Steve, what would you think about an effort that combines your suggestion with mine? The book could be a daily record of the news that Matt compiled, but we could intersperse personal reflections from members of the WTF community on how the news of the day made people feel or what their concerns were. It would be a historical record, accompanied by emotional reactions since so much of what has happened has been evocative or provocative - choose either; they both work. Of course, to lighten things up a bit, those colorful quotes, images or tweets could also be included, assuming they could be used without violating any intellectual property laws. My personal feeling is that when this story is told, I want new generations to understand just how frightening, irrational, unpredictable and challenging the President was and how he challenged so many aspects of our government, our legal system, and our personal values and amazed and overwhelmed us all because he kept getting away with it.
I liken it to John Kennedy’s assassination. I’m sure to kids reading about it in history books today, he’s just another President who was shot while in office. But to those of us who watched the funeral procession on TV (and I was very young but I’ll never forget it), there was such a sense of profound loss and that “Camelot” had ceased to exist. I haven’t seen a history textbook in a long time, but I’m willing to bet that the books don’t discuss the emotional response. For me, it seemed like some kind of tipping point and without sounding too dramatic, it was a loss of innocence. As a kid, you put the President on a pedestal and assume he is invulnerable. And then, in an instant, he can be shot, die, and replaced before the next commercial break. As I’ve grown up and heard more stories about the Kennedy’s and the President’s dalliances, my perception of him has been somewhat tarnished. I know more about our relationship with Russia back then and about the Cuban Missile Crisis and how life wasn’t quite as ideal as I thought. At any point in time, bombs could have been flying towards the U.S. mainland. But it still seemed like such a time of optimism and once he was gone, we, as a country, never seemed to get it back. Cue the song: “Bye, bye Miss American Pie”.
Anyway, you’re the expert on what is marketable in the publishing industry. I’m happy to assist Matt however he wants, depending on whether he wants to proceed on some kind of book venture. And in the meantime, I’ll just keep posting. But some day, when I have time, I may just try to go back and collect my own posts so I can have those to share with future generations, assuming my kids ever decide to give me grandbabies. Lately, I just feel the need to chronicle the events of the past few years and how it affected me and those around me. Because, to be honest, I don’t think that it is even going to sound believable to anybody who didn’t witness it.