Donald Trump’s American Carnage Gone Viral

On the morning of Friday, January 20, 2017, I had already been massively depressed for the 10 weeks since that horrific November 8, 2016 evening when Donald J. Trump inexplicably became the President-elect of a country I no longer recognized. I couldn’t bear to watch 45’s inauguration, but being a political science and history buff since childhood can be a blessing and a curse.

But I knew I would have a distraction that morning. Less than a month before, I had made the decision to end the life support for a good friend. I had served as his caregiver throughout that year as he suffered from Parkinson’s Disease, early onset dementia, and ultimately multiple strokes between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Now I was alone in the West Village apartment where he’d lived for almost five decades, filling up countless garbage bags and waiting for people who were going to purchase the remaining furniture, kitchen items, books, and electronic equipment. The television was still on the premises, so as I puttered I grudgingly kept the Trump inaugural speech blaring as curiosity and background noise. And then I heard the words that would transform me from depressed to outraged, a condition with which I’ve had to struggle ever since.

“This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”