BONUS: I'm sorry son for selling you this fairy tale

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I'm sorry son.

I tried to raise you the best way I knew how as a person who knew right from wrong and as a citizen who was lucky to be born in the greatest country in the world.

I wanted to instill in you the same standards my father instilled in me.

Truth, justice and the American way.

You were barely out of kindergarten when we dragged you across the Gettysburg battlefield.

You were just a lad when we visited the U.S.S, Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor.

You were 14 when you stood on the beaches of Normandy trying to digest the enormity of the sacrifice from young Americans trying to save the world from dictators.

At Dachau, we walked between the guard towers and saw the ovens where there was an attempt to eliminate an entire people from evil incarnate.

It can't happen here we repeated proudly.

You immersed yourself fervently in the history of our land like so few of your contemporaries. I encouraged you to be a good person and a better citizen.

After Dick Winters of Band of Brothers fame passed away, I was so proud of you when left a letter at his gravesite thanking him for his service.

You got it.

You understood how lucky we were in this country.

We visited presidential homes and gravesites and stood in awe outside the White House for what it represented for our democracy. We revered the men who lived there even when we disagreed with their politics.

Five years ago, we went to Washington D.C. and spent a day wandering around Arlington National Cemetery, then another morning at the Supreme Court where we showed our reverence for the nine.

We sat in the Supreme Court chambers that day in 2019 in awe.

Proud to be Americans.

Proud to be part of the greatest country in the world where the legal system offered the checks and balances for a Constitution that had held for nearly 250 years.

Ken Tingley, who took this selfie with son in December 2019 in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, is embarrassed today for ever holding the court with such reverence.

The photo here shows us as proud Americans in front of the building with the words "Equal Justice Under Law" carved into the marble.

The bedrock principle for us as Americans.

I'm hoping that President Biden's first act this morning is to order a jackhammer to the top of the Supreme Court building and remove that promise because it is no longer true.

I'm ashamed now.

I never thought I would say that.

I'm ashamed of that photo and how naïve I've been.

I'm ashamed of teaching you about the history I was once so proud of.

I'm ashamed of the reverence I showed for the American presidency. As a cynical journalist I should have known better. I should have protected you from believing as I did.

Yes, the world often lets you down. It often leaves you with egg on their face. But today I feel like a fool.

The Supreme Court justices I once held in such awe as the ultimate check on the corrupt politicians, the ultimate arbiters to protect "We the People" and ensure the path forward be true and just have let us down.

We've been played as suckers.

If there is one thing every American knows it is that no one is above the law.

The Supreme Court added an asterisk Monday.

I never thought I would ever see that, son.

I never thought that those that gave their lives on Omaha Beach had done so to protect the criminal actions of a president.

In college, you studied journalism as I did.

You were the editor of your school newspaper and uncovered shortcomings at your college and held those in power accountable. I was especially proud of you then. You learned the importance of being on the right side of good and evil. Of standing up for the greater good.

You weren't so sure if it made a difference, if anyone really cared.

I insisted that we as Americans were a special breed where right and wrong mattered.

At the highest level of one of our most revered institutions, that is no longer true.

The Supreme Court has been compromised.

"Equal Justice Under Law" - Phooey.

I'm getting older these days.

I've lived a good life in a great country. I'm not sure how much I have left, but I will continue to unleash my words whenever needed to salvage our democracy and ensure a future for you and the children you might someday have.

The photo of us at the Supreme Court will be deleted.

The memory will now be one of scorn.

Most of all, I'm sorry I led you astray about the greatness of our country and its institutions and being part of what appears to be nothing but propaganda.

It all feels like fiction now.

A fairy tale.

As midnight approaches, things have never looked darker.

Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.