Excerpt from newsletter from xxxx (redacted) Family Institute, received on September 11 at 5:09 PM:

“When the World Feels Like It is Breaking. Everyone is talking about the death of Charlie Kirk, and everything related to it. And if we’re all talking about it, it means it matters. People are angry. They want their voices to be heard. They’re trying to make sense of horrors that feel senseless. Minds are spinning with painful images, and uncertainty about what’s next…I am noticing hopelessness creeping in. Use ‘I’ statements…model forgiveness…May you find strength to hold your children, courage to hold your grief, and hope to keep showing up.“

My response, sent September 11 at 6:27 PM:

“Dear xxxx (redacted) Family Institute: I will unsubscribe to your mailing list, but I also felt that it was important for you to understand why I am unsubscribing. Here is an “I” statement for you: I find it incredibly troubling that you would send out this message in response to the death of a man who advocated – nay, reveled in – so much gun violence, racism and misogyny, yet not in response to the multitude of school shootings that have occurred. One even occurred yesterday and yet that merits no mention from you – although the death of a single individual did. And not just any individual – an individual who openly stated that gun deaths were a price worth paying to protect the 2nd Amendment (obviously not meaning his own – other people’s – schoolchildren being fine – everyone besides MAGA folks), a man who suggested -and continued to suggest up to the moment of his death – that transgender individuals were responsible for a majority of mass shootings and “gang violence” responsible for more, that children should be witness to public executions, that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a “huge mistake”, who called MLK Jr. “awful”, that being gay was an “error”, etc, etc…among a plethora of other statements of hatred and bigotry.

I can only hope that your organizational priorities also include supporting children and families who feel broken living in a society that is showing the undeniable taint of the violent propaganda, hatred, and unfettered access to firearms espoused by people such as Charlie Kirk, who has merited – for some perplexing reason – such a place of honor in this newsletter.

Yours sincerely,

etc.etc.” 

If you’ve known me for awhile, relative to who I will be voting for in 17 days – it’s pretty clear already – Kamala. Obviously.

Kamala Harris is – simply put – the more qualified candidate, by leaps and bounds. She is highly educated, a former prosecutor, has served as Vice President. She has clear, coherent plans and actions to address key issues. That’s all there is to say about her.

Unfortunately, I have many more personal opinions and thus much more to say about her opponent.

I do not think Trump is fit to hold any office. I don’t think he’s even fit to be a manager in a midrate corporation, frankly. As far back in his checkered past as you want to look (from the Roy Cohn days to the Central Park Five to his media circus marriages, bankruptcies, reality television, pageants) – he has never been anything except out for his own best interests. He is a felon. He is a sexual abuser. He has made sexually suggestive statements about underage women including his own daughter.

He has stated that we will never vote again if he becomes president. He has blatantly said he will be dictator on day one. He has said terribly disrespectful things about our military and our veterans and has shown to me that his use of patriotism, Christianity and the Bible are cheap and exceptionally crass gambits for legitimacy without a shred of honesty.

I think he’s every bit as addle-brained and affected by issues of competency and coherence as anything that was ever said about Joe Biden.

I despise his racially biased rhetoric, his unwillingness to disavow white supremacy, his contempt for women, the shambles he has made of SCOTUS, and how he has stripped away healthcare for women and their right to bodily autonomy. He has inspired a clown car of stupid, crude, and hateful followers who now feel it’s acceptable to voice their hatred of anything not male and white. They demonize women and immigrants and think school shootings are false flags (to the point that they will harass, verbally abuse and threaten survivors and follow them around during visits to Washington DC – hello, Marjorie Taylor-Greene). He’s given a voice to ignorant and dishonest politicians who are equally selfishly motivated (Vance, Taylor-Greene, Gaetz, Boebert, Lake, Abbott, Cruz – I’m looking at you).

He inspired, fomented, and encouraged an armed insurrection, despite his current claims that it was an unarmed ‘day of love’. He encouraged his supporters to do violence against elected politicians of his party and those across the aisle. He watched them trample our capital, deface it, assault police officers, loot, steal, rob, all the while sitting in the White House eating fast food. He has shown that he does not respect the fundamentals of our democracy, he does not support a peaceful transition of power, and he will sow discontent and undermine our country’s democracy to stay in power. After January 6, which I watched live on multiple channels, as it happened, I cannot believe we are having any conversation that involves his political viability.

I believe Donald Trump was unfit to be president the first time around. The only thing that has changed is that he’s gotten worse. He is unfit to be president (or hold any office) ever again.