikes are not subject to the same federal oversight as motorcycles or mopeds. No driver’s license is required. No registration. No insurance. In most states, no helmet is mandated for adult riders. A 12-year-old can, in many jurisdictions, legally operate a machine that travels at 20-28 mph through traffic, with zero formal training.

KFF Health News, reporting in late 2025, found that federal oversight of e-bike safety has largely stalled, leaving a patchwork of state and county rules that vary wildly. More than half the states now restrict who can ride Class 3 bikes, but Class 2, the throttle-equipped, motorcycle-operation models that require zero pedaling, often has far lighter age restrictions, if any.

The Injury Numbers Are Alarming — and Getting Worse

Trauma surgeons across the country are watching the data accumulate with growing alarm. At Penn State Health Children’s Hospital, doctors treated more children for e-bike and e-scooter injuries in 2025 than in the prior three years combined. At Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, pediatric e-bike injuries nearly tripled in just one year, from 32 cases in the first half of 2024 to 92 during the same period in 2025. In May and June of 2025 alone, the Connecticut hospital saw 25 injuries, compared to just 3 the year before.

The injuries themselves tell the story. Dr. James Dodington of Yale Medicine described an “explosion” in serious pediatric trauma, saying that patients are arriving with injuries more consistent with motorcycle accidents than bicycle falls: severe head trauma, facial fractures, internal bleeding. This is confirmed an American College of Surgeons report that e-bike injuries are more severe than standard bicycle injuries, and that the rate of such injuries is increasing every year.

Perhaps the most striking data point comes from Marin County, California, where health officials found that children between ages 10 and 15 who crash their e-bikes require an ambulance at five times the rate of other age groups involved in e-bike crashes. These aren’t minor spills. These are serious, life-altering events.

Why Young Riders Are Especially at Risk

It’s not just that kids are riding fast machines — it’s that adolescent brains are not yet wired for the kind of risk assessment that operating a motor vehicle demands. The prefrontal cortex, which governs impulse control and judgment, is still developing well into a person’s mid-twenties. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises that children under 16 should not operate motorized e-bikes at all.

Research consistently shows that young riders under 25 take the most risks on e-bikes and e-scooters and are also four times more likely to engage in risky behavior. Add to that the social dynamics of adolescence — showing off for friends, going faster than is wise, taking shortcuts through traffic — and the risk profile compounds quickly.

Helmet use is another major gap. Research published in JAMA Surgery found that e-bike riders without helmets were nearly twice as likely to sustain head injuries as those who wore them. And yet helmet use among young e-bike riders remains inconsistent, often because helmets aren’t legally required for them and because the cultural norm for e-biking hasn’t caught up with the reality of what these machines can do. For Class 3 speeds of 28 mph, many safety experts now recommend motorcycle-rated helmets rather than standard bike helmets — a recommendation that most young riders have not heard of and probably wouldn’t follow anyway.

Distraction compounds the danger further. Dr. Bryanna Emr, director of pediatric trauma surgery at Penn State, noted that many riders have headphones on or are looking at their phones while riding — a behavior that is dangerous on a regular bicycle and potentially fatal on a machine traveling at near highway speeds without the safety cage of a car.

The Regulatory Gap: No One Is Clearly in Charge

Part of what makes this problem so difficult to solve is that e-bikes fall between regulatory agencies in a frustrating way. The Consumer Product Safety Commission oversees products sold to consumers, while the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration governs motor vehicles. E-bikes, classified legally as bicycles, fall primarily under CPSC — but the existing standards were written for traditional pedal bicycles and have been acknowledged as inadequate for e-bikes. Parents should also be aware that some bikes marketed as Class 2 can be easily toggled into higher-speed Class 3 operation — sometimes without the rider even realizing it.

Meanwhile, the regulatory landscape at the state level is a true patchwork. Some states follow the three-class system in full. Others have partial adoptions. A few set minimum ages for Class 3 bikes. Some localities have taken things into their own hands — Marin County in California, for instance, has banned children under 16 from operating Class 2 e-bikes entirely. Colorado, Minnesota, and Utah passed new laws in 2025 addressing battery fire risks and attempting to distinguish legal e-bikes from the faster “e-motos” that are being sold under the e-bike label.

The American College of Surgeons issued a formal statement in June 2025 calling for clearer federal definitions, age-based restrictions, mandatory helmet requirements, and enforcement against illegally modified bikes. The statement noted that e-bikes should be classified based on their maximum obtainable speed on flat ground — not just their advertised class — and that speed unlocks and modification kits need to be regulated or banned.

For the moment, the fastest-moving part of this landscape is the injury statistics, which are outpacing the regulatory response at an escalating rate.

What Parents and Policymakers Should Know

If you’re a parent considering an e-bike for a child who’s still years away from a driver’s license, here’s what the evidence says: the machine your child will operate is functionally a motorized vehicle. A throttle-equipped model requires no pedaling, no physical effort, and no prior training. At speeds of 20-28 mph, a crash produces injuries more similar to a motorcycle accident than a bicycle tumble. And the regulatory system, for now, is not keeping pace with the technology.

From a policy standpoint, the calls from the medical and trauma community are consistent: age-based federal minimums, mandatory helmet laws for all e-bike riders, clearer definitions that separate true bicycles from what are functionally motor vehicles, and enforcement mechanisms restricting conversion kits that bypass speed limiters.

Until those protections exist, the gap between a child’s excitement about a new e-bike and the reality of what that machine can do will keep filling emergency rooms.

