Thoughts On What My Grandfather Would Say About Trump

I am moved to make a comment regarding the current occupant of the White House who gave the commencement speech today at West Point. Actually I’m channeling my grandfather, Brigadier General Frederick Smith Strong, Jr., West Point class of 1910 — pictured above.

While some referred to him as Fritz or as “General," we grandchildren knew him as “Super.” (We called our grandmother “Sugar.”) Super taught Eisenhower at West Point. He was exceptionally bright and no one surpassed my grandfather’s grade point average at West Point until the 1970s. General Strong served in both World Wars and knew Patton. I also know that my grandfather would be horrified with the military industrial complex — which Eisenhower warned us about — and the endless wars of our time. In addition, he lived out his life haunted by the bombs dropped on Japan, speaking to me about how incredibly unnecessary this horror was. I have long felt Super supporting me in my activism for peace and justice. 
 

At age 90 — and after reading Steinbeck’s “Travels With Charlie” and realizing that it was now or never — my grandfather embarked on a 10,000 mile solo driving trip visiting friends and family around the country. The last time Super flew out from Michigan to visit me and our family here in the Pacific Northwest he was 96. He also remained active into his 90s and drove his car until he turned 96 (probably too long).

Fritz Strong wrote his memoir in his mid-90’s. In his last interview he warned against ever taking military action in the Middle East, saying that the consequences would be dire. He accurately predicted the horrors that would follow his death. Super died in January 1986. Our family buried him to a 21 gun solute at West Point on his 99th birthday.

My grandfather, a lifelong republican, would be profoundly disturbed with FOX and other right wing propaganda, would find today’s Republican Party completely unrecognizable, and he would be horrified with the entire Trump presidency. And for the current White House occupant to give the commencement speech anywhere, much less at West Point, would be beyond profoundly disturbing and unacceptable to my grandfather.

I feel my grandfather with me in facing the reality of this sheer insanity and so many of the horrors and heartbreaks of our times. And he would absolutely agree that there is an urgency to the need for us to unite and work together to end the madness — not just of the Trump presidency, but also of the different forms of violence which have always plagued our nation — and together create a just nation and world. 

I love and am deeply grateful for my grandfather. He inspires me, he supports me in living up to our name of "Strong," he was the first one who told me that I have a writer in me, and he lives on in my heart and soul. My grandfather was very human and had his struggles as we all do. And, in so many ways, he was also super. He was our Super. — Molly 

Frederick Smith Strong, Jr.

My grandfather and great-grandmother

Super at 96 with great-grandson Kevin and me. This was his last visit.