Happy Spring to All

Posted on | April 26, 2026 | No Comments

Mike Magee

As Winter gives way to Spring, I am reminded of what J. R. R. Tolkien famously wrote in a poem that appears in the first volume of The Lord of the Rings trilogy in 1954 (and Bilbo Baggins sings as part of the song “I Sit Beside the Fire and Sing” a half century later), “For still there are so many things that I have never seen: in every wood in every spring there is a different green.” Happy Spring to all.
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Microchimerism – What’s in a word?

Posted on | April 24, 2026 | No Comments

Mike Magee

According to some estimates, a medical student learns upwards of 15,000 new words during the four years of training. But the scope of the language challenge extends well beyond these tightly conscripted years since discoveries, and accompanying language to describe and label those new findings, accumulate throughout the entire span on one’s professional lifetime. And that was before AI which will spawn a world of new discoveries and terminology.

One word that has risen in prominence with the arrival of this new century is microchimerism.

“Microchimerism is the presence of cells from one individual in another genetically distinct individual.”

A 2019 review laid out the basics:

“Pregnancy is the main cause of natural microchimerism through transplacental bi-directional cell trafficking between mother and fetus.”
“Furthermore, it is now known that microchimerism persists decades later both in mother and in her progeny.”
“The consequences of pregnancy-related microchimerism are under active investigation.”

The most common cause of microchimerism is pregnancy. By 4 weeks of gestation fetal cells can be detected in the mother’s circulatory system even after stillbirth or miscarriage. The reverse is true as well. Maternal cells can be detected in newborns circulation and have been found embedded in baby’s skin, thymus, spleen, liver and thyroid.

The term first appeared in the medical literature in the 1970’s. It was intended to suggest both an unusual occurrence and an unlikely biologic mixture of living elements. “Chimera” is a mythological term associated with monstrous imagery – a creature composed of portions of multiple animals. In Greek mythology, the chimera breathes fire and possesses the body of a lion, a goat’s head arising from its back, and a snake’s head for a tail.

The description above of “cell trafficking” may seem a bit overwrought, but the modern day reality is that this phenomenon, and several other observations have triggered a radical reconsideration of the formerly rock-solid cornerstone of the field of Immunology – the capacity on a cellular and molecular level to distinguish “self” from “non-self.”

As one expert stated recently, “Numerous discoveries have focused attention on how immune responses are finely tuned by a range of contextual cues, including tissue signals, hygienist theory, molecular mimicry, symbiotic microbes, metabolic factors and epigenetic modifications… microchimeric cells in adults demonstrate that genetically foreign cells can be actively integrated into the host, challenging the simple assumption that ‘foreign’ equals unconditional attack… foreign elements might be tolerated (commensal bacteria, fetal cells, integrated viruses) or self-components might provoke aggression (autoimmunity, tumor immunity)…illustrating the remarkable plasticity of the immune system. The immune system is less a policeman patrolling a hard border than a manager of ongoing negotiations between host biology and environmental influences.”

On the leading edge of the field, “self” is no longer static, but “evolutionary” instead. In this brave new world, the vast collection of microorganisms that make up the microbiome are symbiotic, helpful, and actively evolving side by side with their “more human” cellular counterparts. Beyond the boundaries of a skin-deep innate immune system, the ecological determinants of health and illness are actively asking our systematic immune regulators to acknowledge, respond and adjust to a range of epigenetic determinants.

We’ve come a long way since Paul Ehrlich published his 1906 “General review of recent work in Immunity.” His publication at the time was a radical departure from philosopher John Locke’s 1690 “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” exploring human memory and consciousness, reaching beyond the material boundaries of the human body. Biologic terms of human identity were now up for grabs.

Over the 20th century, the field grew side-by-side with modern understanding of infectious diseases, immunity, anaphylaxis, organ transplantation, rejection and more. The questions that were cued up, and largely addressed one by one, were probing – even disturbing.

“How does the body fight and remember certain pathogens?”
“What are the molecular complexes that mark ‘selfhood?’ Do all lifeforms possess similar molecular tags? Are mine different from your’s, from even a twin?”
“How is the system regulated so that it doesn’t over-react and attack itself as it appears to do with autoimmune diseases?”
“If the body is host to trillions of microbes, many essential for normal physiology, does the immune system categorize them as foreign? Are they included in the extended sense of self?”

