Dear President Trump
An open letter.
“I know that what I am asking is impossible. But in our time, as in every time, the impossible is the least that one can demand — and one is, after all, emboldened by the spectacle of human history in general, and American Negro history in particular, for it testifies to nothing less than the perpetual achievement of the impossible…”
Dear President Trump, congratulations.
(You duped the nation, but — I cannot wither in self apathy.)
I have a proposition for you, Mr. Trump, and I do hope you listen.
For we the people, of these United States;
Require justice.
For how can we collaborate toward a more perfect union if it is just us?
Dictating terms of engagement with deflated wages — rather,
Implore domestic tranquillity.
See, we have our hands up, sir.
But soon they’ll be clenched.
A posture which will never quench our collective thirst for power.
Despite, dispossessed and disillusioned.
Is it delusion to request, for the common defense?
Not more bombing or your fence
But for equal protection, under the law, and so, I —
Request for the general welfare.
And I do mean well but…
I can’t help but see brown bodies disregarded, and it’s not fair.
And so, we must secure the promise of America.
And demand the blessings of liberty.
For ourselves, and our posterity.
Mr. Trump,
Please forgive my unabashedly brash brothers and sisters for bombarding you with the brazenness of a black panther but;
Most have simply forgotten who they are.
Histories lost behind the event horizon of slavery,
tired of waiting listfully forlorn for judgement day.
Half hearted in direction, with inflection points of destiny
Robbed by the sails of the Clotilda.
Sentenced to sin and incarcerated within by limited perspectives lent by faux leaders, who taught us the virtue of violence.
The inerrant image of God, stripped from melanated souls subjugated to build a nation for free, in the land of anything but.
The result was so heinous and hypocritical that ‘America the Beautiful’ became an inside joke. (Only, some were never inside.)
And so, the equity of Imago Dei was replaced by merit derived of flesh.
Doomed to inherit curses of fore fathers that
co-opt potential to frustrate genius.
To progress, or congress?
Please, President Trump.
Forgive my fellow liberals, for talking over and not with you.
For feeling our world remains salvable.
Or solve-able.
Dictatorial delineations only served to divorce us of culpability.
(Besides, fighting fictions felt more real, and you played the part well.)
Forgive those some call aliens who choose to call America home.
Remember that you too were once an immigrant.
Forgive those some call idealists who purpose peace, over war.
But our mandate was to form a more perfect union.
Forgive those some call sinners who expose their broken hearts.
Remember that we are all only human.
Though — I cannot apologize for the rejection of language
that incites fear and fans flames of division.
But perhaps… your voice was needed.
To expose the inhumanity hiding in the cracks of our collective soul.
And now, the choice remains yours;
Death by implication, or life by supplication?
President Trump.
Pardon my forwardness but, I don’t wish to go back in time, sir.
It is not my desire to have hands and feet encased by time, sir.
Where justice is just retribution seasoned in time, sir.
Please, hear me out —
In no way do I reject the greatness of this nation. But,
Is is not odd? That to forge ahead, we must move behind?
Its not your policies that scare me.
Nor the “Make America Great”…
But that last word. “Again”, sir.
To tie our futures to the past, is to die before we’re born
And cap the reach of infinity.
American exceptionalism,
Except for those with darkened skin
is nothing to brag about.
Sir.
Perhaps I ask for the impossible?
So be it.
For the spectacle of American history bears witness to nothing less
than the perpetual achievement,
of just that.
This land of ours where obstacles return as testaments.
Remember that you occupy the most powerful position in politics;
Please do not treat it as a television game show.
Remember that we have only one earth;
Please let us not ruin it out of greed.
Remember that you are first and foremost a public servant
Please do not only respond to private interests.
And finally, President Trump.
Please remember the legacy of the seat in which you now occupy.
To protect the derelict, and serve the under served.
and the undeserved.
The exponential curve of history waits in the balance — so please,
Mr. Trump.
Please.
Have faith in US,
Don’t sow hate in US,
And together, we can make America Great.
“…Everything now, we must assume, is in our hands; we have no right to assume otherwise.”
[James Baldwin]
