In an open letter to Donald Trump, a widow with two young children came down hard on the president. The president has been calling the press the “enemy of the people,” even after Congress passed a bipartisan motion forbidding it. It gets worse than that.
Stacy Brick’s husband was a longtime newspaper reporter. Then, when he was just 41, he died of a vicious, “fast-moving and painful” cancer.
The journalist’s wife explained that her husband wrote about “forgotten everyday folks,” that Trump supposedly cared about. The problem has been that the country’s narcissistic president cares only about himself. She wrote in Medium:
‘The ones you say you care about and built your election around; the elk hunters, the seismologists, the rock climbers, the bar keeps, the small business owners and the pro wrestlers. He told their stories in a beautiful, simple, and truthful way. He was the most honest person I have ever known.’
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, taught himself how to read from The Washington Post. Later, Mike Brick wrote a nonfiction book about a high school filled with poor children of immigrants. He wanted to tell their stories.
Mrs Brick continued telling about her husband after Trump told people to not believe that they saw or what they heard. “Believe only me.” She wrote:
‘It is gut-wrenching and physically painful to hear you call journalists “the enemy of the people” and question their patriotism. You’re talking about not only my husband and my children’s father, but about Mike’s many close friends and co-workers.’
When Mike Brick went into the last room of his life, a hospice, his wife told how his friends and coworkers collected his articles and turned them into a book. Then, they read it to him, filled his last days with love and laughter, and promised to care for his family. She said:
‘These are the best people in the world, the ones who search for the truth and seek to help others
Then, she quoted POTUS when he said:
‘”I really think they don’t like our country referring to journalists.” Mike loved this country…wrote many stories about the struggles of its hard working people. He covered national stories here like the collapse of Enron and the rampage at Fort Hood.’
The widow told how he lodged a reporter’s notebook in his back pocket before heading out to his job as he covered Hurricane Rita and the aftermath of Katrina. As part of those stories, she said:
‘He wrote about abandoned pets, a church that sprung up under a tent in a parking lot and about con artists trying to trick people into giving up their personal information. It broke his heart to see the damage those storms brought to a place he loved so much (New Orleans).’
After the couple left New York City for Texas, he wife said:
‘Mike was a freelancer for a while and I know it was demoralizing for him to have to pester publications to pay him. No one goes into journalism for money, the people who do these jobs do them because they are called to them; they feel a duty to tell stories or expose wrongdoing. The truth is that journalism is a brutal profession with constant layoffs, stagnant wages and long hours, yet somehow, in your mind, this is elitism.’
Then, Stacy Brick asked Trump the important question:
‘What am I to say to my children, who are still struggling with their grief, when they hear you demean journalists like their dad? You are sullying their father’s name and the names of his best friends and many colleagues. You are belittling a profession that has been respected and protected since the time of our country’s founding. Your words aren’t those of a person who knows how to lead and who has nothing to hide; they are the words of authoritarian leaders and tyrants — the words of a small man hiding behind a big desk who has no idea how to do his job.’
A president without empathy nor compassion may not care, but most people do. Mike Brick’s family and friends spread his ashes in the Shenandoah Mountains.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