As the 21st century dawned, there seemed to be more questions than answers. But most immunologists believe that our human immune systems share three important characteristics: specificity, memory, and tolerance. Experts agree that these elements provide “intellectual scaffolding for the notion that ‘normal’ immunity was based on recognizing foreign antigens while ignoring the self.”

In recent years, if anything, exploration outside accepted norms for Immunology has only grown. Microchimerism, microbiomes, molecular mimicry enabling destructive autoimmune diseases like MS, all suggest that “self” is a moving target with remarkably porous boundaries.

But the field of Immunology is expanding far and wide. Here are three examples:

Immunosenesence: The phenomenon of aging has attracted immunologists. “Immuno-senescence become evident after mid-life, as thymic involution restricts the output of naive T cells, and cumulative inflammatory signals, sometimes referred to as ‘inflammaging’, begin to erode the boundary that once reliably separated self from non-self. In advanced age, weaker pathogen defenses coexist with a paradoxical rise in auto-reactive phenomena, reflecting an overall decline in regulatory stringency.”
Immunotherapy: Therapeutics are now front and central in the field. One remarkable example of success, with 5-year survival rates exceeding 50%, is metastatic melanoma. An oncologist at Sloan Kettering explains that “Immunotherapy works by stimulating the immune system to identify and destroy melanoma cells. Melanoma cells can evade the immune response by exploiting certain proteins known as checkpoints. Blocking these immune defense cells allows a direct attack on the cancer cells.”
Neuro-immune Cross Talk: “A mutual expression of molecules from both domains (Immunology and Neurology) highlights a shared ‘cognitive’ capacity: the nervous and immune systems each interpret a vast array of molecular signals, be they hormonal, neurotransmitter, or pathogen-associated cues and generate responses that maintain organismal homeostasis. In effect, the immune system becomes akin to a sensory organ, attuned not solely to microbial invaders but also to internal physiological shifts, while the nervous system extends beyond classical neurotransmission to engage in immuno-modulatory functions.”

If “microchimerism” is the word of the decade, what word will come next? Here’s a prediction.

“Holobiont is defined as a biological system consisting of a host and its symbionts, which engage in continuous exchange of information and genetic material, leading to the development of a metabolome and hologenome that adapt and persist in response to environmental factors.”

Are You Ready For The Convergence of Metaphysics, Immunology, and Epigenetics?

Posted on | April 16, 2026 | 2 Comments

Mike Magee

Stanford neuroscientist, David Eagleman, reminded us this week that “A coherent explanation of consciousness eludes modern science.” That was his opening line in the New York Times book review of Michael Pollan’s latest effort, “A World Appears.” In it, Pollan asks innocently, “How does the brain generate a unified sense of self?”

According to Eagleman, “Pollan is not able to furnish the answers (no one can, yet), but he presents a captivating exploration, one that is highly personal and sensitive.” In this, he is not alone. Other fields are engaged in the same pursuit.

To begin with, there are the epigeneticists. They study “how our environment influences our genes by changing the chemicals attached to them.” In the hands of these scientists, genes are not “set in stone and (fully) predetermined.” Of late, these investigators have been unraveling how various chemicals, working on the surface and inside cells are constantly altering and adjusting how our genes work. Thus the title, since “epi” is Greek for “over, outside of, around.”

Other investigators like Professor Eddy Keming Chen in the department of Philosophy at University of California San Diego come at the problem from a different direction. She bolstered her PhD in Philosophy with a Masters in Mathematical Physics, and a graduate certificate in Cognitive Science. She teaches the PHIL 130 course on Metaphysics.

In the UCSD college syllabus, she tees up the question, “Why study metaphysics?” She promises enrollees that if they sign up, they’ll find a bit of magic in exploring tough questions, like: “Do we have free will? Is it compatible with causal determinism? What is the place of the mind and of the consciousness in a physical world?”

In the Jesuit world that I came from, such courses were mandatory as part of the core curriculum. In my own alma mater, they no longer carry the same mandate, but still remain alive and well.