Illustration generated by author using ChatGPT

Sources

1. American College of Surgeons — Statement on E-Bike Safety (June 2025): https://www.facs.org/about-acs/statements/statement-on-electric-bicycle-safety-and-injury-prevention/

2. ACS Bulletin — Electric Bikes Are Emerging as Public Health Hazard (July/August 2024): https://www.facs.org/for-medical-professionals/news-publications/news-and-articles/bulletin/2024/julyaugust-2024-volume-109-issue-7/electric-bikes-are-emerging-as-public-health-hazard/

3. KFF Health News — Kids and Teens Go Full Throttle for E-Bikes (December 2025): https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/electric-e-bike-regulation-federal-states-counties-cpsc-nhtsa-colorado-injuries/

4. Penn State Health News — E-Bike and E-Scooter Injuries on the Rise in Kids (October 2025): https://pennstatehealthnews.org/2025/10/the-medical-minute-e-bike-and-e-scooter-injuries-are-on-the-rise-in-kids-what-every-parent-should-know/

5. Connecticut Law Blog — The Alarming Rise of E-Bike Accidents (December 2025): https://www.doddlawfirmct.com/2025/12/17/the-alarming-rise-of-e-bike-accidents-what-recent-injury-data-means-for-riders-and-drivers/

6. Safe Kids CT — E-Bike Injuries Are Rising Fast (August 2025): https://ctsafekids.org/blog/e-bike-injuries-are-rising-fast-heres-what-parents-need-to-know/

7. The Conversation — Young People Are Being Killed or Injured on E-Bikes (April 2026): https://theconversation.com/young-people-are-increasingly-being-killed-or-injured-on-e-bikes-its-time-for-governments-to-act-269095

8. UCSF News — Electric Scooter and Bike Accidents Are Soaring (July 2024): https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2024/07/428096/electric-scooter-and-bike-accidents-are-soaring-across-us

9. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School — Evidence Synthesis on E-Bike Injuries (October 2024): https://publichealth.jhu.edu/sites/default/files/2025-03/BIGRS_Evidence-Synthesis-E-bikes-2025.pdf

10. ABC News — Kids and Teens Go Full Throttle for E-Bikes (November 2025): https://abcnews.com/Health/kids-teens-full-throttle-bikes-federal-oversight-stalls/story?id=127708920

The President’s Private Prosecutor

By John Turley

On June 10, 2026

In Commentary, Politics

How Trump Turned the Department of Justice into a Tool of Personal Revenge

There is an old maxim in law: fiat justitia ruat caelum — let justice be done though the heavens fall. It reflects the principle that the law belongs to everyone equally and is not meant to serve personal grudges. Critics argue that Donald Trump’s second administration has embraced a very different view: that the Department of Justice can be used to pursue those who have challenged, investigated, or defeated him.

This is not simply a partisan accusation. It is based on a pattern in which Trump publicly identifies enemies and calls for action against them, followed by Justice Department investigations or prosecutions. The targets have included former administration officials, prosecutors, election experts, and individuals who prevailed against Trump in court.

The Guardrails Come Off

Trump’s first term provided occasional glimpses of this tendency, but institutional resistance often limited its reach. His second term began with far fewer constraints.

The selection of Pam Bondi as attorney general was widely viewed as a signal that loyalty would take precedence over the traditional independence of the Justice Department. During her confirmation hearing, Bondi declined to assure senators that the White House would remain separate from prosecutorial decision-making. That exchange foreshadowed what followed.

Within months, Trump directed investigations into former administration officials Miles Taylor and Christopher Krebs. Taylor had authored the anonymous 2018 op-ed describing internal resistance within the administration. Krebs, Trump’s former cybersecurity chief, had publicly stated that the 2020 election was secure. Trump accused Taylor of “treason” while signing an executive memorandum ordering an investigation.

Whether or not either man had committed any wrongdoing, the sequence was striking: public presidential condemnation followed by federal scrutiny.

More consequential were the cases involving figures directly connected to Trump’s legal battles.

The Letitia James Case

Perhaps no public official has drawn Trump’s anger more consistently than Letitia James, the New York attorney general whose civil fraud case resulted in a massive judgment against Trump and his business organization.

In October 2025, James was indicted on bank fraud charges shortly after Trump publicly urged Bondi to move against his political opponents. The circumstances surrounding the case raised immediate questions.

According to reports, the original prosecutor assigned to the matter concluded that evidence was insufficient to support criminal charges and declined to proceed. He was replaced by Lindsey Halligan, a former member of Trump’s personal legal team who had no prosecutorial experience. Within weeks, Halligan secured an indictment.

The legal process that followed was unusual. The indictment was later dismissed. Subsequent efforts to obtain new indictments reportedly failed before grand juries, an outcome that is relatively rare given the traditionally high success rate prosecutors enjoy in grand jury proceedings.

Yet the investigation continued.

Critics saw the episode as evidence that prosecutorial decisions were being driven not by evidence but by determination to target a political adversary. Supporters countered that investigations should continue if legitimate questions remained unresolved.

Regardless of one’s interpretation, the case illustrates a recurring theme: Trump publicly demands action against an opponent, and federal law enforcement soon responds.

The Comey Prosecution

James Comey has been a target of Trump’s anger since his dismissal as FBI director in 2017. That conflict entered a new phase in September 2025 when Comey was indicted on charges of making false statements and obstruction.

The indictment arrived only days after Trump publicly called for prosecution on social media. Trump later suggested that he hoped there would be “others.”

Comey pleaded not guilty and moved to dismiss the case, arguing that he was the victim of selective and vindictive prosecution. Civil liberties advocates condemned the prosecution as an abuse of presidential power.

Whether the charges ultimately survive judicial scrutiny remains to be seen. But the timing reinforced the perception that DOJ actions increasingly followed Trump’s personal grievances. The ongoing “86 47” prosecution further emphasizes the appearance of political vengeance.

E. Jean Carroll: From Plaintiff to Target

No case better illustrates the concerns surrounding Trump’s Justice Department than that of E. Jean Carroll.

Carroll sued Trump for defamation after he denied her allegations that he sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store decades earlier. Two juries ruled in her favor, awarding her a combined $88.3 million in damages.

In May 2026, the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into Carroll herself.

The investigation centers on statements Carroll made during civil litigation regarding funding for her legal expenses. Prosecutors are examining whether financial assistance connected to a nonprofit associated with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman was disclosed accurately and whether any false statements were made under oath.

Carroll is now 82 years old. She successfully sued Trump and won two jury verdicts. The federal government headed by the man she defeated in court is investigating whether to charge her with federal crimes.

The optics are difficult to ignore.

Carroll’s attorneys argue that the investigation lacks substantive merit and represents retaliation against a successful plaintiff. Legal observers note that if charges are eventually filed, Carroll would likely argue that the case constitutes vindictive prosecution — the use of prosecutorial power to punish someone for exercising a legal right.

Whatever the ultimate outcome, the sequence is extraordinary: a citizen sues a powerful public figure, wins twice before juries, and then becomes the subject of a federal criminal investigation under that same figure’s administration.

