NEVER FORGET
Let history be our motivation to accomplish 'one of the greatest things ever ...'
Dear Readers,
It has been 2,860 days since the horrible election that came within a hair of finishing off the United States of America.
Where were you on November 8, 2016, when the ghastly groper, and our nation’s most monumental liar and sellout, Donald Trump, was improbably projected to move into our White House?
Me? I was in the proximity of the State of Shock here in my present hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. I take no pride in admitting it might have been the worst night of my life, and still shakes me to the core to this very day.
I am not the same man I was on November 7, 2016, when I thought for sure we were but 24 hours away from finally breaking the highest, most impenetrable glass ceiling in America, while also taking the rancid trash out to the curb.
Nearly eight years later, I still haven’t gotten over it. I am a nervous man, who knows he can no longer trust his country to do the right thing, and that is one helluva thing.
On the morning after the 2008 election, when Barack Obama was elected our 44th president in a landslide, I was at work in Darmstadt, Germany, helping put a newspaper together as the Managing Editor of Stars & Stripes when the phone rang.
A female reporter from the venerable French newspaper Le Monde was on the other end looking for American reaction to the historic event. Before she began her questioning she said this:
“Let me just say that Americans are capable of doing the stupidest things ever like reelecting George Bush, and then capable of doing the greatest things ever like electing Barack Obama. We never know what to expect!”
I told her that as a journalist myself, she wasn’t going to get my opinion on the election, or anything else, but I am free to tell you today that her words have always resonated with me.
We are but 59 days from another election that will define us a nation. Will we rise up and do one of “the greatest things ever” and finally blow the roof off of that glass ceiling, or will we do one of “the stupidest things ever” and elect a revolting man who we know for a fact means us harm?
The world is watching.
This nervous man has been busy this week filling your inboxes with all manner of copy reverberating from this year’s history-making election season. If you were busy with life, here’s a quick recap:
On Tuesday, I put on my satirist’s hat, the one I wore when I penned my book following the terrible blast on November 8, 2016, to help cope with the shock. In Tuesday’s offering — Labor Day at Mar-a-Lago — I wrote of a meeting at the desperate Florida man’s garish country club where he gathered his broken, fawning minions to try to stem the tide from the blue wave that is currently building across America.
On Wednesday, I took to my keyboard as a Navy veteran to break out a story — Pulling rank — of a truly great man, Admiral Mike Mullen, who took Trump to task for desecrating America’s most hallowed ground — Arlington National Cemetery. I got to know Mullen a bit during my time at Stars and Stripes, and didn’t come across a straighter shooter or a man of such absolute integrity. His words about Trump’s disgusting visit to Arlington are a must-read.
Finally, on Thursday, I put on my journalist’s hat and typed with fury about an Op/Ed the publisher of The New York Times, A.G. Sulzberger, had the audacity to write inside the pages of The Washington Post. These two newspapers have completely lost their way and have catastrophically failed America with “their despicable lack of reporting and absurd, both-sides bullshit on these critical issues (that) has been absolutely breathtaking. They have literally surrendered wide swaths of their news hole each day in this “quiet war” to include authoritarian talking points, and right-wing conjecture that simply have no place in fact, and serve nobody but the fascist scoundrels who mean our democracy harm.” I was only getting started in my piece, Beyond words.
If you haven’t yet, I hope you’ll have a look ...
Finally … As we head into the homestretch of this seemingly never-ending election, I want to express my deep gratitude to you for spending time with my copy at Enough Already, and for your wise words and support.
I am honored to have gotten to know so many of you, and humbled by the work you are doing to make sure November 5th is one of America’s greatest days ever.
To those of you have taken out paid subscriptions to help keep the lights on and support this nervous man, I am truly thankful. I do hope you feel like you are getting your hard-earned money’s worth. To those of you who can’t, or would rather not, I get it, and appreciate your camaraderie, readership, and devotion to this democratic cause.
There are now more than 11,000 of you on this badass team, and I like our chances of knocking back anything that confronts us.
I wish you all a peaceful weekend, and want you to never forget that you are on the right side of the fight. Over the course of my long lifetime, I have found there is nothing more important than that.
-Earl
(D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.)
Great, as always, Earl! I, too, do not trust my fellow humans, and am no longer the same person I was before that dreadful day, so I’m right there with ya!
Thank you for everything! 💙
I was curled up in tears on my bathroom floor, literally sobbing & screaming in disbelief. I have a knot in my stomach right now that never goes completely away & I’m terrified this will end up at the SC or Congress to decide. This MUST be a landslide & we immediately need to expand the SC if we can have any hope of a future, because these nazis will not stop at this election! Thank you for your beautiful writing, it really gives me hope.