Five years ago I wrote that sixty-five was everyone’s last birthday. You enter the 65+ category and you’re just one of the millions of baby boomers who are parents of adult children and grandparents. Your adult children will eventually start treating you like a child and your grandchildren will grow bored rather than excited when they visit. But I would now argue, that I’m turning seventy, that birthdays that end in zero have a special significance. Kids get exited when they turn ten, double digits, and they have many more ahead. Birthdays that end in zero are more special than all the others. You’ve completed another decade. Birthdays marking another decade sound better. They can be expressed in one word. Even seventy sounds better than sixty-nine. Birthdays ending in nine are the worst. It’s as if you’re waiting to be accepted into a new club, but you’re just not big enough. When we were kids, we always wanted to hang out with the big kids.

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For people of a certain age, meaning older people, the question that is asked with every new encounter with a friend is, “Did you get the vaccine yet?” It is like waiting for acceptance into an exclusive club. When just about all your friends say, “Oh, yes we got our shot”, very casually as if to say, “Of course, we got the shot, haven’t you?” You then have to sheepishly say you’ve been trying for weeks and you’re on nine lists waiting to be notified and you’re very frustrated. You know deep down that your vaccinated friends are thinking “Loser”. You wonder why they are being notified for an appointment and you’re not. You can’t get away from those pictures of that needle going into all those old arms. I wince with jealously every time I see it. It’s the lead story on every newscast. Millions of vaccines are on the way. President Biden says there will be enough vaccine available for every American by the end of May. But will there be one for me and my wife?

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It’s hard to imagine, but I’m about to agree with Donald Trump. He has gone after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as he has many others who dared criticize him and failed to show unwavering loyalty. In a blistering attack on McConnell, Trump called him, “a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack”. Trump called on Republicans in the senate to replace McConnell. Trump’s description fits. McConnell years of supporting and enabling Trump’s madness will haunt him forever. He’s gone from the powerful position of controlling the senate and giving Trump what he wanted to a pathetic, disingenuous loser. Just look at his behavior on this second impeachment trial. First he said all senators should vote their conscience, indicating he had an open mind on the case. He then delayed the start of the trial. He then voted not to have the trial at all because of the lame argument that impeaching a president who had already left office was unconstitutional. Most constitutional experts disagree. He then voted to acquit Trump. And finally, he stood on the senate floor and said, “There is no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.”

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Yes, I watched just about all of the Trump impeachment trial over the last week. I, along with everyone else, knew what the results would be. But it was history. It was important to witness what the two sides would say to make their case for incitement of insurrection. The House managers wove together a compelling visual case of the months long campaign by Trump to deny the election results and whip his fanatic followers into a frenzy that ended in one of the worst days in American history. Trump’s defense lawyers said Trump was exercising his First Amendment right of free speech and was not responsible for the actions of the mob he encouraged and the whole impeachment trial was unconstitutional. But it really didn’t matter in the end.

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You may have never heard of Lord Acton, a British politician, historian, and writer in the 19th century. He’s credited with the phrase, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” It has been proven over the history of civilization. Unchecked power is a dangerous drug. A story broke this week in the Los Angeles Times about an investigation into allegations of racists remarks, bullying of female managers, and the blocking of efforts to hire and retain Black journalists at some of the 28 CBS owned television stations. The President of the Division Peter Dunn and his number two man David Friend, the Vice President and News Director at WCBS-TV in New York, have now been put on leave while there is an investigation by an outside law firm. A couple of years ago allegations of sexual misconduct led to the firing of CBS President Les Moonves, Anchor Charlie Rose, and 60 Minutes Executive Producer Jeff Fager. Dunn and Friend remained in their jobs.

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The dawn of the new day in America actually came at dusk last night at the Reflection Pool flowing out from the Lincoln Memorial. The hundreds of lights that lined the pool to pay silent tribute to the 400 thousand Americans who died from the virus that has consumed the country. A few brief words from Joe Biden finally brought light and empathy that all of us longed for through this darkest of years. The comforting words of “Amazing Grace” sung by the young nurse from Detroit who has been treating Covid patients and trying to cheer and encourage her fellow health care workers as they tried to treat and comfort the dying. We were seeing a man who has suffered losses beyond words who understands what the country needs.

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There was no shortage of important news stories this year that effected just about everyone and will change the world going forward. The latest news comes right to our phone. The philosophy of every news organization should be, be right and be first, in that order. The use of “Breaking News” started years ago on local news broadcasts. As cable news grew, the birth of the internet and smart phones, the competition became intense, not only on the air, but on Social Media. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and others. News became a 24 hour flow of information. There was a constant need to have new and updated information no matter how insignificant. The best way to grab viewers and readers attention is to label it “Breaking News” and send alerts right to your phone, if you didn’t happen to be watching television.

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Today can be seen as the first day of the rest of our lives. The Pfizer vaccine to conquer Covid started going into the arms of health care workers across the country, and the Electoral College started voting today to finally and officially designate Joe Biden as the next president. Despite Donald Trump delusions that the election was “rigged” and “stolen” and he really won. He has denied reality since Election Day just as he denied  the seriousness of the virus from the beginning. The consequences of that incompetence and the failure to act led to three hundred thousand deaths, millions of infections, overwhelmed hospitals, millions of people losing their jobs, thousands of businesses closing forever, and changing everyone’s life. We’ll never know how many lives would have been saved and needless suffering avoided if we weren’t held hostage by someone so damaged, he was incapable of caring about anyone other than himself.

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It’s now been three weeks that Donald Trump has tried to hold the country hostage. His grip on his alternate reality is starting to slip away. His spoiled child act that he really didn’t lose the election has continued to embarrass the country before the world. Kids who don’t get what the want will throw a tantrum or go sulk in their rooms. Trump rages around the White House and only comes out on weekends to play golf while the pandemic is out of control and getting worse by the day. Put that picture up against the thousands of cars lined up around the country for hours with people trying to get free food because they lost their jobs or get tested for Covid. People are still going to crowded airports to travel for Thanksgiving when all public health officials say it’s a bad idea. Trump ignores what he doesn’t want to see. His refusal to cooperate with a peaceful transition of power could have serious national security ramifications and hinder the incoming Biden administration’s plan to deal with Covid and roll out the vaccination distribution plan. Trump doesn’t care. It’s all about him, as it’s always been.

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We are living through one of the most consequential and extraordinary weeks in American political history. The Trump presidency has come crashing down even though,  to quote Jack Nicholson’s famous line, “You (Trump) can’t handle the truth.” We all knew Trump would not go down without a fight. He has threatened all along that if he lost the election, if would have to be rigged and fraudulent. His angry rant in the middle of the night after the election was typical belligerent Trump behavior. More telling and scary was his appearance Thursday evening in the White House Briefing Room. Trump had seethed and ranted all day as he saw his lead slip away with the counting of the mail in votes. Then he saw Joe Biden come out and calmly urge people to be patient with the vote count, but he believed when all the votes were counted he would win. You could see Biden taking on the role of president.

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