SORROW, PITY, OUTRIGHT FEAR: Somewhere ages and ages hence...

TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2026

...we may be a more mature people: We'll start by quoting Gretta Conroy, from the famous Joyce story, The Dead:

“He died when he was only seventeen. Isn’t it a terrible thing to die so young as that?”  

You can read the full novella here. 

To see Anjelica Huston perform the scene in question, we advise you to click right here. Cast as Gretta Conroy, she's describing the death of the young Michael Furey in the 1987 film adaptation of the famous Joyce tale.

"Isn’t it a terrible thing to die so young as that?” she says.  But for today, as we start, we offer a somewhat analogous question:  

"And isn't it a terrible thing for a person to die when he's still in his thirties?"

The question takes us back to our days as a fifth grade teacher, and to the loss, a bit later in life, of a plainly troubled child. We've been thinking of that plainly troubled child in the course of the past week. 

You could even say, all these years later, that we've been mourning his loss. While planning to defer to privacy concerns, we may explain in more detail before the week is over.

We've been thinking of the early death of that troubled child, but also of President Trump. By the end of his seventh grade year, the future president was apparently a visibly troubled child--so much so that he had to leave the local private school where his father sat on the board of directors:

Isn't it a terrible thing, to be so troubled, to be so disturbed, at such a young age as that?

We'll recall the facts of that unfortunate case before the week is done. But as we mourn the fate of any such child who doesn't get the help he needs, we turn today to a more immediate question: 

Should we the people be concerned--should we be actively fearful--about the possible mental state of the sitting president? 

Should we be fearful about the president's mental health? About a possible cognitive decline? About the possibility that, in addition to any such decline, the president may be "somebody who for decades now has had serious, undiagnosed and untreated psychiatric disorders, which are only going to worsen?"  

That's what the president's niece has recently said--and she's a doctorate-holding clinical therapist who has known the president ever since she was a child. With almost three years left to go in the president's current term, should we the people, Red and Blue, be worried about the possibilities to which the niece has given voice? 

In our view, the obvious answer to that question is an obvious yes! That said--at the present time, we as a people simply aren't up to the challenge of discussing such possibilities.

Somewhere ages and ages hence, we may have matured to the point where we, as a people, are able to discuss such a state of affairs. But we aren't able to do so now--and we think that inability helps create a very dangerous state of affairs.  

Please understand! Our major news orgs do employ some journalists who are experienced in the coverage of such medical issues. In this recent report for the New York Times, Ellen Barry briefly describes her own journalistic career (dual headline included):

A Secret History of Psychosis   
Cohen Miles-Rath heard voices telling him to kill his father. After they passed, he spent years retracing the path of his delusions.

[...]

I’ve reported on mental health for much of my career, and frequently find myself writing about crimes committed by people in psychosis.

These make up a small percentage of violent crimes—around 4 percent, researchers have found—and the vast majority of people in psychosis are never violent. But they are the kind of crimes that newspapers cover: inexplicable, horrifying in their suddenness. Sometimes they are random; a commuter is shoved into the path of a subway train. But often they occur within the four walls of a home, as with Nick Reiner, who was charged with the fatal stabbing of his parents earlier this year. (Mr. Reiner, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder.)  

In that lengthy recent report, Barry discusses the history of a particular (and initially horrifying) case of "mental illness." She uses that specific term at five separate points in her report. 

Barry knows how to write about incidents of "mental illness." But under prevailing rules of the game, no such possibility can be discussed with respect to major political figures:

It's a long-standing rule of the road, and, for better or worse, our news orgs are sticking to it!

In that recent report in the Times, Barry is discussing a person who was gripped by the most terrifying kind of psychosis. No one has suggested that the sitting president is sunk in some similar affliction at this point in time. 

That said, some medical specialists have long alleged that the sitting president's "untreated psychiatric disorders" have created a very dangerous situation, and that those medical disorders "are only going to worsen." 

The fact that medical specialists have said it doesn't mean that it's true! But the fact that our news orgs refuse to discuss this state of affairs shines a light on the immaturity of our public discourse at this point in time.

Should we be worried about the president's mental health, even as his Truth Social posts seem to become stranger and more desperate? To read about those new Truth Social posts, you can click to read these reports:

Trump Drops Jaw-Dropping Attack On Democrats Opposing Iran War: ‘TRAITORS ALL 
Mediaite. To read the report, click here.

Trump rages against Democrats, the media over Iran: ‘I’m winning a War, BY A LOT’  

NJ.com. To read the report, click here.

Trump rages at Iran war criticism: "Time is not my adversary" 

Axios. To read the report, click here.

Should we be worried about such reports? With three years to go in this president's term, we think the answer is obvious. 

But that discussion isn't going to happen--and that's on us, the American people, not on the sixth and seventh grader in Queens who quite possibly never got the medical help it was already clear that he needed.

His older brother prepped at St. Paul's. His younger brother prepped there too.

The president, apparently in need of help, was shipped off to a "reform school" for the course of his junior high and high school years. For today, we leave you with a question:

"Isn’t it a terrible thing when a child doesn't get the help he needs at such a young age as that?”  

In our own (non-specialist) view, we're in a very dangerous time. Our orgs have agreed that it can't be discussed.

With that in mind, we leave you with one final question:

Isn't it a terrible thing to be as helpless as that?

Tomorrow: Once again, the troubled child in question