Consider, for example PHL 365 – a 3 credit course at LeMoyne College titled Philosophy of Mind. Once again, there is magic in the air for inquiring minds. Here is a description. “The main focus of the course will be the ‘mind-body problem’: can the existence of minds and mental states be reconciled with a thoroughly materialistic or physical view of the world? A second, closely connected focus will be: can mental states be implemented on a computer?”

Finally, if neither of these fields captures your imagination, you could follow the lead of Dr. Marie Duhamel, a member of the Board of Directors of the French Society of Proteomics, and research immunologist at the University of Lille. Her 2025 publication in Frontiers in Immunology, titled “Self or non self: end of a dogma?” is an epic exploration of the historical foundations of immunology, and begins this way, “The question of what constitutes the ‘self’ and how living organisms maintain their integrity against external threats has preoccupied thinkers from diverse fields, including philosophy, biology and medicine, for centuries.”

Reviewing more than a century of research that began with the birth of Immunology as a discipline, Dr. Duhamel and her co-author Professor Michel Salzet, are forced to acknowledge that prior assumptions were not entirely incorrect but represent only a portion of the truth. In their words, “Conceptually, the entire premise that the immune system’s first job is to define what is self so as not to attack it is contradicted when we consider microchimerism and pregnancy tolerance, cases in which truly foreign (paternally derived) tissues persist without triggering rejection. Similarly, the fact that the human microbiome can be vital to normal function challenges the assumption that foreignness inevitably triggers aggression.”

Where then does the truth lie? According to the authors, “The role of the immune system is to manage complex ecological relationships by distinguishing beneficial or neutral foreign entities from harmful ones. The presence of ‘harmless foreign’ elements is a mainstay in the gut, skin, and oropharynx. Moreover, the integration of viruses into the genome, sometimes with evolutionary and developmental benefits, blurs the boundary between self and foreign in a fundamental, genomic sense. Endogenous retroviral elements constitute a significant portion of human DNA, yet no robust immune aggression is mounted against these deeply embedded viral sequences. This phenomenon invites researchers to conceive of ‘self’ as including certain categories of foreign genetic material that have become symbiotic or neutral over evolutionary time.”

Before they finish, the scientists humble themselves by allowing boundaries to blur as they move freely into philosophic uncharted territory. The “magic “ is in full view, as they continue: “These concepts are consistent with the contemporary philosophy of immunology, which incorporates ecological and developmental insights, such as the observation that commensal microbes, fetal cells in the maternal circulation, or latent viruses are not automatically rejected as “non-self,” but instead coexist with the host under specific regulatory conditions.

Regardless of which road you travel, a common destination is beginning to appear on the horizon. The convergence of disciplines – Metaphysics, Immunology, Epigenetics – is no longer competitive but rather complimentary. The remaining question: Are we as a species ready for this? Can we handle the truth?

Michael Pollan obviously thinks we are. His website asks the reader to travel “the cutting edge of the field, where scientists are entertaining more radical (and less materialist) theories of consciousness. A World Appears introduces us to “plant neurobiologists” searching for the first flicker of consciousness in plants; scientists striving to engineer feelings into AI, and psychologists and novelists seeking to capture the felt experience of our slippery stream of consciousness.”

The epigeneticists are cautiously optimistic. In their words, “There’s a lot we don’t know. But that means there’s much left to discover.” But for the immunologists, with the promise of new treatments for cancer and aging, it’s full speed ahead. Their final words, “If this means embracing the ‘end of a dogma,’ it also heralds the dawn of a more integrative immunological science.’ “

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Tags: a world appears > david eagleman > eddy keming chen > epigenetics > immunology > marie duhamel > metaphysics > michael Pollan > michel Salzet > non-self > self

The History of the 25th Amendment – a 2026 Update.

Posted on | April 15, 2026 | No Comments

Mike Magee DOWNLOAD SLIDE DECK PDF 1 HOUR VIDEO LECTURE

In 2020 I taught a course at the President’s College at the University of Hartford titled “The President’s Health and the 25^th Amendment.” The questions raised then are now in 2026 even more prescient and include: 1. What is the 25th Amendment? 2. How do you define “inability” and who defines it? 3. Has Presidential “inability” been a problem in the past? 4. What is the role of the White House physician? 5. What is his/her responsibility to the nation? 6. Is a Presidential candidate required to release medical records? 7. Have White House doctors lied to the public in the past? 8. Have Presidents lied about their health? In this abbreviated format, here are 15 selected slides from that course with brief commentary.

