My 29-year-old daughter sent me this. That too gives me hope.
The Letter Aaron Sorkin Wrote His Daughter After
Donald Trump Was Elected President
The Oscar-winning screenwriter
of The Social Network and mastermind behind The West
Wing reacts to Donald Trump being elected the 45th president of the
United States in a moving letter written to his 15-year-old daughter Roxy and
her mother Julia Sorkin.
NOVEMBER 9, 2016 8:52 PM
(From Vanity Fair)
Sorkin Girls,
Well the world changed late last
night in a way I couldn’t protect us from. That’s a terrible feeling for a
father. I won’t sugarcoat it—this is truly horrible. It’s hardly the first time
my candidate didn’t win (in fact it’s the sixth time) but it is the first time
that a thoroughly incompetent pig with dangerous ideas, a serious psychiatric
disorder, no knowledge of the world and no curiosity to learn has.
And it wasn’t just Donald Trump who
won last night—it was his supporters too. The Klan won last night. White
nationalists. Sexists, racists and buffoons. Angry young white men who think
rap music and Cinco de Mayo are a threat to their way of life (or are the
reason for their way of life) have been given cause to celebrate. Men who have
no right to call themselves that and who think that women who aspire to more
than looking hot are shrill, ugly, and otherwise worthy of our scorn rather
than our admiration struck a blow for misogynistic shitheads everywhere. Hate
was given hope. Abject dumbness was glamorized as being “the fresh voice of an
outsider” who’s going to “shake things up.” (Did anyone bother to ask how? Is
he going to re-arrange the chairs in the Roosevelt Room?) For the next four
years, the President of the United States, the same office held by Washington
and Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, F.D.R., J.F.K. and Barack Obama,
will be held by a man-boy who’ll spend his hours exacting Twitter vengeance
against all who criticize him (and those numbers will be legion). We’ve
embarrassed ourselves in front of our children and the world.
And the world took no time to
react. The Dow futures dropped 7,000 points overnight. Economists are
predicting a deep and prolonged recession. Our NATO allies are in a state of
legitimate fear. And speaking of fear, Muslim-Americans, Mexican-Americans and
African-Americans are shaking in their shoes. And we’d be right to note that
many of Donald Trump’s fans are not fans of Jews. On the other hand, there is a
party going on at ISIS headquarters. What wouldn’t we give to trade this small
fraction of a man for Richard Nixon right now?
So what do we do?
First of all, we remember that
we’re not alone. A hundred million people in America and a billion more around
the world feel exactly the same way we do.
Second, we get out of bed. The
Trumpsters want to see people like us (Jewish, “coastal elites,” educated,
socially progressive, Hollywood…) sobbing and wailing and talking about moving
to Canada. I won’t give them that and neither will you. Here’s what we’ll do…
…we’ll fucking fight. (Roxy,
there’s a time for this kind of language and it’s now.) We’re not powerless and
we’re not voiceless. We don’t have majorities in the House or Senate but we do
have representatives there. It’s also good to remember that most members of
Trump’s own party feel exactly the same way about him that we do. We make sure
that the people we sent to Washington—including Kamala Harris—take our strength
with them and never take a day off.
We get involved. We do what we can
to fight injustice anywhere we see it—whether it’s writing a check or rolling
up our sleeves. Our family is fairly insulated from the effects of a Trump
presidency so we fight for the families that aren’t. We fight for a woman to
keep her right to choose. We fight for the First Amendment and we fight mostly
for equality—not for a guarantee of equal outcomes but for equal opportunities.
We stand up.
America didn’t stop being America
last night and we didn’t stop being Americans and here’s the thing about
Americans: Our darkest days have always—always—been followed by our finest
hours.
Roxy, I know my predictions have
let you down in the past, but personally, I don’t think this guy can make it a
year without committing an impeachable crime. If he does manage to be a douche
nozzle without breaking the law for four years, we’ll make it through those
four years. And three years from now we’ll fight like hell for our candidate
and we’ll win and they’ll lose and this time they’ll lose for good. Honey,
it’ll be your first vote.
The battle isn’t over, it’s just
begun. Grandpa fought in World War II and when he came home this country handed
him an opportunity to make a great life for his family. I will not hand his
granddaughter a country shaped by hateful and stupid men. Your tears last night
woke me up, and I’ll never go to sleep on you again.
Love,
Dad
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