Let's Row Together

I've been TRUMPED. My March 4th Zoom event with the National Archives is no longer happening.

Am I cancelled? Or indefinitely postponed?

Hard to know.

But one thing seems clear: No matter what we call it, I’ve been Trumped.

I won’t be doing my scheduled March 4th National Archives’ Zoom about the legal action I took in 1977 to fight gender discrimination against Major League Baseball.

Here is all I know about the erasure of my March 4th event, as told to me in an email.

Feb 3, 2025, 4:02 PM

“I apologize for the inconvenience, but due to scheduling issues, we've had to adjust our programming plans in March. Unfortunately, we're not going to be able to host this program as planned.

We are evaluating our programming for the year and I hope we will be able to work with you at a later date.

Please let me know if you have any questions.”

Let me make crystal clear that I know my erasure amounts to a pin prick in the collage of ever-expansive suffering being imposed on vulnerable Americans — and foreigners, think USAID – due to Trump’s policies, not yet stopped by the courts, and DOGE’s illegal overreach.

NOTE: Hours after I wrote this essay, the President fired our National Archivist Colleen Shogan in what can only be seen as a case of personal retribution based on the Archives oversight role in his Mar-a-Lago documents case.

I’ve been talking with the National Archives about this nationwide event as part of its Inside the Vault program since last April. Why? The National Archives holds and preserves the legal brief in Ludtke v. Kuhn (see this in the visual, below) filed with the Southern District Court in Manhattan.

As recently as January 14th, we’d exchanged emails to finalize our plans: “Appreciate the quick response and your patience as we finalize the details!!”

March 4th would not have been the first time I’d spoken about women, sports and equality with the National Archives. Three years ago, the Archives invited me to host its Sept. 22, 2022 online event “Sports and Women: Telling the Stories of the Quest for Equality” to complement its Washington, D.C. exhibit All-American: The Power of Sports, which told these stories through documents the Archives holds.

September 22, 2022, YouTube recording of Sports and Women National Archives event

My legal case remains woven into the fabric of the National Archives website, with it being featured in many educational resources, including the Fourteenth Amendment, First Amendment, Press. Amending America. Baseball, and Impact of Bill of Rights.

New Words for Our Unprecedented Times

On Tuesday evening, I was in Denver’s Tattered Cover Book Store talking about my younger years as a female first in baseball with Major League Baseball’s first female primary play-by-play broadcaster Jenny Cavnar.

When I arrived back home, my Denver host and longtime friend, David Conger, texted me words he thought might come in handy in our rapidly changing political times.

I am sharing them with YOU. They could be useful!

Pro·crus·te·an

adjective

Enforcing uniformity or conformity without regard to natural variation or individuality.

"a fixed Procrustean rule"

This word owes its existence to Procrustes, a son of the Greek god Poseidon. He robbed and killed his victims by stretching those who were too short or cutting off the legs of those who were too tall to make them fit his iron bed.

mi·sol·o·gy

noun

Hatred of reason, argument, or enlightenment.

Then, this morning, Paul Krugman, former New York Times columnist, handed me this word/concept in his Substack

Autogolpes/ Self-coup

noun

A coup d'état performed by the current, legitimate government or a duly elected head of state to retain or extend control over government, through an additional term, an extension of term, an expansion of executive power, the dismantling of other government branches, or the declaration that an election won by an opponent is illegitimate.

Paul Krugman: “When a legitimately elected leader uses his position to seize total control, eliminating legal and constitutional restraints on his power.”

Cruelty Abounds

I decided to visualize the chilling, cancelling, callous, and weaponized circumstances of daily lives, and then I do the same with emerging signs of resistance.

VIVA La Resistance

My Vision to Restore My Sanity

At moments of despair, I imagine an orange-haired man as a modern-day Icarus, the mythical son of sculptor Daedalus. Icarus’s hubris led to his fall.¹

With wings of feathers and wax, Icarus flew too close to the sun demonstrating consequences of his recklessness and excessive ambition.

My Book, Washington, D.C. in Women’s History Month

Please note change in time for this book event; it is 5:00 to 6:00 pm

On March 8th, 5:00 to 6:00 pm at Wonderland Books, a women-owned independent bookstore in Bethesda, Maryland I will talk with Washington Post sportswriter Ava Wallace about Locker Room Talk.

March 6, 2025, 7:00 - 8:30: New Rochelle (N.Y.) Library with Yankees broadcaster Suzyn Waldman

Reminders about Locker Room Talk

To buy Locker Room Talk at a discount, go to my book’s page at Rutgers University Press and apply this code RUSA30 for a 30% discount + free shipping.

If you buy a book and want me to write an inscription, I’ll sign a bookplate and send it to you. Just email me – melissa.ludtke@gmail.com – with the relevant info about the person to whom I will write this inscription, along with the mailing address.

If you are a member of a book club? If your book group decides to read Locker Room Talk, I’d be happy to join your members in discussing it via Zoom or in person, if you meet nearby. Let me know of your interest and we’ll work it out.

Want to wear a Locker Room Talk baseball cap in white, black, blue or green, go to SHOP on my website, melissaludtke.com, to place your order.

A fun, unique gift for a special someone in your life.

1. Note: what I imagine with this vision is not the death of our President, but diminishment of his unbridled power brought about by Congress, the courts and the people.