Slide 1. The first commentary in our Constitution did not appear until 1787. This was not simply an oversight on the part of our Founding Fathers. Rather it reflected that the issue would be thorny and complicated – as it has remained to this day. In the statement, the position of Vice President is established, and (in the case of inability of the President) his duties “devolve on the Vice President” until the Congress identifies who should take the President’s place.

Slide 2. Over the next roughly half century, the issue of succession surfaces twice. In 1792, five years after the Constitutional Convention, Congress establishes that the line of succession after the Vice-President will be first to the leader of the Senate and then to the leader of the House of Representatives. When President William Henry Harrison dies in office from Typhus 49 years later, his Vice President, John Tyler”, has a local judge swear him in as “President.” John Quincy Adams is outraged by this precedent setting move since most believed he was only entitled to serve for an interim period as “Acting President.”

Slide 3. Historically, turnover in the Executive Office has been relatively common in our history requiring frequent succession. Violence and disease have been the common instigators of these crises.

Slide 4. Formal discussions regarding how best to legislatively manage succession have often followed these acute crises. On July 2, 1881, James Garfield was shot. Though incapacitated, he (and his supporters) refused to relinquish control of the government for the next 80 days until he died. When Chester Arthur, his VP assumed the Presidency, he directed the Legislature to reconsider the issue of succession. In 1886, they passed the Succession Act. It created a line of successors in the Cabinet should a President and Vice President become disabled. The successor would be titled “Acting President.” The issue of defining “inability” and who could determine “inability” was left unaddressed.

Slide 5. President Woodrow Wilson is often cited as the prime example of Presidential abuse when faced with incapacity. During his second term, exhausted from campaign efforts in support of passage of the League of Nations, Wilson suffered a stroke on October 2, 1919. For the next 15 months, Wilson’s 2^nd wife, Edith Wilson, his long time Chief of Staff, Joe Tumulty, and White House Dr. Gary Grayson entered into a conspiracy to run the government and cover up his incapacity. The VP would not confront the issue fearing he’d be accused of opportunism. When the Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, finally surfaced the problem, he was fired. Wilson had to be convinced not to run for a 3^rd term. He died on March 4, 1921.

Slide 6. White House doctors through history have routinely lied about the President’s health. Wilson’s doctor was not an outlier. FDR’s doctor, Admiral Ross McIntire, actively hid FDR’s progressive and eventually fatal Congestive Heart Failure for over a year before he died in office. This included penning a rosy portrayal of the President’s health in Collier’s magazine, titled, “Unconquerable Spirit” 2 months before he died.

Slide 7. In the middle of the Cold War, on September 24, 1955, President Eisenhower suffered a massive heart attack that confined him for months out West until he could be transported back to his home in Gettysburg, PA. He reportedly insisted on waiting until he was capable of walking unaided up the airplane stairs for a photo op. The Democratic Congress at the time asked for hearings to clarify succession issues. In 1958, rather than submit to legislative changes, Eisenhower penned a letter to Nixon, authorizing a temporary and reversible transfer of power were he to declare “inability” to govern.

Slide 8. At the time, Congress raised, and Eisenhower partly addressed the issue in his letter to Nixon.

Slide 9. Senator Frederick Payne (R, ME) had this response in 1958. The key issue he said was “Who will determine ‘inability’?”

Slide 10. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy commented directly on the role of the Vice-President in declaring “inability” if a President is unable to do so himself. After JFK is assassinated, LBJ seeks clarity on the issue of succession. A junior senator from Indiana agrees to head up a Congressional committee to explore the need for a Constitutional Amendment. Few believe it will amount to much.

Slide 11. Since 1788, there have been 11,000 proposed Amendments to the Constitution. Only 27 to date have succeeded and 10 of these were contained in the original Bill of Rights. Ratification of an Amendment requires support from 2/3 of both Houses of Congress, and approval by ¾’s of the states. On January 23, 1967, the 25^th Amendment was ratified.

