Read Aaron Sorkin’s Inspiring Letter to His Daughter After Trump’s Win
Image by Getty
By Thea Glassman November 10, 2016
After Donald Trump won the presidential election Tuesday night, “The West Wing” and “Newsroom” creator Aaron Sorkin penned a powerful open letter to his wife and daughter.
The note, which appeared in full on Vanity Fair, began by lamenting the win of an “incompetent pig with dangerous ideas” and discussing the repercussions that may follow.
“Economists are predicting a deep and prolonged recession. Our NATO allies are in a state of legitimate fear,” he wrote. “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.”
But he didn’t moan for long. Instead, he talked about jumping into action.
“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,” he explained.
Sorkin said the next move is to “f—cking fight.” He advocated standing up together for equality, for the First Amendment and for a woman’s right to choose. He pointed out that while his family will be mostly protected from any possible discrimination, he will fight for the families who are not. He pushed for support of the Democrats who will be serving in Washington.
The battle isn’t over, he said.
“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,” Sorkin wrote. “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.”
Thea Glassman is an Associate Editor at the Forward. Reach her at glassman@forward.com or on Twitter at @theakglassman.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
