By Douglas Pugh
My grandson, Benjamin, has been selected to play the lead in his drama club’s production of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.” It was voted best new play in 2013.
Ben is 16. He lives in England with his father, my son, and his mother and siblings. I don’t see him as often as I’d like, and I may not be there to watch his performance, but I’ve read the script.
Ben has a demanding role.
He plays the part of an autistic boy, Christopher. Christopher follows a course that may seem ill-advised at times, but those paths forward are clear to him, and any threatened deviations can cause him stress and resistance.
Christopher sticks to his guns.
So when a neighbor lady’s dog, Wellington, is killed with a pitchfork, Christopher expresses more than regret. He proclaims the dog’s death an act of evil that must be addressed and resolves to do something about it.
But Christopher is told to mind his own business, to let others find the person who committed the terrible deed, to not go around asking a lot of awkward questions, making a nuisance of himself, and generating unwelcome attention.
Christopher suffered limitations poorly; didn’t always do what he was told.
The play follows Christopher’s search for truth and justice and the issues he encounters along the way.
Though he was told that Wellington was only a dog, Christopher was not diswayed “I think dogs are important, and when someone gets murdered, you have to find out who did it so they can be punished.”
Recently, I received a letter from my Congressman. I had written him about my concerns regarding the shooting deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffery Pretti by ICE agents in Minnesota. In his response to me, the Congressman assured me that thorough “internal” investigations were being conducted.
Christopher would not be pleased with the limitations inherent in any “internal” investigation of Wellington’s death if that investigation excluded an objective “external” investigation such as is occurring in Minnesota in response to the deaths of Good and Pretti.
Limiting the investigation of homicides to an internal inquiry by an agency whose agents caused them, is like letting a fox in a hen house, then appointing he or she as head of hen house security.
Local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in Minnesota and their prosecutors are being denied access to the evidence surrounding these killings; evidence needed to conduct a thorough, independent investigation that if merited, would support referral to a jury to determine if two human beings had been shot down like dogs.
When I was young, I would stay with grandmother when my parents were out of town on business. Invaribly, at some point during my stay, she would send me to the neighborhood grocery store for Archway cookies.
When they were young and still at home, she sent my father and his siblings for Archway cookies. So, they were a tradition, of sorts, those archway cookies.
My grandmother was an undocumented immigrant. She had been born in Canada.
My grandfather was also undocumented. He had been placed in an orphanage, “The Little Wanderers Home” in London, England, at the age of four following his parents’ death. At the age of 7, he was moved to a farm in Canada, and at 17, walked into the world alone.
He met my grandmother in Canada. They married, and he began following a crew of iron workers, work that, years later, brought them to my hometown, Alpena, Mich., where they stayed.
My father was born in this country, so was I.
In January of 2025, President Trump signed an administrative order eliminating birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants. Lower-level federal courts have stayed that order, finding it violates the 14th Amendment to our Constitution. Those stays have been affirmed by higher courts. An appeal to the Supreme Court is now pending.
Were it not for that constitutional provision of birthright citizenship, my father would not have been a citizen, as he was born here of undocumented immigrants. Since I would have been born to a non-citizen, would my citizenship be denied?
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case in April. A decision is expected in June or July.
If my grandmother were yet alive, knowing what her undocumented status now entails, and if my father and I were with her, I doubt she would send either of us for Archway cookies.
Doug Pugh is a retired judge from northern Michigan. He and his wife are wintering on Fripp Island and are pleased to be there. He can be reached at pughda@gmail.com.