Slide 12. During Nixon’s second term, the 25^th Amendment gets a work out. VP Spiro Agnew resigns in disgrace. Gerald Ford is appointed by President Nixon. Nixon resigns and Ford assumes the Presidency. Ford appoints Rockefeller as his VP.

Slide 13. During his Presidency, Ronald Reagan ignores the 25^th Amendment after an assassination attempt. His PR people create an inaccurate and deceptive heroic narrative for public consumption to cover-up the seriousness of his condition. Returning a “hero” to address both Houses of Congress helps Reagan pass his “trickle down” tax cut which is partially reversed one year later.

Slide 14. When Reagan undergoes general surgery for colon cancer, he transfers power temporarily to George H. W. Bush, but specifically notes that he is not invoking the 25^th Amendment. Late in his second term, the First Lady, and White House staff (including the White House doctors) cover-up Reagan’s declining mental status. George H. Bush is the first to formally invoke the 25^th Amendment when under anaesthesia to Dick Cheney.

Slide 15. In 1992, twenty-five years after its passage, Birch Bayh and Fordham University Dean of the Law School, John D. Feerick (both of whom were involved in creating the original language for the 25^th Amendment in 1967), co-chair a committee to re-examine the Amendment, and recommend any necessary changes. They conclude it should be left as is, deciding that the issue of both “inability” and “transfer of power” is primarily a political decision, and that transferring the power to override the result’s of the body politics vote to a medical committee, the Supreme Court, or other expert body, would create more problems than it would solve. They also reinforced their faith in Section 4 of the 25^th Amendment – a succession scheme empowering the Cabinet and the Vice-President to appeal to Congress to remove an “inable” President who refuses to leave.

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Tags: 2026 > 25th amendment > trump

Easter and Passover: The Timing of These Sacred Holidays Presses Down On Us.

Posted on | April 5, 2026 | 3 Comments

Mike Magee

Eight years ago, Rabbi Daniel F. Polish wrote an article in the Jesuit magazine America titled, “Easter and Passover have more in common than you think.”

In the final summary paragraph, he wrote:

“Pesach (or Passover) and Pascha (or Easter), beneath their manifest historical and theological content, can be seen as the human reaction to the liberation from the harsh confinement of winter to the verdant restoration of life and promise that all of us feel as we experience the bursting buds and radiant colors, the soft air and beautiful scents that mark the beginning of the new season. And more, both holidays are joined at their core in finding us rejoicing in the defeat of death and the gift of life restored.”

In the body of the article, Polish makes the case for common themes including:

Liberation: From Egyptian slavery for Jews, and from sin for Christians.

Messianic aspirations: “Next year in Jerusalem” for Jews, and the risen Christ for Christians.

Rebirth: Return to ancestral land for Jews, and the rebirth of the Son of God for Christians.

The timing of these most sacred holidays presses down on all Americans today, isolated and separated, brave and fearful, discouraged but somehow hopeful that we together will find a way to reassert “our better angels.”

Emotions are raw, self-reflection abundant, the future uncertain. But what is certain is that the same issues drug up by this wayward Administration are at the core of Pesach and Pascha – life and death have center stage.

Here are my reflections:

Death is not popular but it is inevitable. The only question is whether it is part of our lineage or something stolen away in the night.

Death is not our choice in time or place. But life can be lived with death included.

Those who never contribute never live fully. Their lives are like a series of small deaths, death to potential, death to promise, death to exploration.

Life deserves to be lived each day, considering the unpredictability of death. That death is at the end should not be feared as much as a halted life at the beginning.

Life is a continuum – being, doing, doing without. Things wear out. They break or get broken by events beyond our understanding.

Life is short. But the art of living is long. When we change, there is a sadness for what we leave behind, but a joy as well for what lies ahead. It’s a trade-off.

Losing a love along the way, that is the pain, depopulation, a hole in your world. Can it ever be filled? Perhaps not, but is that not a tribute to the one who’s gone, to the memory of the one whose pleasures made?

No time to fret. No need to rush it. Death will stop for you so why watch out, or dwell on it. A better rest, and well-deserved, a joining ‘wither thou goest’ are in your future too.

