How will they remember you?

Cartoonist, ICE agent or federal prosecutor: Your words and deeds are your legacy. Live with it. Die with it.

The obituaries for Scott Adams, creator of the once-popular Dilbert comic strip, prominently mention that his racism led to Dilbert’s downfall. Both the Associated Press and The New York Times refer to Adams’ racist podcast rant and how it prompted newspapers to cancel the strip.

The Times obit also quotes Adams on his public support of Trump — and how much it cost him personally: “I sacrificed everything. I sacrificed my social life. I sacrificed my career. I sacrificed my reputation. I may have sacrificed my health. And I did that because I believed it was worth it.”

How pathetic: To be remembered for your success as a humorist and, in the next paragraph, for being a racist jerk who believed supporting a racist president “was worth it.”

Of the millions of Americans who at one time chuckled at Dilbert and shared the comic strip with others, very few knew Adams personally. And yet, with cartoonists and other popular artists, there’s a tendency to feel a real personal connection: We liked Dilbert and identified with the comic strip’s work-place humor — therefore, we probably like its creator, too.

But the things they say and the things they do, outside of their craft, matter. (See Allen, Woody.)

It turns out, I don’t fully agree with what Maya Angelou said: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

At a personal level, that’s true, and a beautiful instruction to savor as we go about living our lives.

But, at the public level, words and deeds do matter. They are what we remember. They become our legacy.

Scott Adams’ legacy is, ultimately, a sad one. He did not die beloved by Dilbert fans.

Back in July, I wrote an appeal to ICE agents to stand down:

It’s not like you are veterans who served honorably in the military defense of the country. It’s not like you are police officers who honorably serve and protect our communities. You are ICE agents and many Americans associate your present activities with that of the secret police forces that served dictators. People think you’re a bunch of fascists with no conscience.

It’s worse now, of course. Masked or not, all who are part of the ICE force will be forever associated with the brutality unleashed on people living in America — documented, undocumented, native or naturalized — and there’s no going back. Your kids and your grandkids will learn that the Trump regime turned ICE into an SS-like force, and thousands of men donned masks and went along with it.

That will be the legacy of every ICE agent, whether they took part in brutal arrests or not. The association will always be there. Every agent will live out his or her days knowing that the vast majority of Americans detested what they did.

Up in Minnesota this week, six federal prosecutors resigned rather than carry out an unethical and politically-driven investigation related to the killing of a protestor, Rene Nicole Good, by an ICE agent. They also protested the Department of Justice’s unwillingness to investigate the circumstances of the shooting. Those prosecutors will be remembered for taking a principled stand, acting in good conscience against the lawlessness of the Trump regime and the politicalization of the DOJ.

Words and deeds matter — all the way to the graveyard, and the years beyond.