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Morning Coffee: What If We Had Kept Our Promises?

October 13, 2026October 9, 2026BenjaminLeave a comment

What if there had been no Trail of Tears?

October 13, 2026

Well, if you survived Monday, pour yourself a cup. Depending on your calendar and community, you may have called it Columbus Day, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, or Native American Day.

woman in yellow jacket and brown white floral apron holding yellow white ceramic mug — _{^{Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com}}

Whatever name you used, it got me thinking about the Oklahoma of my childhood.

When we played Cowboys and Indians on the playground, we had the real McCoys on both sides—kids from cowboy families and kids from Native families.

Sadly, the cowboys always seemed to win, and our Native friends went along with it. That was simply how we played. I don’t remember anyone questioning why the ending had already been decided.

Now that I am older, I realize how sad that was. Truly sad. Even in a childhood game, we were repeating the story we had been taught: who got to be the hero, who was expected to lose, and whose side of the story hardly mattered.

Had I understood then what I understand now, I would have wanted more victories for my friends—and a chance for them to tell the story their way.

But we had been programmed. Before we were old enough to question the script, we already knew our parts.

Growing up, we commonly used the word “Indian.” We also watched television westerns where Indians fought cowboys, and the script usually told us whom to cheer for before anyone fired a shot.

Looking back, television was doing a fair amount of our thinking for us.

I still have Native friends who call themselves Indians. That is their choice, and I respect it. People deserve to tell us who they are, rather than have the rest of us decide for them.

The Oklahoma I remember has changed. Tribal businesses and casinos became increasingly visible over the years, especially after I moved away. Places I associated with one chapter of my childhood began to look very different.

But seeing a changing landscape and understanding its history are two different things.

For years, I wondered how land purchased by a tribe became tribal land. I also confused that question with whether the land was sacred. Those are different matters: sacredness concerns religious and cultural significance, while trust status involves a legal process through which the federal government holds land for a tribe or an individual Native person.

Still, understanding that distinction leaves me with a larger question: How did we arrive at a place where Native nations sometimes have to buy back portions of the lands they lost?

That question stays with me longer than the explanations about deeds and boundaries.

What might this country look like if settlers and the governments that followed them had respected Native nations’ right to govern themselves? If agreements had been honored? If families had not been forced from their homes?

What if there had been no Trail of Tears?

Would we be better off today? Would our relationships with one another be different? What knowledge, traditions, and possibilities might have survived that were instead disrupted or lost?

I am not looking for an argument over my morning coffee. I am wondering about the distance between the history we inherited and the history we might have made.

We cannot know exactly how that other America would have turned out. But uncertainty about what might have been does not erase what actually happened.

Perhaps that is what this day brings to my table: a reason to look beyond the television westerns of my childhood and listen to the people whose histories those scripts so often pushed aside.

My coffee cannot change yesterday. But I can still learn something today.

The reference to forced removal and the Trail of Tears is supported by the National Park Service’s historical account. nps.gov

Signature of Benjamin Groff along with copyright and attribution information.

Border Wall Dispute Raises Questions About Public Safety and Local Resources

October 12, 2026October 11, 2026BenjaminLeave a comment

[SPECIAL EDITION]

“They keep building the border wall. If nothing else, it gives politicians something to crow about. Though these days, you have to wonder whether anyone’s still asking for directions to get here.”
— Imagining Will Rogers weighing in from the grave…

October 12, 2026

A dispute over border wall construction in southern Arizona has become a disagreement over law enforcement responsibilities, public safety, and the resources available to a county sheriff’s office.

In an October 9 open letter, the Arizona Sheriffs’ Association raised concerns about allegedly unanswered requests for assistance during protests in Santa Cruz County. The association said federal and state officials had reported incidents involving alleged violence, threats, and property damage. It called for those allegations to be documented and investigated.

_{^{The video above was from six months ago. Then there didn’t appear any issues with getting the wall up. Since that time those building Trump’s border wall cut into an ancient ground carving older than Stonehenge. The Las Playas Intaglio carving of a huge fish is at least 2,000 years older than the first Egyptian pyramid, according to researchers’ estimations.}}

The letter also attributed to Sheriff David Hathaway a policy limiting deputies’ responses to protest-related calls to incidents involving violence. Whether particular requests involved criminal conduct, and how his office handled them, requires further examination. According to Arizona’s Family’s report, the sheriff’s office had not responded to the station’s request for comment.

