In the Guardian UK, Monday 9 January 2017…

(Note: Important to keep in mind and reflect are her words: “Disrespect invites disrespect, violence invites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose…… This instinct to humiliate, when it’s modelled by someone in the public platform by someone powerful, it filters down into everyone’s life because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing.”

Good examples and bad examples are both contagious,  especially when it is done by those hold public office and public trust in society and country. Even a Donala trump, we hope, will learn it from experience, slowly but surely.  james kottoor, editor)  

Meryl Streep’s searing critique of Donald Trump’s imitation and treatment of the disabled New York Times journalist Serge Kovaleski was a sobering moment which brought a stunned silence to the usually boisterous Globe.

“This instinct to humiliate, when it’s modelled by someone in the public platform,” she said. “By someone powerful, it filters down into everyone’s life because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect, violence invites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.”

There were other big shocks as well. Despite a barrage of negative publicity for sexual harassment claims made back in 2010, Casey Affleck won the award for best actor in a drama for playing a grieving janitor in Manchester by the Sea. Viola Davis also continued her streak of wins for her role in Fences, with the award for best supporting actress.

Backstage, the actor spoke about Trump and the future of America. “I will, believe it or not, remove Trump from the equation, because I feel that it’s bigger than him,” she said. “I believe that it is our responsibility to uphold what it is to be an American and what America is about and the true meaning of what it means to pursue the American dream.”