A Larger Pattern

Individually, each case can be debated on its merits. Together, they form a pattern that has become increasingly difficult for critics to dismiss as coincidence.

Many of the administration’s highest-profile investigations involve people who share one characteristic: they challenged Trump politically, legally, or personally. Former election officials. Former administration insiders. Prosecutors. Investigators. Civil plaintiffs.

The pattern is often the same. Trump publicly attacks an individual. He demands action. An investigation follows. Organizations tracking retaliatory government actions have documented numerous examples of this sequence. Legal scholars frequently identify such timing as one of the warning signs associated with selective prosecution.

The concern is not merely whether individual targets are guilty or innocent. The larger issue is whether prosecutorial decisions are being made independently or whether they are increasingly shaped by presidential preferences.

That distinction matters because the Department of Justice possesses powers unlike those of any other federal agency. It can investigate, indict, and imprison citizens. Its legitimacy depends heavily on public confidence that those powers are exercised fairly and consistently.

The Cost of the Process

Defenders of the administration argue that investigations should not be immune from scrutiny simply because targets claim political persecution. That is true. Public officials, former officials, and private citizens alike should be subject to the law.

But critics respond that the problem is not accountability. It is selectivity.

Even unsuccessful investigations impose significant costs. Legal defense can consume hundreds of thousands of dollars. Grand jury investigations create stress, uncertainty, and reputational damage. Years of litigation can disrupt careers and lives regardless of whether convictions are ultimately obtained.

The process itself becomes a punishment.

Courts and grand juries have occasionally pushed back. Several high-profile cases have encountered significant legal obstacles. But judicial intervention often occurs only after substantial personal and financial costs have already been imposed.

The Weaponization Paradox

Perhaps the greatest irony is that Trump’s political rise was fueled in part by his claim that the justice system had been weaponized against him.

For years, he argued that prosecutors, investigators, and political opponents used government institutions to pursue personal or partisan objectives. That argument resonated with many Americans because the principle involved is important. The justice system should not be used as a political weapon.

The challenge for Trump’s administration is that the same characteristics he identified as evidence of weaponization now appear in cases initiated by his own Justice Department.

He argued that prosecutors were motivated by personal animus rather than evidence. Critics now make the same allegation about prosecutions involving Letitia James, James Comey, and E. Jean Carroll.

He argued that the process itself was punishment. His opponents now make the same claim.

He argued that political pressure shaped prosecutorial decisions. Critics point to repeated examples in which Trump’s public demands appear to precede DOJ action.

Whether one accepts those comparisons or rejects them, the contradiction is difficult to ignore.

A Democracy’s Stress Test

The Justice Department was designed to serve the public interest rather than the interests of any single president. That principle became especially important after Watergate, when both parties embraced reforms intended to insulate law enforcement from political interference.

The durability of those norms is now being tested.

The central question is not whether every investigation discussed here will ultimately succeed or fail. Courts will decide that. The more important question is whether Americans will continue to believe that justice is being administered independently.

If citizens come to believe that criminal investigations are triggered by personal loyalty or presidential anger, confidence in the rule of law inevitably suffers.

The power to prosecute is among the most formidable powers government possesses. In a constitutional democracy, that power must belong to institutions, not individuals.

Whether that principle remains intact may prove to be one of the defining questions of Trump’s second term.

Image generated by author using ChatGPT

Sources

• Just Security — Chronology of Trump/DOJ Targeting (Oct. 2024)

• PBS NewsHour — Comey Indictment & Trump Vows More Prosecutions (Sept. 2025)

• Slate — Trump’s Vengeance Tour (May 2026)

• Time — Trump Vows to Prosecute Political Enemies (March 2026)

• Protect Democracy — Retaliatory Action Tracker (ongoing)

• Yahoo/AP — Trump Directs DOJ to Investigate Taylor & Krebs (2025)

• Time — DOJ Launches Criminal Investigation into E. Jean Carroll (May 28, 2026)

• Axios — DOJ Probes Reid Hoffman Nonprofit Over Carroll Funds (May 28, 2026)

• CNN — Carroll and the Pattern of Trump Retribution (May 28, 2026)

• MS NOW — Vindictive Prosecution Analysis (May 28, 2026)

• Newsweek — Timeline of Carroll’s Legal Battles with Trump

• CNBC — Trump DOJ Intervenes in Carroll Case (Oct. 2020)

• CNBC — DOJ Fails Second Time to Indict Letitia James (Dec. 2025)

• ABC News — Letitia James Indicted (Oct. 2025)

• PBS — Full Indictment of Letitia James

• House Judiciary Democrats — Investigation into DOJ Retaliation Against Letitia James (March 2026)

• 19th News — From Letitia James to Comey, Trump’s DOJ as Instrument of Revenge

• Sen. Whitehouse Letter to Barr re Carroll (Sept. 2020)

When the Sun Bites Back

By John Turley

On June 3, 2026

In Medicine

A guide to sun injuries — what they are, how they happen, and how to protect yourself.

This is a long article; I recommend you scan through it and read the sections of most interest to you rather than trying to read through it in a single sitting.

The sun is arguably the most powerful force in our daily lives. It warms the planet, drives our seasons, and has shaped human biology for hundreds of thousands of years. A little sunlight genuinely is good for you — it triggers vitamin D production and helps regulate your sleep cycle. But the same energy that sustains life can also cause real, sometimes lasting harm when you get too much. We’re not just talking about a red nose after a day at the beach. Sun injuries span a wide spectrum, from the minor annoyance of a mild sunburn to life-threatening heat stroke to decades-long processes that end in skin cancer.

Let’s walk through the main categories of sun-related injury: what they are, the biology behind them, who’s most at risk, how to prevent them, and what to do when prevention comes too late.

The Sun’s Invisible Weapons: UV Radiation and Heat

Before we get into specific injuries, it helps to know what we’re dealing with. The sun delivers energy to Earth in three main forms: visible light (what you see), infrared radiation (what you feel as warmth), and ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which you can neither see nor feel. UV is the primary culprit behind most sun injuries to the skin and eyes.