________________________________________________________

With thanks and attribution to Ruth 1:16-17, Charles Dickens, Emily Dickinson, Jean Paul Richter, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Alphonse de Lamartine, Anatole’ France, John Morley, John Henry Cardinal Newman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Joan Baez, and Hippocrates.

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Dyslexia Bites A Schoolyard Bully.

Posted on | March 27, 2026 | Comments Off on Dyslexia Bites A Schoolyard Bully.

Mike Magee

Back in 2019, Professor Harriet Feinberg Ed.D , a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education took a close look at Trump’s 1st term linguistic behavior and came to the conclusion that “Dyslexia may explain a lot about the twisted behavior of the president.”

Feinberg pegged Trump’s reading level at 5th grade – “enough to tweet and to follow a teleprompter, but not enough to comprehend a longish article in the Wall Street Journal. . . He could never have read his textbooks at Wharton School. Someone would have had to read them aloud to him or create bullet points she would grasp the main ideas.”

This past week, Donald Trump decided to get into a war of words with a person with dyslexia. His target was the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, who has struggled with the learning disability since the age of 5.

The President’s action was premeditated and intended to take the potential Democratic 2028 Presidential contender down a peg. It got pretty personal pretty fast. Trump was direct as is his way. He said simply, “Everything about him is dumb.”

In response, the governor broadened the conversation to include young Americans with the condition with these targeted words of encouragement, “To every kid with a learning disability: don’t let anyone — not even the President of the United States — bully you. Dyslexia isn’t a weakness. It’s your strength.”

Trump seemed surprised by the blowback from his “dumb” remark. It drew a stern rebuke from the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity which reminded the President that approximately 20% of the US population is challenged by some form of this condition.

Fellow dyslectic, author and political commentator, Molly Jong-Fast, quickly connected the political dots to current events: “Mr. Trump is a bully, but beyond that he tries to flatten things. Sometimes voters respond to this flattening, this simplification of complicated issues, but ultimately his refusal to see nuance in things, his inability to plan ahead, to see second- or third-order effects is his undoing (see: this war he has gotten us into).”

As the Yale experts put it, “Reading is complex. It requires our brains to connect letters to sounds, put those sounds in the right order, and pull the words together into sentences and paragraphs we can read and comprehend. People with dyslexia have trouble matching the letters they see on the page with the sounds those letters and combinations of letters make. And when they have trouble with that step, all the other steps are harder.”

Neuroscientists couldn’t agree more. Language is indeed complicated. At least five areas have been identified as role players in coordinating human capacity for language and speech.

For the dyslexic, it’s a problem with language processing. The learning issues vary widely and can include difficulties with word recognition, numeracy, spelling, writing, reading, word and symbol recognition. Taken together, these difficulties often translate into deficits in organization, motor skills, visual discernment, planning, social interaction, and short term memory. A common early flag is delayed literacy.

Gavin has been nothing short of an open book when it comes to dyslexia. On tour in support of his new memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery” last month, he revealed the challenge of being a politician unable to read a speech. In Atlanta recently, he said, “I’m no better than you. You know, I’m a 960 SAT guy.”

In Dr. Feinberg’s experience, dyslexia doesn’t predict every individual’s fate. Personality has a huge impact on future outcomes. In her view, Trump couldn’t measure up as a child, and likely began faking it at age 6 or 7 and never stopped. Early failures were covered up, paved over, and sheltered by family wealth and connections.

Dr Feinberg summarized succinctly her evaluation during Trump’s first term. She said he likely “faked and falsified his way to fame and power and enjoys overlording it over so-called ‘smart’ people and thwarting their hopes. I am suggesting that Trump’s lifelong experience with dyslexia, instead of increasing his capacity for compassion, has instead combined with problematic elements in his personality, including a penchant for revenge that was apparent even when he was a young adult.”

Attacking Gavin Newsom for an inherited disability that the governor had the courage to disclose has come back to bite a President already under siege. Fakery, grandiosity, and cruelty work well for a media personality. But governing a nation by shelving expertise and knowledge, rejecting deep cultural experience and diplomacy (while surrounding yourself with loyal sycophants who you enjoy publicly torturing as you once did in the schoolyard, or under the glare of your fake televised boardroom) is clearly not a recipe for success.

