the attitude with arnie arnesen the wed edition noon to 1pm Dec 16 wnhnfm.org
Arnie Arnesen
opening thoughts: on the death of Rob Reiner from the former managing editor of Stars and Stripes
The couple’s son, Nick Reiner, 32, was arrested late Sunday in connection with the deaths. He has been charged with murder.
So now we hold on tight and try to process yet more senseless pain and hurt in a world that is spinning too damn quickly, even if it has always been well out of our control.The weekend brought us horrible shootings at Brown University, and on a lazy beach in Australia. Two Iowa National Guard soldiers and a civilian contractor were killed by a gunman in Syria. There will be more violent deaths and senseless suffering by the time I am done writing this piece, because there is little we can do when the most dangerous form of life on earth, men, catastrophically malfunction.
It is being reported that Nick Reiner brutally stabbed his parents to death. It would take me 50,000 words to properly thank Rob Reiner for the joy he brought me through his multi-faceted work. He was a genius, a giant of the arts, and a constant in my life starting with his role as “Meathead” in the incomparable sitcom All in the Family in the 1970s — for my money the most brilliant show that has ever been, or will be.
Reiner was also a nonstop humanitarian, and a scathing critic of one of the most evil men the world has ever known, Donald J. Trump.Because how could any decent and normal functioning person not be?I didn’t always agree completely with Reiner’s politics, any more than I completely agree with anybody, but respected him enormously for using his platform to speak out against the grotesque Trump, and wish more people of wealth and privilege would do the same.It makes me furious that Hollywood isn’t using its enormous power to highlight on the millions of screens both large and small what we are being asked to deal with right now: violent attacks on our vote; the battering of our government; innocent human beings being rounded up by masked marauders; hundreds of millions of guns everywhere; life-saving vaccines being eliminated; troops in our streets; books being burned; our air and water being intentionally poisoned; women losing more and more of their rights …Like you, Reiner saw and felt this danger every day, as this ghastly White House tried to transform America into their inhumane and revolting image. Like you, Reiner knew that if they they were to succeed, it would all be over.They mean to end us, and one only needs read the history they are trying to incinerate to know this …
THESE are the stakes.
For all his enormous talent in the arts, it is Reiner’s activism that I will remember most of all.
He could have sat back and hidden behind his fame, counting his money, but instead chose to use his voice to sound the warnings. He was passionate, and unyielding at a time we’ve never needed passionate, unyielding people more.
Rob Reiner was a man who knew how to make us laugh, because he knew all too well, there was just too damn much hurt in the world to make us cry — hurt that ultimately led to his terrible, terrible demise.
So of course it took no time at all for every light to shine on just how right Reiner was about the gruesome state of things, when we heard from everything that is wrong.
This was the actual public comment offered by the grotesque Trump in the wake of the Reiners’ deaths, because there has never been one, single terrible thing on earth that this lunatic isn’t incapable of making even worse:
He wrote these terrible things because he is incapable of grace, and functions from inside the darkness, lashing out at everything he can’t see or understand. He’s a broken, inadequate little man who lives in a constant state of jealousy, as he lowers the bar of humanity into the dirt, so that even he can occasionally clear it.
By this afternoon, Trump had descended even further, calling Reiner, “deranged” and “bad for our country.” The joyless man who has spent his miserable life grabbing things for himself at the expense of our country, was calling the man who spent his incredible life spreading joy to the world, “bad for our country.”
And while Trump was busy dealing his poison, the first-class woman, and career public servant we could have (SHOULD HAVE) had as our president, reminded us all that America will only be a truly good and decent country, when we finally start listening to our women:
While I cannot fathom how awful all this must be for the Reiners’ family and friends as yet another one of America’s broken sons has brought their unspeakable hell to wreck the lives of others, it surprises me little that its worst son of all is doing what he can to make things even worse.
(D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes
part one: Stephen Miller-Backed Group Files Federal Complaint Against NFL 49ers Over DEI
D. ARNIE ARNESEN
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