UV radiation comes in three wavelength ranges. UVC is almost completely absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere and generally doesn’t reach us from the sun. UVA and UVB are the ones that matter for your health. UVA rays make up the lion’s share of what reaches the Earth’s surface. They penetrate deep into the skin, cause aging effects, and suppress the immune system. UVB rays are shorter and more energetic — they’re the primary drivers of sunburn, and also the rays most directly linked to DNA damage and skin cancer. Surprisingly, even on a cloudy day a significant amount of UV radiation still reaches you.

Heat from the sun adds a second, separate threat. While UV damages cells at a molecular level, heat overwhelms the body’s ability to regulate its own temperature — a completely different mechanism leading to a different family of injuries.

The Types of Sun Injury

Sunburn

Sunburn is the most common sun injury, and most people have had at least one, some of us many more than one. It’s an acute inflammatory response triggered when UV radiation, primarily UVB, directly damages the DNA in skin cells. When that damage exceeds the ability of the cell’s repair machinery, the cell initiates a self-destruct process (called apoptosis) to prevent potentially cancerous mutations from propagating. The redness, pain, heat, and swelling of a sunburn are the skin’s inflammatory response to that mass cellular die-off.

Sunburn develops in a spectrum of severity. A mild burn produces redness and tenderness over exposed skin. A moderate burn adds blistering and significant pain. Severe sunburns are equivalent to a second-degree thermal burn and can involve extensive blistering, swelling, fever, chills, and nausea. In rare cases, especially in young children, severe sunburns can require hospitalization.

One thing worth knowing: even though we casually call sunburn a ‘first-degree burn,’ it’s technically not the same as a heat burn of the same grade. UV radiation penetrates to deeper layers of the skin than heat does, causing a different pattern of cellular injury.

Skin Cancer

This is where sunburn’s long tail becomes dangerous. Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, with over 5 million cases diagnosed annually. The connection to UV exposure is not subtle — roughly 90 percent of non-melanoma skin cancers are directly associated with UV radiation from the sun.

There are three main types. Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common, with an estimated 3.6 million U.S. diagnoses each year. It tends to grow slowly and rarely spreads to other organs, but it can cause significant local destruction if ignored. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is second in frequency, at about 1.8 million cases per year. It carries a somewhat higher risk of spreading than BCC. Melanoma is the least common but by far the most dangerous, accounting for most skin cancer deaths. It arises from the pigment-producing cells (melanocytes) and can spread rapidly to other organs.

The underlying mechanism in all three is UV-induced DNA damage. When UV radiation hits skin cells repeatedly over time, it scrambles the DNA segments that normally suppress tumor growth. Intermittent intense exposure — like a child getting several serious sunburns — appears particularly risky for melanoma. Cumulative lifetime exposure is more associated with BCC and SCC. Either way, the damage is slow and progressive and adds up invisibly for decades before a cancer appears.

Photokeratitis — Sunburn of the Eye

Most people have never heard of photokeratitis, but anyone who’s spent time on the water, in the snow, or at high altitude without sunglasses has been at risk. Photokeratitis is essentially a sunburn of the cornea, the clear front surface of the eye It is caused by intense or prolonged exposure to UVB radiation. It’s sometimes called ‘snow blindness’ in its most severe form, and ‘arc eye’ or ‘welder’s flash’ when caused by industrial UV sources.

At the cellular level, UV radiation interacts with cells in the cornea and conjunctiva (the membrane covering the eye), generating reactive oxygen species — unstable molecules that cause oxidative damage to cell membranes, proteins, and DNA. The inflammatory response that follows is what produces the characteristic symptoms: intense pain, a gritty sensation as though there’s sand in the eye, extreme sensitivity to light, tearing, and redness. These symptoms typically appear several hours after exposure, which is part of what makes photokeratitis so sneaky — you may not notice a problem until you’re back indoors for the evening.

The good news is that photokeratitis is almost always temporary. The cornea has a remarkable ability to regenerate its surface cells, and most cases resolve within 24 to 48 hours without any permanent damage to vision. Snow blindness occurs at high altitude where UV intensity is dramatically increased and fresh snow reflects up to 80 percent of incoming UV and is a more severe version that can temporarily blind a person, though new cells typically restore vision within a few days.

Long-term or repeated UV exposure to the eyes raises a different set of concerns. Cataracts, macular degeneration, and pterygium (a fleshy overgrowth on the eye surface) are all associated with lifetime cumulative UV exposure.

Heat-Related Illnesses

UV radiation isn’t the only player. The sun’s infrared energy — heat — creates a separate family of injuries when it overwhelms your body’s cooling mechanisms. These range from relatively mild to life-threatening.

Heat Cramps

Heat cramps are the mildest heat-related illness and present as painful muscle spasms that occur when you sweat heavily during strenuous activity in the heat. Sweating depletes both fluid and electrolytes (particularly sodium). They most often show up in the legs, arms, or abdomen. Treatment is straightforward: rest, move to a cooler spot, and slowly replace fluids and electrolytes.

Heat Exhaustion

Heat exhaustion is a more serious heat illness. It occurs when the body struggles to cool itself after prolonged heat exposure, often compounded by dehydration. Your core body temperature climbs, typically to between 100°F and 104°F. Symptoms include heavy sweating, headache, dizziness, nausea, rapid but weak pulse, and muscle cramps. The skin usually feels cool and moist. Without treatment, heat exhaustion can escalate into heat stroke.

Heat Stroke

Heat stroke is a medical emergency and the most severe heat illness. It occurs when the body’s temperature regulation fails entirely — the sweating mechanism breaks down, and the core body temperature can rise to 106°F or higher within 10 to 15 minutes. This is organ-threatening territory. Brain cells begin dying at sustained high temperatures, and heat stroke can cause permanent disability or death without rapid emergency treatment.

There are two clinical patterns. Classic heat stroke tends to affect the elderly, very young children, and people with chronic illness and occurs during prolonged heat waves. Exertional heat stroke hits otherwise healthy, physically active people — athletes, soldiers, outdoor workers — during intense physical activity in hot conditions. Both are emergencies, but exertional heat stroke can develop faster and with less warning.

Key warning signs that distinguish heat stroke from heat exhaustion: an extremely high body temperature (above 104°F), confusion or slurred speech, hot and dry skin (though not always), and loss of consciousness or seizures. If you suspect heat stroke, call 911immediately — this is not a wait-and-see situation.

