Numbers

With Liberty and Justice for All

Numbers. As a young teen, I vaguely remember the use of the number “69.” Until I looked it up today, I don’t think I really knew what it meant, just that it was somehow a sexual term that you shouldn’t say unless you were one of the bad boys on the school bus. Considering my sexual knowledge at thirteen was pretty much non-existent, I wouldn’t have had a clue.

In our youngest generation today, the magic number is 6-7. As a woman of a certain age, I had no idea what it meant when I first heard it, but as a woman of a certain age with first-grade grandchildren, I’ve since heard it way more than necessary. For the uninitiated, 6-7 (six seven, not sixty-seven), explains Annabelle Canela at Parents.com is hard to explain. “Teens and adults alike have tried to explain it. Some say it means “so-so,” especially since kids often pair the phrase with an up-and-down hand motion. Others argue it refers to a person who is tall, some think it stands for a basketball term, and so on. The bottom line is, the term “six seven” is nonsensical—which is sort of the point. As one tween TikToker put it under another video, ‘I think the point is that it makes no sense.’” So now you know.

This week, the number in the news is 86-47. Apparently, if you see those numbers outlined in seashells as you walk along the beach, don’t take a picture of it and don’t you dare post that picture to social media, because if you do, you can be charged with threatening to take the life of the president of the United States, Title 18, United States Code, Section 871(a). To make matters worse, you could also be charged with transmitting that threat via interstate and international commerce (as in Instagram), Title 18, Section 875(c). These are punishable with up to five years in federal prison, as well as a $250,000 fine. Yikes!

In case this scares you away from the beach this summer, you probably don’t need to worry unless your name is James Comey, the former head of the FBI. I’m not Comey’s biggest fan, but come on. He didn’t post a video of President Biden hog-tied in the bed of a truck as another prominent person did in 2024 (IYKYK – or else google it). It’s likely Comey understood Merriam-Webster’s primary definition of “86” as “slang meaning to throw out, to get rid of, or to refuse service to,” as understood in the restaurant business. Reportedly, when he was informed by the Secret Service that an alternate meaning of “86” could involve a threat to one’s life, he immediately removed the offending post.

And now he’s indicted. CNN’s Kaitlin Collins says a former Department of Justice official told her, “This may be the worst case DOJ has filed in my lifetime.” Barbara McQuade of MS-NOW suggests what we can figure out: “. . . this charge seems like one more effort to exact revenge against one of Trump’s rivals. It also seems consistent with DOJ official Ed Martin’s pledge to ‘name and shame’ those who allegedly weaponized government in prior administrations. Even if the Justice Department cannot convict Comey, prosecutors can make his life miserable for several months by forcing him to pay for a lawyer, occupy his time and attention, emotionally exhaust his family and disparage his reputation.”

That is the goal. It’s highly unlikely that James Comey, Fed chair Jerome Powell, or NY AG Leticia James will be convicted of a crime based on the evidence gathered in their various cases. But if they can be named and shamed, then their opponents will consider their efforts successful. It’s a vicious trap that ensnares its prey, requiring them to defend themselves against seashells.

James Comey recognizes what he is up against. “And this won’t be the end of it. But nothing has changed with me. I’m still innocent. I’m still not afraid. And I still believe in the independent federal judiciary, so let’s go.”

I’m guessing Comey will be OK in the end. He knows his way around the corridors of power, and it’s likely he will garner financial, legal and moral support during this process. But what about us ordinary citizens who thought the First Amendment gave us freedom to verbalize an assortment of numbers or to post photos of seashells on a beach? We may hesitate the next time we want to speak out, and that seems to be the point.

Often attributed to Thomas Jefferson, the following words were more likely uttered by John Basil Barnham in 1914, yet still echo today: “Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.” As the sweet Emma Belle recited to me yesterday, might we live in a land “with liberty and justice for all.”