The Switch. The Line. We get to choose when and where to step.

You can have courage if you decide to.

I reviewed E. Jean Carroll’s memoir about the court case convicting Trump of defaming her after he raped her in a dressing room at Bergdorf’s department store.

Not My Type is simply one of the best, funniest, most lethally well-written, truthful books I’ve ever read. I would say that even if it were not about our current deviant president. For months after I read it, I could not shut up about it—convincing members of my book club who wanted nothing to do with the subject matter to read it. It is one of the best books ever written.

And in Saturday’s Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse, Reich gushes to surprise-guest E. Jean Carroll about everything I’ve said here and more. And that was cathartic—to have somebody say to her face all the praises I feel.

One thing that stood out in this interview is in the clip I’ve inserted below:

For complete show, click Coffee Klatch.

Recognize the Switch

I’ve employed my own head switch for many things: to take off my robe as a nude model in front of an art class, to act on stage or in an audition. I called it my “fuck-it” switch. Inside, I’d say, “Fuck it” and plunge into whatever I needed to do.

I believe this switch can be similarly employed to do everything from purposeless public rage-venting to great evil: to pull a trigger, to declare war, to perpetrate the heinous crimes that ordinary German people did as Nazis, to abduct children out of schools. And after a lifetime of doing this, morals, if they ever existed, are eroded.

My point is: it’s the same switch. As E. Jean says, “We all have it.”

If you aren’t already familiar with your inner switch, get to know it. Think of a time you just did something you never would believe yourself capable of. Find the place of that decision.

My childhood best friend had a breakdown when we were in our twenties. After she got out of the hospital, we talked about it, and I mentioned “a line.” There is a line that you can choose to step over to go nuts. It may feel like a millisecond decision, but you decide. When we were kids, I stepped right up to that line so many times, but I decided not to go over it. My friend was quiet. And then she admitted she knew exactly what I was talking about. It was there for her too. And unfortunately, a couple of years later, she decided to barrel over it again and that was her demise.

The switch. The line. They are connected and they can be used constructively and courageously or destructively.

Find your switch. Fine the line. And contemplate them. And decide, before you need to, what you will choose. I vote for courage and life preservation.

Listen to E. Jean Carroll. She tells you how and why. She is speaking truth.

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Betsy Robinson is an editor, fiction writer, journalist, and playwright (also a former actor). She has written about books for Publishers Weekly, Lithub, Oh Reader, and many other publications. Her novels Cats on a Pole and The Spectators were published by Kano Press in 2024. She writes funny stories about flawed people and examines our herd culture. www.BetsyRobinson-writer.com.