Photosensitivity and Drug Reactions

A less-discussed but fairly common category of sun injury involves the interaction between UV radiation and certain medications or chemicals. Phototoxic reactions happen when a substance in or on the skin absorbs UV radiation and generates a chemical reaction that damages tissue — essentially a chemical sunburn. Photoallergic reactions are immune-mediated: the UV-altered substance triggers an immune response, producing a rash that can spread even to sun-unexposed areas.

Medications commonly associated with photosensitivity include certain antibiotics (especially tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones, cipro being the most common), diuretics, some blood pressure medications, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and some antidepressants. If you’ve started a new medication and notice unusual sun sensitivity, it’s worth having a conversation with your prescriber.

Who’s Most Vulnerable?

While the sun doesn’t discriminate, some people are more vulnerable to sun injury than others.

Skin tone matters enormously for UV-related injury. People with lighter skin have less melanin — the pigment that absorbs UV and dissipates it as heat, protecting underlying cells. Fair-skinned people sunburn faster and face a higher lifetime risk of skin cancer. That said, darker-skinned individuals are absolutely not immune: skin cancers in Black, Asian, and Hispanic patients tend to be diagnosed at later, more dangerous stages, partly because they’re less expected. Melanoma in particular has a much lower five-year survival rate in Black patients (around 70 percent) compared to white patients (around 95 percent).

Children deserve special attention. Their developing skin and eyes are more sensitive to UV damage, and the evidence is strong that severe sunburns during childhood and adolescence significantly increase the lifetime risk of melanoma. Generally, a disproportionate amount of a person’s lifetime UV exposure is accumulated before age 18.

For heat illness, the calculus shifts. The elderly and very young children are most vulnerable because their thermoregulatory systems are less efficient. People with chronic illnesses such as heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, obesity, face elevated risk. So do people taking medications that interfere with sweating or fluid balance. Outdoor workers and athletes are at occupational risk, particularly when they haven’t had time to acclimatize to heat.

Prevention: The Real Work Happens Before You Go Outside

Sunscreen — But Use It Right

The evidence that sunscreen prevents skin cancer is solid overall, though the picture is more nuanced than the marketing suggests. High-quality evidence shows that regular daily use of a broad-spectrum SPF 15 sunscreen reduces the risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma by about 40 percent and reduces melanoma risk by roughly 50 percent. The catch is application. Under real-world conditions, people typically apply far less sunscreen than the amount used in lab testing which can cut the effective SPF roughly in half. Sunscreen also needs to be reapplied every two hours and after swimming or heavy sweating; most people don’t do this.

The American Academy of Dermatology recommends a broad-spectrum sunscreen (meaning it covers both UVA and UVB) with an SPF of at least 30 for everyday use, and SPF 50 for extended outdoor activity. ‘Broad spectrum’ is key — pure UVB filters leave you unprotected from UVA, which drives skin aging and contributes to skin cancer.

On the regulatory front, there’s encouraging news. In late 2025, Congress passed the SAFE Sunscreen Standards Act, which allows the FDA to accept safety data from other countries when evaluating new sunscreen ingredients. The U.S. has long lagged behind Europe and Asia in available sunscreen chemistry, so this could eventually broaden consumer options significantly.

Clothing and Shade

Arguably the most underrated sun protection strategy is also the simplest: cover up and get out of direct sun. Tightly-woven, loose-fitting clothing provides a meaningful physical barrier to UV. Clothing with a labeled UPF (ultraviolet protection factor) rating offers quantified protection. A wide-brimmed hat protects the face, ears, and neck — areas that accumulate a lot of UV exposure and are common sites for skin cancer.

Seek shade during peak UV hours, which run from about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Keep in mind that trees, umbrellas, and canopies reduce but don’t eliminate UV exposure — surfaces like sand, water, and snow reflect UV back at you from below, partially defeating the shade above you.

Eye Protection

Sunglasses that block 99 to 100 percent of UVA and UVB are very important and are not just a fashion accessory. Wraparound styles provide better coverage than narrow frames, since UV can reach the eye from the sides. For winter sports or high-altitude activities, glacier glasses or goggles with side shields are the appropriate choice — fresh snow can reflect up to 80 percent of UV radiation, and the UV intensity at altitude is substantially higher than at sea level.

Managing Heat Risk

Preventing heat illness comes down to a few fundamentals: stay hydrated before and during outdoor activity and don’t neglect to continue to hydrate after you have finished. Schedule strenuous work or exercise in the early morning or evening, wear lightweight and light-colored clothing, take breaks in shaded or air-conditioned spaces. Be sure to allow your body time to acclimatize when moving to a hotter climate — and that includes vacations.

Hydration specifics matter. The general guidance for outdoor exercise is to drink about 24 ounces of fluid two hours before activity, and about 8 ounces every 20 minutes during exertion — even if you don’t feel thirsty. When I was in the Marines and serving in a tropical environment, we were advised to “drink until you slosh”. In extreme heat, an electrolyte-containing sports drink can be more appropriate than plain water, since heavy sweating depletes sodium and other minerals that plain water doesn’t replace.

Never leave children, the elderly, or pets in a parked car on a warm day. Car interiors can reach dangerous temperatures remarkably quickly, and dark dashboards and seats can hit temperatures above 180°F.

Treatment: When the Sun Has Already Won

Treating Sunburn

There is no treatment that reverses UV damage once it’s occurred, so sunburn management is fundamentally about reducing inflammation and discomfort while the skin heals. Cool (not ice cold) baths or compresses help with pain and inflammation. Over-the-counter NSAIDs like ibuprofen or aspirin reduce inflammation systemically. Aloe vera gel and fragrance-free moisturizers help with the dryness and peeling that follow. Hydration is important, since burned skin loses water faster than intact skin.

Avoid applying petroleum jelly, butter, or any product that traps heat in the skin — these are folk remedies that can worsen the burn. Avoid further sun exposure until the burn has healed. Blistered burns should be left intact; breaking blisters increases infection risk. A severely blistered sunburn, or one accompanied by high fever, severe pain, confusion, or extensive skin involvement, warrants medical attention.

