Help
By Julie A. Ryan
Oh, how I miss simpler times when sunny days like today in Minnesota were spent dancing around May poles, making May baskets, and decorating Virgin Mary statues with flowers. On May 1, 2026 many people in my state and across the country were compelled to use demonstrations intended to show support for workers and unions to also try to save our country from Donald Trump, Trump’s cabinet, and Trump’s kangaroo court. The increasing pain Trump is causing at workplaces, at the gas pump, in grocery stores, in immigrant homes, and in so many other areas across our nation has many of us sending distress signals.
The Morse code signal SOS was difficult to hear by pilots and ground crews when there was static on the radio. So over a hundred years ago in 1923, Frederick Stanley Mockford, a radio officer at an airport in England, was given the job of creating a distress call that could be clearly heard over the radio across the English Channel. So that French and English speakers could understand the term, he chose “mayday,” which is the English equivalent of the French “m’aider” for “help me.” Around 1927 the term was used for international aviation and maritime use. Today, people around the world recognize “mayday” as a signal of grave danger requiring immediate assistance. Guaranteeing that it’s understood through radio static, the term should be said three times in a row.
Unfortunately, as long as Trump and his supplicants are in power, every day in America will continue to be Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!
© 2026 by Julie A. Ryan. All rights reserved.
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WHEN LIFE WAS STILL . . . 