Why did an 80-year-old widower who lives in a Newtown Square retirement community spend $50,000 to take out a full-page ad in last Sunday’s New York Times pleading for President Donald Trump to resign? Read the answer HERE.

Text of the full page ad that an 80 year old man, Grant Grissom, took out in this past Sunday’s New York Times asking Trump to resign. A subsequent article in Grissom’s Philadelphia newspaper, the Inquirer, reported he spent (with the approval of his children) $50,000 to run the ad in the NYT and elsewhere.  I find him to be an inspirational model for each and every one of us to stand up in whatever capacity we can to the atrocities occurring under the current regime.

A PLEA FOR DONALD TRUMP TO RESIGN

Dear President Trump,

I was born 80 years ago in a working-class neighborhood in Philadelphia. I was taught to respect all people, regardless of wealth, power, or status, and to be wary of the empty promises of politicians. Cops and firemen lived in my neighborhood. Some still do. Some likely voted for you, thinking that you respected them. Then came your order pardoning the thugs who attacked the police officers at the Capitol. Despite the fact that some of those officers died. Despite the fact that they had children and families that loved them. You called the thugs “patriots” and pardoned them. That filled me with disgust. It showed me that you don’t give a damn about “law and order.” You only pretend to care about the cops and firefighters who put their safety at risk every single day to protect our communities. I do not carry water for the Democratic Party. I was a member of the Republican Party when it stood for fiscal responsibility and the rule of law. When Republican presidents stood strong with our allies and never groveled before a dictator. Prostrating yourself to Putin is despicable. Your actions desecrate a flag that generations of Americans in uniform bled and died for. Americans like John McCain. His heroism showed us who he was. When you disrespected him, you showed us who you are. You show contempt for poor and middle-class Americans, allowing Elon Musk to dismantle agencies they rely on while he prances around the Oval Office and you sit inert at your desk. You place unqualified lackeys in charge of those agencies. You have contempt for anyone more loyal to God and country than to you; ask Mike Pence. Your tax cut in 2017 yielded hundreds of millions of dollars for your billionaire friends and pennies for the middle-class blue-collar families that make America great. You intend to do it again: to take benefits from those who have the least to sate the gluttony of the rich. You have refused to reject White Supremacy, an especially odious Christian heresy that finds no support in scripture or church doctrine, and that has caused incalculable suffering among Black and Native Americans. You have encouraged support for the White Christian Nationalist movement, rejecting the “separation of church and state” grounded in the First Amendment of the Constitution you swore to protect, and honored by every president since Thomas Jefferson coined the phrase in 1802. Imagine an elder speaking to a gathering of children: “There are two fierce tigers in my spirit: Anger-Hatred and Love-Compassion. They are fighting to the death.” A fearful child asks: “Which will win?” The elder replies: “The one that I feed.” You have fed us a diet of your anger and hatred. It has divided us and made us sick. But in so doing, you have shown Americans of all colors, of all faiths, how dark our nation can become when our leaders act without wisdom, honor or integrity; how precious is our democracy and the love of neighbor that Jesus commanded.

Many patriotic Americans voted for you. You have betrayed them. For the sake of God and country: Resign.

Paid for by Grant Grissom