It finally happened. In January I turned 88. There must be advantages in being 88, but what they are beats me. Everything hurts. Walking hurts, playing ball with the dog is near impossible. Hearing is difficult and results in misunderstandings with my wife. She’s slightly deaf too. It is amazing that we can agree on anything as often it turns out that we are not speaking about the same subject.
Whereas when I was a mere 87, I thought of myself as a colonel in the ranks of the aged, I now have been promoted to general. The saving grace of being 88 is that the aged are practically venerated in this country. Doors are held open, assistance volunteered, and sympathy shines in practically eye. Most people want to live longer. For some, I am an example of what is possible if only you lead a good life. Let me tell you, I never led a good life. Nothing I ever did has earned me this long life. I have cussed, blasphemed, drunk hard liquor and gallivanted with wimen [sic] not my wife. I hasten to add that the gallivanting occurred when I was a mere lad of 50, before I married my present wife.
Donald Trump
One of the problems of being my age is that you have seen almost everything in the last almost 90 years: the good, the bad and the ugly. The good was often short-lived. The end of World War II was good but the war was horrible.
Speaking of horrors, we now have Donald Trump, who seems to me to be doing a poor imitation of Benito Mussolini. If Trump only spoke Italian he’d be a dead ringer for Il Duce. Trump’s strut is an emulation of the self satisfaction that Il Duce portrayed. Like Il Duce, Trump thinks he is the smartest man in the world and that everyone in government is an idiot. Mussolini came to a bad end, strung upside down by his fellow countrymen. While I wish nothing of the kind to the Donald, I wouldn’t mind that happening to him figuratively. His defeat in Iowa may be a first step.
I used to think that young people who thought that this is the worst time in the history of the country were wrong because they did not remember the previous disasters: World War I, Pearl Harbor, World War II, for example. Now I am not so sure. I can’t remember a time when I thought this country in greater peril than it is now. His terrible mixture of racism and his awful habit of saying the first thing that comes to mind leads me to think that he is absolutely unqualified to be president.
Our beloved aunt, who lived with us until she died at age 92, said she stayed alive because she was always curious as to what happened next. If Trump becomes president, I will have no curiosity left.
Arthur Joel Katz, who generally goes by ‘Joel,’ is a Lower Saucon Township resident. In addition to Saucon Source he has written for Hellertown-Lower Saucon Patch and the former Saucon News. He is the author of the novel “Making Harriet.”