The People I Grew to Adore Had One Thing in Common
The profound effect of great characters and brilliant writing
Somewhere between twelve hundred and two thousand Cubans set off in small boats from a fishing village thirty miles south of Havana and are heading towards Miami.
The White House staffers consider their options.
- Send in the USS Eisenhower.
- Deploy the National Guard to Miami.
- Blockade the port.
Only one voices compassion.
“They are running for their lives. You don’t have to start a game of Red Rover with Castro, but you don’t send in the National Guard. You send food and you send doctors.”¹
Last night I sat down to watch the final episode of Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing, an American political drama television series.
It’s a show that aired its last episode in 2006, but I was late to the parade, I didn’t begin watching it until much later (Circa 2012).
I have savoured the 154 episodes of The West Wing for a dozen years. The closer I came to finishing the series, the less I watched.
I have a friend who is watching the entire series for the fourth time. She listens to the podcast The West Wing Thing after…