Dear Current Occupant of the Oval Office
You said you can relate to the Federal Employees missing two pay checks. Really? When did you ever not have enough money to pay your bills? Necessary bills like heat and rent or mortgage?
Can you relate to people in this country who every day — long before the government shut down — worked two and three jobs just to make ends meet?
When, in fact, did you ever work for anyone? You never served in the military, you had college handed to you, and then a “loan” from Daddy to start you in your real estate ventures. Did you ever do an actual honest day’s work?
Can you also relate to people doing without the food stamps they rely on to feed their families? Mothers who have to put children to bed without enough food in their bellies — American mothers of American children? Is that how you make our nation great, sir, by hurting the most vulnerable?
Your grabbing of women without consent, your mocking the handicapped, and your disrespect for war heroes and other of your colleagues, demonstrate a total lack of ability to relate to anyone but you, yourself, and your ego and getting your way.
You seem to have no understanding and/or no respect for the fact that you are part of a triad known as the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches of the US government. You likewise seem to have no understanding and/or respect for the constitution of this country which set up these three branches and a system of checks and balances between them to prevent the totalitarian power you lust for or even believe you have a right to as President. You do not!
On the day you announced you were running for office you spoke of rapists and murderers that come into the US from Mexico, some bringing in drugs, and promised that Mexico would pay for a wall, AS IF! Statistics show that there is less violent crime committed by the undocumented immigrant population than by the general population. As for drugs, they come in through our ports hidden among legitimate goods, and by a small number of drug smugglers who will dig under any wall or barrier you can build. The problem with illegal immigrants is overstaying visas, not walking or driving across the southern border. Yet you toured the nation before and after the election hyping up the same message of scare tactics of rapists, murderers and drug traffickers.
Now, very recently you have added to that list claiming — in contradiction of Homeland Security statistics — that terrorists are entering the US from our southern border. This is merely more false hyped-up scare tactics added when you faced the continuing failure to get what you wanted and promised. It suddenly changed from common criminals to terrorists with nothing to back up these wild claims.
The infrastructure of this nation is crumbling and you think investing in a wall to keep out boogie men is what is needed? At what cost? Not the 5 billion you are asking for today. According to MIT engineers, the wall would cost $31.2 billion. Homeland Security estimates it at $22 billion. And none of those costs include upkeep.
The way to prevent the small percentage of criminals who seek to enter the country is to invest in quicker more thorough vetting. But that’s not what you really want. It’s about getting your way, fulfilling your campaign promises to save face, and it’s about a desire to make America WHITE again. You want to take us back to a time when White men in White sheets controlled “coloreds” by fear.
James Alex Fields Jr., the man who drove his car into protestors in Charlottesville, was convicted of the first-degree murder of Heather Heyer by a jury of his peers. There were not “good people” on both sides of the “Unite the Right” protest as you proclaimed. Good people do not carry torches, raise their arms in Hitler salutes, or shout out hate for Jews. But you chalked it all off and condemned no one, not even a murderer who risked many lives because of his support for White Supremacy, because it is a goal you share. James Alex field was sentenced to life in prison.
You have rightly been compared to a toddler having a tantrum. You have also rightly been called a racist, misogynist, despot, wanna-be dictator, and a tyrant with an agenda straight out of Mein Kampf.
Americans and the world will not allow the human rights atrocities already taking place to continue. Refugees seeking asylum deserve humane treatment and a chance to be heard.
This country was built on the backs of immigrants like your own mother! Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, Chinese-Americans and Jewish-Americans — people from all over the world have come to our shores and rolled up their sleeves, laid our railroad tracks, worked in our coal mines, farmed our lands, served in our military (which you have not) and made this country GREAT. Immigrants of all colors and all faiths built this nation. They serve in local, state and national civic positions and are what make it the great nation it is. Without them, under the restrictions and fear of deportation you have set in place, farming and other industries are suffering.
Your “tariff man” policies and bravado are additionally harming our relations with allies and hurting American farmers and manufacturing that rely on imports and exports.
You are deteriorating our greatness at home and globally, making us both weak and a laughing stock, not great at all. You shame our founding fathers, the Statue of Liberty, and everything this once great nation stood for. And you bring shame to the Office of the President of the United States of America.
Your standoff is not hurting Pelosi or Schumer. You are not hurting the Democratic party, nor are you helping yourself, your image or the Republican party. More importantly, you are harming average American citizens.
If you relate, even in the slightest way, to those suffering greatly as a result of your stubbornness, you would end this standoff and re-open government offices. If you have an ounce of compassion or empathy for those who will be choosing whether to re-elect you or not in 2020, you will end the shutdown and not hold your constituents’ pay checks and other vital services and programs, such as food programs for children, hostage.
Your legacy can either be that you were the bigger man and a humane leader in this Mexican stand-off, or not.