According to Dr. Feinberg, dyslexia is the key to solving the mystery that is Donald Trump. In her expert opinion, he is “a boy with a penchant for revenge.”

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Tags: dyslexia > Gavin newsom > harriet feinberg > trump

Dyslexia – Newsom vs. Trump

Posted on | March 24, 2026 | 1 Comment

Mike Magee

Under President Trump, learning disabilities – especially discussions related to syntax and the quality of language in general – have risen to epic proportions. In a recent “tit for tat” that pitted the Governor of California against the President of the United States, the language disability, dyslexia, received a thorough press airing.

Governor Gavin Newsom has been generally aware of his language learning disability since the age of 5. But over the past month, perhaps in part to address the issue before a 2028 Presidential run, he’s been leaning into his diagnosis of dyslexia stating: “To every kid with a learning disability: don’t let anyone — not even the President of the United States — bully you. Dyslexia isn’t a weakness. It’s your strength.”

His swipe at Trump didn’t come out of nowhere. Over the past week, Trump has attempted to cut his competition down to size by challenging him on cognitive terms, not once or twice but three times. Not that the critique was particularly erudite. This past week, the president simply said, “Everything about him is dumb.” That drew a stern rebuke from the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity which reminded the President that approximately 20% of the US population is challenged by some form of this condition.

Fellow dyslectic, author and political commentator, Molly Jong-Fast,connected the dots to current events: “Mr. Trump is a bully, but beyond that he tries to flatten things. Sometimes voters respond to this flattening, this simplification of complicated issues, but ultimately his refusal to see nuance in things, his inability to plan ahead, to see second- or third-order effects is his undoing (see: this war he has gotten us into).”

In contrast, experts at the Yale Center cites Governor Newsom as a “success story” in part the result of harnessing his unique approach to human language and speech, and life in general. As Newsom puts it, “One of the things you learn with dyslexia is that you’re going to fail often and you’ve got to appreciate that; as they say, failures are a portal of discovery.”

On tour in support of his new memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery” last month, he revealed the challenge of being a politician unable to read a speech. He made a point of telling his Atlanta audience, “I’m no better than you. You know, I’m a 960 SAT guy.”

Experts like K-12 educational leader, John White, former state superintendent of education in Louisiana, thinks leaning into language is a smart move. He sees fertile political ground, adding “Literacy is a complicated issue, not like cutting taxes or landing a new corporate headquarters.”

Scientists couldn’t agree more. Language is indeed complicated. At least five areas have been identified as role players in coordinating human capacity for language and speech. French neurologist and anthropologist, Paul Broca, in analyzing patients with traumatic brain injuries in 1861 was the first to pinpoint the inferior frontal gyrus as critical to speech or language articulation. These days, “Broca’s area”remains poorly understood but is viewed as one of the central processing centers for segmenting and codifying syllables, words and phrases.

Thirteen years after Broca’s observations, German physician Carl Wernicki (in 1874), while studying a patient with aphasia (the inability to speak), pinpointed several loci in the temporal lobe as critical to language comprehension. Subsequently, “Wernicki’s area” was proven essential to word retrieval, repetition and reading aloud.

Nowadays, Broca and Wernicki areas are seen as only part of a much broader and complex system. For example, for visual memory, verbal coding of numbers, and turning written language into spoken language, the angular gyrus is expert at semantic processing. And the insular cortex is the focus in generation of language and sound which requires motor neuron coordination and interlinks with the sensory and limbic brain areas.

Speech and language disorders come in many shapes and sizes. Injury to Broca’s area can interrupt speech production, while injury to Werniche’s area is often associated with loss of speech recognition. And the list goes on.

As for dyslexia, it’s a problem with language processing. The learning issues vary widely and can include difficulties with word recognition, numeracy, spelling, writing, reading, word and symbol recognition. Taken together, these difficulties often translate into deficits in organization, motor skills, visual discernment, planning, social interaction, and short term memory. A common early flag is delayed literacy.

But as Gavin Newsom reminds all in his travels around the nation, if someone calls you dumb, consider the source. Victimhood is a choice. Instead, the Governor of California promotes self-awareness and personal responsibility.