It is time for us to all talk about the Elephant in the Room. The giant pink, 10,000-pound elephant that is truly responsible for the chain of events leading up to this profoundly sad recall effort of three council members in Homer.

The elephant, my friends, is Donald J. Trump.

Homer is a microcosm — a mirror — of what is happening all across this country. A nation divided to an extent that I cannot recall ever before in my 58 years. This new Administration has polarized us in a way that is truly unprecedented.

Watergate pales against this level of corruption, this lack of transparency from the very top levels of government.

My father fought, and many of his friends died, in World War II — the “War to End all Wars” — so that this world might have peace, stability … freedom from such insanity and oppression writ large by the Third Reich. And yet here, in 2017, we seem to be blindly embracing the very fascism that became Hitler’s Germany all those decades ago. Just look at the playlist — marginalize certain ethnic groups, discredit the media, create chaos, confusion and threat and then clamp down hard on freedoms and civil rights.

Folks, this ship is sinking, and yet so many of you keep waltzing to the band.

All politics is local, right? The extreme reaction from the far right to this “Resolution of Inclusion” is a stark reminder of that. It’s not enough to just win the vote — shut down the resolution and carry the day. No, in Trump’s Brave New America we have to annihilate any and all opposition; sweep it under the rug and make the other side “go away.”

Donald J. Trump. The joke is no longer funny. Dad’s company liberated Dachau. Memories he didn’t talk about his whole life until the very end. And all I can keep thinking of is, what would I tell him if he were here today about why this man is President … And just where the hell is this country headed?