Bob Alpern on Donald Trump (and 12 Presidents before)

Description

Bob Alpern (age 96) shares with his friend John Friedrich (60) about his 80 years of activism, covering 15 Presidential Administrations, starting with letters to the Truman Administration raising alarm about nuclear weapons following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Bob reflects on how Jimmy Carter opened the White House for the first time in history to the people, including civil rights, labor, religious groups, and environmental groups.
Bob talks about the unprecedented threat to the rule of law and widespread damage caused by the Trump Administration, and the imperative of people to demand their Representatives in Congress speak up and take action.
At age 96, Bob is still active in public life. He admonishes everyone to resist the temptation to tune out, and to stay engaged, because the "very life and the lives of your family and grandchildren are being affected by what is taking place today, in the evisceration of our country's government. Help change that situation and think of your future generations, your children now, their children and their children later on, you've got to be alert and aware. You need to be informed. as good citizens, to speak truth to power. And in order to do that, you need to have the background of keeping yourself well apprised of what is happening and not shutting yourself off. Keep democracy alive, so that we don't fall into the abyss that Trump and Musk are leading us toward."

Participants

• John Friedrich
  
• Bob Alpern
  

Interview By

• John Friedrich