Treating Photokeratitis

Eye sunburn is treated with rest, darkness, and time. Remove contact lenses immediately. Cool compresses over closed eyes can ease the pain. Over-the-counter lubricating eye drops help with the irritation, and oral pain relievers can help with the deeper ache. Avoid rubbing the eyes. Most cases resolve within 24 to 48 hours. If pain or vision disturbance persists beyond 48 hours, or if vision changes occur, see an eye care professional promptly.

Treating Heat Exhaustion

Act quickly. Move the person to a cool or shaded area, loosen or remove excess clothing, and have them lie down with legs slightly elevated to improve circulation. Use any available means to cool the body: wet towels, fans, cool mist. Slowly give cool water or a sports drink. Call for medical assistance, since heat exhaustion can tip into heat stroke without warning.

Treating Heat Stroke

Heat stroke is a 911 emergency. While waiting for emergency services, move the person to a cool environment, remove outer clothing, and cool them by any means available — cool water applied to the skin, fanning, ice packs to the groin and armpits (where large blood vessels run close to the surface). Crucially: do NOT give fluids to someone who may have heat stroke, since confusion or impaired consciousness creates a choking risk. Hospital treatment typically involves intravenous fluids and active cooling measures. Every minute of delay increases the risk of permanent brain damage or death.

Long-Term Management: Skin Cancer

Skin cancer detected early is highly treatable. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends annual skin checks by a dermatologist for adults with significant sun exposure history, a personal or family history of skin cancer, or a large number of moles. Know the ABCDE warning signs: Asymmetry, irregular Border, uneven Color (especially multiple colors in one lesion), Diameter greater than a pencil eraser, and Evolution (any change in size, shape, or color over time). A new growth or a sore that doesn’t heal also warrants prompt evaluation.

A Final Thought

The sun isn’t going anywhere, and we wouldn’t want it to. But the injuries it causes — from the trivial to the fatal — are almost entirely preventable with a combination of awareness and habit. The frustrating reality is that the damage we’re preventing today won’t make itself known for years or decades. Nobody feels their melanoma forming at 35 or while they’re sitting on the beach at 22. That temporal gap is why sun safety behaviors are so psychologically difficult to maintain — the consequences feel abstract right up until they’re not.

The good news is that sunscreen, shade, adequate hydration, and protective clothing are not especially burdensome interventions. The return on that modest investment, measured in avoided skin cancers, avoided heat emergencies, and preserved eyesight, is substantial. Your future self will thank your present self for making it a habit.

Image generated by author using ChatGPT

Sources

Sunburn pathophysiology — PMC / ePlasty (2024) — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11374383/

UV radiation and human health — WHO Q&A — https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-the-known-health-effects-of-ultraviolet-radiation

UV radiation and health effects — UNDRR — https://www.undrr.org/understanding-disaster-risk/terminology/hips/et0202

UV radiation and sun exposure — U.S. EPA — https://www.epa.gov/radtown/ultraviolet-uv-radiation-and-sun-exposure

Photokeratitis: causes, symptoms, treatment — All About Vision — https://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/keratitis/photokeratitis/

Heat exhaustion — Cleveland Clinic — https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21480-heat-exhaustion

Heat stroke symptoms and treatment — WebMD — https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/heat-stroke-symptoms-and-treatment

Heat-related illnesses — CDC/NIOSH — https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/heat-stress/about/illnesses.html

Dehydration and heat stroke — Johns Hopkins Medicine — https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/dehydration-and-heat-stroke

Heat illness — NOAA — https://www.noaa.gov/stories/heat-exhaustion-or-heat-stroke-know-signs-of-heat-illness

Skin cancer facts and statistics — Skin Cancer Foundation — https://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/skin-cancer-facts/

Skin cancer statistics — American Academy of Dermatology — https://www.aad.org/media/stats-skin-cancer

Sunscreen efficacy and skin cancer prevention — CMAJ (2020) — https://www.cmaj.ca/content/192/50/E1802

Modernizing U.S. sunscreen regulations — PMC (2025) — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12332967/

New sunscreen laws — Health Central (2026) — https://www.healthcentral.com/condition/skin-cancer/new-sunscreen-formulas-are-on-the-way

Sunscreen and melanoma risk — ASCO Journal of Clinical Oncology — https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO.2016.69.5874

Medical Disclaimer

If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or your local emergency number immediately.

America at 250: A Revolution Remembered, Forgotten — or Rewritten?

By John Turley

On June 1, 2026

In Commentary, History

I’m old enough to remember the 200th anniversary of the American Revolution. Bicentennial symbols were everywhere — Liberty Bells, eagles, and that ubiquitous red, white, and blue stylized five-point star logo slapped on hats, T-shirts, socks, soft drink cups, beer cans, and even a special “Spirit of ’76” edition of the Ford Mustang II. Commemorative events were springing up everywhere, and people had full-blown bicentennial fever.

The 250th anniversary is a different animal entirely. Even the official name — Semiquincentennial — sounds like something you’d need a medical degree to pronounce. But the tongue-twisting label is the least of its problems.

The bicentennial came after a decade of national trauma: Vietnam, Watergate, and the civil rights struggles had left the country battered. By 1976, most Americans were ready to feel good about themselves again, and the bicentennial became a giant, colorful celebration of “American resilience.” The 250th arrives in a different kind of trauma — one that is arguably more confusing because it comes dressed as patriotism.

A Celebration Gets Complicated

While the 250th is being marked by numerous events, commemorations, and official proclamations, it has not yet captured the national imagination the way 1976 did. The official nonpartisan U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, established by Congress in 2016 and supported by both George W. Bush and Barack Obama as Honorary Co-Chairs, has been working toward what it calls the “largest and most inclusive” anniversary celebration in American history. But its efforts have increasingly been overshadowed — and, critics argue, undermined — by a parallel White House effort with a very different philosophy about what American history should look like.

Shortly after taking office in January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday,” creating his own body — Task Force 250 — to coordinate anniversary plans and promising “a grand celebration worthy of the momentous occasion.” A full year of festivities was planned, beginning on Memorial Day 2025 and running through July 4, 2026. On paper, more attention on the anniversary sounds like good news. In practice, the story is more complicated.

