Cary Brunswick, a perennial doubter, worked 32 years as a newspaper editor and writer. He won three state Associated Press awards for editorial writing, including first place in 2005. He wrote a bi-weekly column for The Daily Star in Oneonta for 20 years. He has written a novel, a book of collected newspaper columns, and a book of short stories. He has a graduate degree in philosophy, earned back in the days when the search for truth was not considered a waste of vocational time.

   I can recall clearly how difficult it was to write my first regular column for The Daily Star in Oneonta, N.Y., back in January 1999. Having your name and picture embedded in your words puts you, personally, on the record. There is nowhere to hide.                                                                                                                                                    Editorials -- and as managing editor I wrote hundreds of them over the years -- were so much easier to compose because they were anonymous. Our editorial board debated the positions to take on issues, and hardly anyone outside the newspaper knew who was writing on any particular day. You could hide behind the newspaper.                                                                                                                                        However, I found that writing my final column was much more difficult than the first. You want to go out with a bang by saying something profound and eternally meaningful.                                                                                                                                      Urging peace while opposing war has been the overriding subject of my columns for two decades, as dictated by the events of those years. From NATO’s air strikes during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and our continued presence in those regions, I have called on our leaders to stop the killing.                                                                                                                               I dealt with the four game-changing events that occurred in this country: the election of George W. Bush, the horrific terrorists attacks of 9/11, the election of Barack Obama, and, finally, the ascendancy of Donald Trump.                                           Shortly after the year 2000 election and it became clear that Bush and Cheney were going to win, I bemoaned and blamed voters for the fact that Bush was lowering the bar for what should be considered presidential. I was handily taken to task for alleged biased reporting, though my column obviously was an opinion piece.                                                                                                                                                  Even before 9/11, I could hear the war drums pounding in the White House and warned that it was just a matter of time. I didn’t know those fateful terrorist attacks would make that time come so soon. Rather than cheer-lead for our revenge, however, I asked, “Why do they hate us?”                                                                  Throughout the Bush years, I revisited the March Madness of the Iraq war from a “don’t do it” to a “get out now.” Nobody in Washington listened.                                     

My final column: Keep Trump out of the White House

   The 2008 election of President Obama offered a new hope that the wars would end and the problems facing our own citizens would be addressed. Though the wars didn’t end, the Affordable Care Act tried to solve our health-insurance crisis and the president sought to begin the process of making pollution and fossil fuels attributes of the past.                                                                                                                   My columns often spoke of environmental issues, from opposition to fracking and pipelines to acknowledging the worldwide threats from climate change and how we must decelerate our reliance on fossil fuels.                                                              Of course, the Trump presidency is turning the clock back on the environmental gains we have made, and the future for cleaner air and water is looking bleak. He, indeed, with his lying and demeanor, has lowered the bar yet again on the presidency.                                                                                                                                        But I didn’t always write about political matters and world events. That, as it is now, would have been too depressing. Our daily lives most often are settled into the simple joys and sorrows of the mundane.                                                                         On the 30th anniversary of mankind’s first steps on the moon, I discussed the nostalgia for a moon that still offered enchantment for lovers and poets. I wrote of my childhood fondness for toads and how I rescued one from the mouth of a snake. And I recalled how my 80-year-old father, a member of the Greatest Generation, declined help getting upon a bar stool at his American Legion, saying, “I have to be a tough guy in here.”                                                                                                                     And then there were books, of which I have way too many scattered over half a dozen bookcases in my house. At the end of a year, I would discuss the books I had read and offer suggestions for readers. I offered a reading list for a hypothetical teenager and wrote about the lists offered by a few local residents. A foe of censorship in all its forms, I often praised libraries for annually promoting their opposition to the banning of books.                                                                                            Column writing was a fulfilling experience, mostly fun and sometimes stressful. If I were to offer a final opinion, it would be that it is vital for our future to make sure Trump is a one-term president.