Opinion: January 20, 2017 – Dear Donald Trump

Editor’s note: Truckee resident Gail Griesmer submitted the following letter as a poem; it’s represented below as such.

On this day of your inauguration

I cannot protest against

The off-the-cuff comments

You have made, or tweeted

Really, my friend

This isn’t a high school history class

And your audience is more

Than your amused compatriots.

•••

On this day of your inauguration

I want instead to appeal

To the vast populace

That makes up We The People…

The butchers, the bakers

The “uninformed media,” the whole melting pot.

Listen up, corporations,

who are apparently also persons.

•••

Maybe our history teachers forgot to tell us

But we know, think about it,

That no President

Is ever inaugurated alone.

Instead of protesting what is not right

We should fill our placards with

A vision of what we expect

Of a President and of Ourselves.

•••

We should be calling out:

We are here, Donald,

And we are learning

To be strong, to forego attacks,

Or at least soften them

And to find the truth in what is being offered.

We also seem to share a tendency toward

Becoming distracted.

Maybe we could work on that, too.

•••

On this day of our inauguration

We are committed to creating a society

That is nourished and improved

By each and every decision we all make.

•••

It will be our legacy

Yours and ours, Donald,

Join us.

•••

E Pluribus Unum

—–

Gail Griesmer

Truckee