When “Restoring History” Means Removing It

Two months after launching his anniversary task force, Trump signed a second executive order — this one titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” — directing Vice President Vance to eliminate what the order calls “divisive race-centered ideology” from Smithsonian museums, educational and research centers, and the National Zoo (the Zoo??). The Smithsonian, one of the world’s great repositories of American history, was accused by the president of having come “under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology” that portrayed “American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”

That executive order set off a chain of events that has complicated the 250th anniversary in ways the founding fathers would have found darkly ironic, given that the Revolution was, at its core, a fight against the arbitrary exercise of executive power.

At Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park — one of the most historically significant sites in the country — National Park Service employees abruptly removed exhibits about the nine people George Washington held in slavery while Philadelphia served as the nation’s capital. Passersby reportedly heard an employee repeating, “I’m just following orders” as the displays came down. The city of Philadelphia promptly sued the federal government, arguing that the removal violated a cooperative agreement for the site’s development.

This wasn’t an isolated incident. According to reporting from Poynter and PEN America, National Park Service employees were ordered to survey all signage and interpretive materials across the nation’s 400-plus parks and monuments, flagging anything “negative about either past or living Americans.” Exhibits about slavery, Indigenous history, women’s rights, and climate change were all swept into the review. At Fort Sumter in South Carolina — where the Civil War began — even a sign explaining the risks the site faces from rising sea levels was removed.

The Interior Department issued a November 2025 memo ordering National Park Service gift shops to remove items promoting DEI or “gender expression.” Free admission days that had previously honored Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth were dropped; June 14 — Flag Day and President Trump’s birthday (does anyone thinks that’s a coincidence?) — was added instead.

Meanwhile, a proposed commemorative dollar coin design featured President Trump on the obverse and the words “Fight! Fight! Fight!” on the reverse — evoking the imagery from the July 2024 assassination attempt. The Commission of Fine Arts, whose members Trump dismissed in October 2025 and replaced with his own appointees, subsequently recommended the design.

The Money Problem

The nonpartisan America250 Commission hasn’t just faced ideological headwinds. It has also faced financial ones. By early 2026, the Commission had received only $25 million of its congressionally appropriated $150 million, with the remainder at risk of being redirected to Trump-aligned Freedom 250’s “Freedom Trucks” — six state-of-the-art mobile museums traveling the country telling a version of American history that aligns with the administration’s vision. Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman raised concerns about the funding diversion, though the Commission stated it had enough to continue its core programming.

What Actually Happened at Lexington and Concord

Against this backdrop, the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 2025, became a preview of what the full anniversary might look like. The battle reenactments drew large crowds, along with protesters carrying signs reading “No Kings” and “Resist Like It’s 1775,” explicitly drawing parallels between opposition to King George III and what they saw as autocratic tendencies in current leadership.

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey told the crowd at the North Bridge ceremony that “we see things that would be familiar to our Revolutionary predecessors — the silencing of critics, the disappearing people from our streets, demands for unquestioned fealty.” Whether one agrees with that characterization or not, the spectacle of Americans invoking the Revolution to oppose their own government at a Revolution commemoration is at minimum historically interesting — and arguably points to the enduring vitality of Revolutionary ideals.

Historians have noted that the Revolution itself was messier and more ambiguous than either side of today’s debate wants to acknowledge. As University of South Carolina professor Woody Holton observed, most colonists in April 1775 weren’t seeking independence — they wanted better treatment within the British Empire and a return to pre-1763 arrangements. The revolution was improvised, contentious, and full of people who disagreed about its meaning even while it was happening. Sound familiar?

The Founding Fathers Were Not a Monolith

Here is what is genuinely troubling about selectively sanitizing Revolutionary history: the founders themselves would not have recognized the sanitized version. George Washington, the hero of the Revolution, held people in slavery, including at the presidential residence in Philadelphia — the very site where exhibits were just torn down. Benjamin Franklin, who helped draft the Declaration of Independence, owned enslaved people and only became an abolitionist late in his life. Thomas Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal” while holding more than 600 people in bondage over his lifetime.

Removing this history doesn’t honor the founders. It patronizes them by pretending their contradictions didn’t exist — and it patronizes us by suggesting we can’t handle the full truth. Even they recognized the contradictions. The founders were brilliant, flawed, and human. That’s what makes the Revolution worth studying.

Resistance in the Courts and in the Institutions

It’s worth noting that the administration’s efforts have met significant resistance. Federal courts have blocked some removals. Scholars, activists, and historians have pushed back forcefully. A coalition of groups filed suit in February 2026 arguing that the Interior Department’s mandate to strip historical information from national parks violated the Administrative Procedure Act. Philadelphia’s lawsuit over the Washington slavery exhibit is ongoing.

Northwestern University historian Leslie M. Harris, author of five books on American slavery, has said that no previous presidential administration has interfered with historic sites in this way, and warned of a potential long-term consequence: public distrust of government-maintained historical sites, or outright avoidance of them.

What We Can Do

I wrote earlier about a friend on the West Virginia 250th committee who told me their initial meeting accomplished nothing and, almost two years later, they’ve had not had a further meeting. They have only just in the past few weeks announced their plans for America 250. That’s disappointing, but in some ways, it underscores the larger point: the commemoration of this anniversary is going to be shaped by whoever shows up.

Here in West Virginia, we showed what’s possible when citizens take the lead. In October 2024, without any state or national organizational or financial help, the City of Point Pleasant and the West Virginia Sons of the American Revolution organized a commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Point Pleasant — a battle many consider a precursor to the Revolution. It worked. People came. History was honored.

We can do more of that. We don’t need to live in Massachusetts to commemorate Lexington and Concord. We don’t need federal approval to mark the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Battle of Saratoga, or the crossing of the Delaware. We don’t need the government’s permission to tell complete history — including the parts about who was left out and who fought to be included anyway.

All across the country, individuals and small groups are working to recognize the revolution. In West Virginia, we’ve organized commemorations of the Boston Tea Party, the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Continental Navy and the Continental Marines, George Washington’s Birthday, and a special America 250 Memorial Day service at the West Virginia Veterans Memorial, all without any governmental support or funding. There have been presentations at local libraries and civic groups about the lives of average people during the time of the revolution, the origin of the American flag and even demonstrations of cooking and foods from the time of the revolution. If we had waited for state or national support these activities never would have happened. Just because your event may be small doesn’t mean it’s unimportant.

The Revolution, after all, was not a government program. It was a citizen uprising.

