Saturday, January 9, 2021
Good Morning, my fellow Americans.As I begin writing this commentary, Donald J. Trump, whose Twitter account has been mercifully, permanently terminated, lies in the White House bedroom -- probably, God Help Us, in Lincoln's very own bed -- trembling, like a bad bowl of Jell-O, with anger and indignity, fear and foreboding.
Where, he wonders, will he be come January 21st? Will he be languishing in jail? Will he be puking out his beloved diatribes on a brand-new platform, funded by QAnon and his corporate Fat Cats and ardently read by his ragtag army of gun-toting, flag-shaming, bully-brained sycophants?
Perhaps he'll simply be in Solitary Confinement, holed up for All Eternity in Mar-a-Lago, his tastelessly conceived, obscenely opulent bunker down in West Palm Beach, making his daily deposits -- his foul-smelling, trademark articulations -- into his gold-plated porcelain halo. All of this while staring reverently at his beloved, ridiculously pretentious, narcissistic self portrait.
I've faith that we as a country will finally be cleansed of this amoral, culturally illiterate blight on the once-loved, once-admired United States of America. And with any luck, the worst of his cowardly, ass-kissing enablers -- the Millers, the O'Connell's, the Cruz's, the Giuliani's, the Donald Trump, Jr's of the world -- will be flushed down the drain with him, never to be seen or heard from again.
But until we've rid ourselves of Trump and his hideous posse of heartless tyrants, we must remember that we as individuals have work to do -- work that's no less important than the work of purging our Democracy of its poisons, then working tirelessly to hold it together and keep it pure.
We have families to love and care for; aspirations to achieve; dreams to come true; and perhaps most importantly, our own unique, invaluable intellects to nurture. We cannot allow the scourge of the Trump family ethic -- its astonishing greed, self-indulgence, and rank materialism -- to deprive us of our inalienable rights and hard-earned pleasures.
Is there a work of art you've always wanted to paint? Is there a disease you hope to conquer? A class full of students you want to teach? An environment you want desperately to clean up and make livable again?
Don't let the Trumps and Giuliani's of the world stop you! Your intellect and your idealism are as much in need of maintenance as your physical self! You're ultimately responsible for whoever you choose to become -- whatever you wish to accomplish -- so make it a Thing of Beauty!
And while you're at it, my fellow Americans of every kind, color and political conviction, be kind to your friends, your relatives and all of the many people you pass on the street on a given day. And find a way, on every one of those days, to bring dignity and decency to yourself and everyone around you. ◼︎
-- Ross Alan Bachelder, Berwick, Maine
PS: We love you, Mary Trump, for having the extraordinary courage to Tell it Like it Really Is.
