A Letter to Two Former Friends

Dear Clarkie and Joanie:

After an unusually long and puzzling silence, I finally wrote to you on August 17th, 2025, about a month ago. My subject line was: "Have you unilaterally ended our very long friendship?" You never answered. But recently, you sent me a copy of your September 5th newsletter, "Ravings." (Please see it below.) I used to love this newsletter, which always and only focused on bears and wolves and lions; on all creatures "both great and small," and on every conceivable environmental issue.

You were always my personal Charles Darwin, and you were traveling on the Beagle.

As you know, Clarkie, you and I go back to 1971-1972. We met at Kate Millett's farm and have been "friends" ever since--that's 53, almost 54 years. Joanie: You came along a bit later. We all had countless dinners together; you both slept at my home; I stayed with you both, or near you, in Florida. I visited both of you when you were in the hospital. We called and wrote to each other rather frequently.

I gave you, Clarkie, what was supposed to be a book party, an event that turned out to be more of a goodbye party for mutual friends before you left New York. Way back, Clarkie, you once even came to live with me in Park Slope, and you worked at the health food store around the corner. You meditated on the garden floor and in the basement. Clarkie--you confided in me, as did Joanie. I got to hear about numerous love affairs, unbelievable sexual indiscretions, alcoholism, adulteries, exceedingly "bad" behaviors among the girls. High Times long after high school.

The body of my August 17th email was: "I see that you've stopped sending me emails or calling. I cannot imagine that any real or perceived or imagined political differences could have led to such a deep silence. Are you still receiving my articles? Have they offended you? Please let me know." At that point, I removed you both from my mailing list. I did not want any possible political differences to come between us. In my view, friendships should not shatter over political differences.

Something seems to have changed since Donald Trump got elected President. Do you two believe that I, personally, elected him?

So now I have read your latest "Ravings." It is a boilerplate political screed, one which merely mimics the hard-left socialist and Democratic Party political narrative. There is nothing original in this newsletter, nothing personal. But it does attempt to appropriate the fate of Jews under Hitler to apply to the victim-fate of our citizen immigrants and the most vulnerable, bottom third in society. The second paragraph gives it all away.

"Our President writes and indeed often shouts about how much he 'Hates Democrats! Really Hates Them! They hate America! One is reminded how Hitler shouted all the time how much he Hated Jews! How they hated Germany! In both examples, the sense arises that these 'evil and hated' citizens should be made to go into the societal dustbin."

It is an angry, hostile newsletter. I must assume that this was your response to my August 17th email. And this is my response to the death of all reason and of our friendship as well.

Look: You have mainly been groupies in history in terms of any Public Conversation. Your wonderful contributions have been mainly private. You cooked for Kate's Art Colony. You have cared for at least two feminists as they were dying. You have hosted many a Lost Girl at your holiday table. This was your true genius. You hung Stars of David on your Christmas trees when I was visiting you--this was who you once were. But now, I must assume that my work on Islamic gender and religious apartheid, on terrorism (9/11 rapidly approaches), my work on antisemitism, and above all on Israel have all turned out to be beyond your understanding. It has "trumped" the value of friendship. You have become very hard of heart. Your conformity and cowardice are disappointing; your will to remain blind is, however, dangerous because there are so many more just like you out there now.

I am publishing this. It is my "Goodbye to All That."

The newsletter:

When Democracy Dies

Democratic governments generally strive to protect their vulnerable populations. Today, all the world's remaining democratic governments are attempting to create a more equitable and protective environment for those living within their borders. But our current administration has trashed this optimistic idea and replaced it with a kind of sinister authoritarianism which derides and punishes frailty and weakness. A less optimistic view of humanity is emerging even in so-called Christian churches, a shocking lack of sympathy to those who need help or who are being oppressed. Everything depends on the rule of money and the power that money brings.

Our President writes and indeed often shouts about how much he ‘Hates Democrats! Really Hates Them! They hate America!’ One is reminded how Hitler shouted all the time how much he ‘Hated Jews! How they hated Germany’. In both examples, the sense arises that these ‘evil and hated’ citizens should be made to go into a societal dustbin.

Entire populations of our citizens who emigrated from other countries long ago and have lived here for many years, reared families, worked and paid taxes, are now considered enemies of the state. We are seeing the occupation of cities; the National Guard being used as a private militia for the President. One wonders about those unnamed, highly paid, masked men riding through local neighborhoods in anonymous vehicles looking for ‘bad people, aliens, nobodies’. Are they the beginning of killing squads we once saw in Europe?

We live in the dinosaur days of industrial society, and the dinosaurs don’t want anything to change. Instead, they want everything to fit their needs. What will our country look like? More pipelines across Alaska, nuclear reactors everywhere, subsidized industries. Fewer national parks, fields and streams and forests, a planet with a chaotic and destructive climate.

Terror has taken over a whole political party along with a glorification of white masculinity, serious contempt for women, and a derision of the helpless and poor. Oppression and cruelty have become routine; criminality has become the core of governing. There is no place for sympathy or compassion. Cruel values are a religious creed. Gold is everything. And all this in a country that has enshrined the Bill of Rights on ancient paper under glass in the nation’s capital, preserving the words, while essential freedoms are being eradicated.

For 300 years, the Bill of Rights set out to ensure that ALL our people, every citizen, not just those subservient to every word of one very fallible man, are treated fairly and their right to free expression protected. These amendments, constantly refined and improved, attempt to hold a government to account and prevent it from bullying and harassing its citizens from state-sanctioned brutality. But, today, there is continued expansion of the categories of citizens who are subject to arrest, internment, scorn, humiliation, erasure.

As the heart of western civilization, the most modern civilization the world has ever seen, it is even more urgent to never let inhumanity take over our hearts as we continue to strive for a planetary culture. It was once suggested that we should do nothing that won’t benefit the lower third of humanity. At this time in our history, it is unlikely that any Maga would ever agree to such an idea. Instead, we are being offered the sound of artillery against the underdog, the nihilism of leaders who apparently hate most of society, and who are not afraid of anarchy, ruined businesses, closed universities, partisan ‘justice’, pseudo-science, biased reporting and diminished futures. A lawless hell. A liberal world order ended.