The Stakes

The American Revolution matters to world history precisely because it planted ideas — self-governance, the rule of law, the consent of the governed, the equality of all people before the law — that were genuinely radical ideas in 1776 and remain contested in much of the world today. Those ideas were aspirational when they were written. They remain aspirational now. The gap between the ideal and the reality is not a reason to hide the history; it is the history.

If the 250th anniversary is remembered primarily as a moment when the federal government selectively curated which parts of the founding era the public was allowed to encounter, that will itself become a significant historical footnote — and not a flattering one.

It will be our great shame if we allow the commemoration of an event so significant in both American and world history to be used — by anyone, of any political stripe — to divide us rather than to strengthen our common bond. The Revolution was imperfect, contentious, and incomplete. So is the republic it created. That is not a cause for despair. It is a call to engagement and improvement.

We the people. Still the operative phrase.

Illustration generated by author using ChatGPT.

—

Sources

America250 Commission — https://america250.org/
White House Freedom 250 page — https://www.whitehouse.gov/freedom250/
AASLH on the 250th — https://aaslh.org/the-250th-anniversary-and-the-road-ahead/
PBS NewsHour: A divided nation battles over the Revolution’s legacy — https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/250-years-after-the-start-of-the-american-revolution-a-divided-nation-battles-over-its-legacy
NPR: Trump executive order targets Smithsonian — https://www.npr.org/2025/03/27/nx-s1-5342914/smithsonian-president-trump-executive-order
The American Prospect: Whitening American History — https://prospect.org/2026/02/23/whitening-america-black-history-trump-slavery-dei-philadelphia/
Poynter: Trump reshaping Black history — https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2026/trump-administration-altering-black-history/
PEN America: Purging history from national parks — https://pen.org/purging-history-from-national-parks/
Courthouse News: Groups sue over park history removals — https://www.courthousenews.com/trump-administration-accused-of-erasing-history-from-national-parks/
Wikipedia: Semiquincentennial coinage — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Semiquincentennial_coinage

The Memorial Day Nobody Taught You About

By John Turley

On May 27, 2026

In History

Library of Congress Photography Collection

Here’s a story that most Americans never learned in school and it’s one worth knowing.

When we think about Memorial Day, we typically picture a date set by Congress, a general’s order, or some official act of government. What we don’t picture is a group of newly freed Black Americans in post-Civil War Charleston, South Carolina, quietly reburying the dead and making sure they weren’t forgotten. But that’s exactly what happened — and it may be the closest thing we have to the true origin of Memorial Day.

A Racetrack Turned Prison Turned Cemetery

Before the Civil War, the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club in Charleston was the kind of place where the Southern planter class went to be seen — horse racing, socializing, a symbol of antebellum wealth. By the war’s final year, the Confederate Army had repurposed it into something far grimmer: an open-air prison for captured Union soldiers.

The conditions were brutal. More than 257 Union prisoners of war died there from disease and exposure, and when the Confederates abandoned Charleston in early 1865, they left the bodies in a hastily dug mass grave in the infield. It was an ugly end for men who had fought to hold the country together.

What Happened Next Was Extraordinary

Less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered, a group of roughly two dozen Black volunteers did something remarkable. They went to that racetrack, exhumed the bodies one by one, and gave each man a proper individual burial. Then they built a ten-foot white fence around the entire site. Above the entrance, they hung a hand-painted sign that read: “Martyrs of the Race Course.”

They didn’t stop there. Together with Black schoolchildren, mutual aid societies, Union troops, Black ministers, and white northern missionaries, the community organized a formal ceremony for May 1, 1865. Nearly ten thousand people showed up — mostly freedmen — and most of them brought flowers.

The New York Tribune was there to cover it, describing the scene as “a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before,” with gravesites that looked like “one mass of flowers.”

Why It Matters

Historian David W. Blight, who uncovered this story in a Harvard archive in the late 1990s, framed the significance of that day in striking terms: “What you have there is Black Americans recently freed from slavery announcing to the world with their flowers, their feet, and their songs what the war had been about. What they basically were creating was the Independence Day of a Second American Revolution.”

That’s not a small claim. And yet it’s grounded in documented newspaper accounts, archival records, and careful historical research. Blight laid it all out in his 2001 book Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory — a work that brought this story back from near-total obscurity.

The moment that perhaps best captures the weight of this rediscovery came after Blight gave a talk at the Smithsonian. An older Black woman approached him afterward. “You mean that story is true?” she asked. “I grew up in Charleston, and my granddaddy used to tell us this story of a parade at the old racetrack, and we never knew whether to believe him or not.”

How the Story Got Buried

The Charleston ceremony didn’t disappear by accident. During the post-Reconstruction era, groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy worked systematically to reshape public memory of the Civil War. Books were rewritten, narratives were shifted, and the Black-led origins of what would become Memorial Day were quietly erased from the historical record. White organizers were credited in their place.

This wasn’t unusual. It fits a much broader pattern in American history in which Black contributions to the nation’s military and civic life — from the Revolutionary War through both World Wars — were minimized or simply left out of the story that got told in schools and textbooks.

A Note on Competing Claims

It’s worth being fair about the history here: towns like Waterloo, New York, and Columbus, Georgia also claim early Memorial Day commemorations, and historians continue to debate which event was truly “the first.” Waterloo, in fact, holds the official congressional designation as the birthplace of Memorial Day.

But the Charleston ceremony of May 1, 1865, stands as one of the most thoroughly documented early observances — and arguably the most meaningful in its context. What makes the Charleston ceremony especially significant is that it linked remembrance of the war dead directly to emancipation and Black citizenship. To the participants, honoring fallen Union soldiers also meant honoring the destruction of slavery itself. It was organized by people who had the most personal stake in honoring those deaths: the men and women who had been enslaved, and who understood better than anyone what those Union soldiers had given their lives for.

The Bottom Line

Memorial Day didn’t begin with an act of Congress. One of its earliest and most powerful expressions came from a community of recently freed Black Americans in Charleston, South Carolina, who spent two weeks exhuming the dead, burying them properly, and organizing a ceremony that ten thousand people attended.

They did it with flowers, hymns, and their presence — and then history buried the story much as the Confederates had buried the soldiers. It took a box of old newspaper clippings in a Harvard archive to bring it back.

That’s worth remembering, too.