The dispute follows an October 5 federal operation at a protest encampment near Lochiel. Arizona’s Family reported that video showed a protester being removed from a cottonwood tree using a cherry picker before the tree was cut down. Activists had occupied the site to oppose construction of a second border barrier. That confrontation is described here.

The public safety questions deserve attention. So does the capacity of the local agency being asked to respond.

Santa Cruz County covers approximately 1,236 square miles of land and had an estimated population of 50,020 in July 2025. The Border Sheriffs directory lists 39 sworn officers for its sheriff’s office, although that listing does not establish current staffing or the number available for patrol on any particular shift.

colorful license plate wall display in canada — _{^{America has long welcomed people who came to do business—or simply escape winter for a little sunshine. This year, some businesses in those sunny destinations say fewer visitors are returning, and trade has slowed to a crawl. The sunshine is still here. The customers, it seems, are checking the forecast for more than the weather.}}

From my experience in law enforcement, an agency’s total sworn strength can give a misleading impression of its available manpower. Days off, training, leave, investigations, supervision, and other assignments affect how many officers can answer calls. A fair assessment should examine actual deployment and workload before drawing conclusions about available resources.

Staffing constraints do not erase a sheriff’s responsibilities. Arizona law requires sheriffs to preserve the peace and address public offenses and disturbances. Whether those duties were fulfilled here should be evaluated through dispatch records, incident reports, requests for assistance, and the sheriff’s explanation.

Federal agencies should also explain how they planned to manage demonstrations and coordinate with local authorities. Construction that draws sustained opposition requires clear arrangements for emergency response, protection of lawful protest, and investigation of alleged crimes.

The association has offered available assistance through the Arizona Department of Public Safety if requested. That offers a possible route toward cooperation while preserving the county sheriff’s independent authority.

My concern is whether the agencies involved have established a workable plan that protects residents, protesters, workers, and officers without leaving routine county services short of personnel. Answering that question requires documented facts, an opportunity for all sides to respond, and a realistic accounting of resources.

Signature of Benjamin Groff with attribution and copyright information.

Morning Coffee — The People Who Quietly Hold Us Up

September 15, 2026September 17, 2026BenjaminLeave a comment

Life is rarely held together by grand gestures. More often, it is held together by ordinary people quietly showing up when somebody needs them.

September 14, 2026

Some of the most important people in our lives rarely receive a standing ovation.

Five adults having a conversation in a library, with one taking notes — ^{_{A diverse group gathers for a thoughtful conversation among the library shelves.}}

They don’t make speeches.

They don’t arrive with trumpets sounding.

Most of the time, they simply show up.

They are the person who notices when your voice sounds different on the telephone.

The neighbor who brings your trash container back toward the house.

The friend who sends a message saying, “Just checking on you.”

The coworker who quietly finishes something because they know you’ve had a difficult day.

The family member who has heard the same story many times but listens again anyway.

These are not spectacular acts when measured individually.

But life is not held together entirely by spectacular acts.

It is held together by thousands of small ones.

We remember the people who were there when everything fell apart because their presence became part of the memory itself. Years later, we may forget exactly what they said, but we remember that they stayed.

There is tremendous comfort in knowing somebody stayed.

Sometimes that is all a person needs.

Not advice.

Not a solution.

Not someone trying to explain why everything will eventually be fine.

Just someone willing to sit beside them long enough for the world to become manageable again.

We often underestimate the value of our own presence for the same reason.

We think helping someone requires something remarkable.

Usually, it doesn’t.

A cup of coffee across the kitchen table can help.

A five-minute telephone call can help.

Remembering somebody’s birthday can help.

Asking, “How are you doing?” and actually waiting for the answer can help.

The ordinary kindnesses are rarely ordinary to the person who needed them.

So while you are having your coffee this morning, think about the people who quietly helped hold your world together at different times in your life.

Some may still be here.

Some may have already gone on.

Some may never have known how much their small kindness meant.

And then consider this:

You may be that person for somebody else today.

You might never know it.

That is the interesting thing about kindness. We rarely know how far it travels after it leaves our hands.

So make the call.

Send the message.

Hold the door.

Listen to the story.

Stay a few minutes longer.

The world has enough people trying to make grand impressions.

What it desperately needs are more people willing to make small differences.

Enjoy your coffee, and have a wonderful Tuesday.

You may never know how much a simple call, visit, or kind word means to another person. This morning’s coffee is for the people who quietly stay.