This letter was sent to NYT, but not published to the best of my knowledge. It is the first of letters I will write over the next years calling out this occupant of the WH and his thugs. I will have a blog up by midnight February 1, 2017 and can be followed on Twitter now.
January 19, 2017
Open Letter to President Donald J. Trump
Dear Mr. Trump,
By the time this letter might get published, you will have already been inaugurated. You will have accepted the responsibility to lead this nation, and sworn an oath to defend our Constitution. You will have been given the nuclear codes, and you will be carrying those codes on your person. It is time to grow into a job that will require you to apply yourself more diligently than you have ever done in your life. This is not the job you delegate to others – that is no longer your option. Not to your Cabinet, your son-in-law, your children, your advisers who have absolutely no experience in how to govern. Only you can make the decisions, and you cannot relegate someone else to take your briefings or make your decisions without full information. You will actually have to work for a living for perhaps the first time in your life – and you better get it right because if you do not, the world will hold you accountable and so will the American people.
I am a descendant of the original settlers, the Pilgrims, and my ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution on my mother’s side. My father’s family were Swedish immigrants at the early part of the last century. Now, I am a 64 year old white woman with an IQ of 156, which is probably considerably higher than many of those whom you have chosen to surround yourself with at this time. I was raised in places like Westport, CT, and Glen Ridge and Upper Montclair, NJ – places where money was no object. My family is wealthy, but I am not by choice, sharing with others what I had rather than hoarding it. I hold degrees - Bachelors in Business Administration and Masters of Public Policy and Administration – that are more current and more informed than your education. So when I say I am terrified of you as president of this nation, I come to that conclusion from both life and business experience, education, and by virtue of my age.
You spend more time talking about yourself rather than addressing the needs of the American people. P. T. Barnum once noted that you can fool some of the people most of the time, most of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. But, you cannot fool me. Even your fast-talking shills – Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer – have not obscured the truth from me, even if they have hidden it from you. I have never lost faith in the greatness of this nation – so I know your slogan was a fraud because this nation has never been anything but great. We are not perfect, but we have been great in our spirit, our generosity, our search for peace, our freedoms as guaranteed by the Constitution, our support of those in our nation who need our help and encouragement, and our wealth of knowledge and search for ways to expand that knowledge. While you were partying and cheating on your wives, the rest of us were working to earn livings, raise our children, and seeking educations that made us smarter and better citizens and people. You have never been actually involved in any of these things – delegating the raising of your children to your wives while you cheated on them, the expansion of your business empire delegated to partners and contractors that you cheated, and indulging your oversized ego. This may have been business of usual for you, but it is not how you govern a nation that leads from a position of greatness and integrity and honor.
Sir, you have surrounded yourself with people who would have no understanding of the damage they will do to people in this nation. I know the bubble you all live in, not seeing the reality of the rest of Americans. You are no different. You have no understanding of what the American people need, and if you think that most Americans are going to support you going forward, you really need to rethink your approach to governance. Surrounding yourself with people who are unwilling to speak to power honestly and who support things that this nation left behind decades ago or actively fought against for over 80 years, will cause your presidency to be perceived as a failure from the outset. It is time to face the reality that this nation represents far more than the small percentage who voted for you – and yes, it was only an Electoral College win, and not a plurality of the citizens of this nation. You actually got only about 19% of the total population and 25% of the electorate voting for you – a minority, not a mandate – so you must address the needs of all the people of America, not just your small coterie of sycophants and uber rich friends.
You may not need anyone’s vote for four more years, but make no mistake, you need the support of ALL the American people if you intend to govern responsibly. When you lose that backing through irresponsible foreign policy actions, poor economic policies, and abusive domestic policy, you will lose Congress in 2018 and you may find yourself facing a very angry nation that is going to demand you be removed from office and jailed. You are moving very quickly in that direction.
Or do you and Bannon and his thuggery plan on martial law before then – as you threatened in Chicago. If you are, maybe you might want to consider that most members of the military are not going to be willing to fire on their fellow Americans and may well side with armed citizens trying to defend themselves, their communities, and their nation.
Since your election you have been aware of the outcry from the public about your Cabinet choices, your comments and past history about the majority of Americans. Now you face a very real chance of being declared to have been illegally elected president through the undue influence of a foreign, hostile nation. And, yes, sir, Russia is a hostile nation, and any smart person can see it clearly.
I grew up with foreign businessmen visiting our home as a child and teenager. I understand about how foreign nations see this nation from talking to these people as an inquisitive child. But more than that, I remember the air raid drills. I remember the fear of nuclear war for 13 days in October 1963. I remember the loss of friends in Vietnam and seeing the nightly news stories. I watched the race riots and saw my own public high school torn apart after Kent State. I do not want my grandchildren or their children to be subjected to that, but you and your associates make it quite clear that when history repeats itself as it is now, we will be living with those days of fear again, only this time we will be the world’s enemy. This does not make American great again – being a bully does not make you great. It makes you feared. It leaves our young people not facing greatness, but becoming the next generation of cannon fodder.
You leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that you intend to pattern your administration after that of Vladimir Putin with a generous dose of Adolf Hitler included. The GOP in Congress will go along as long as they get to hurt the American people with their ideological war on their constituents. But, sir, make no mistake – when you cross the line and poke the sleeping bear this nation has always been when abused or attacked, the American people will rise up and we will fight back. We will be watching you and your enablers in Congress, the Supreme Court, and the White House. We will watch and we will know when you cross that line. We will not give up our greatness as a nation to anyone – not Putin and Russia, not to your wealthy pals, not to your political party, NOT ANYONE! Consider who you surround yourself with, and perhaps you might want to find someone who understands history and is not afraid to tell you when you are wrong. Your new job is not to make America great again – IT IS TO KEEP IT GREAT FROM THIS DAY FORWARD AS IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN!
Remember my name, sir, because my 2017 New Year Resolution is going to be speaking out against you, your ideas, your treatment of people, your corrupt Cabinet, and your foreign policies. I love my country, and I will no longer sit silently by as you lead us down a path that will devastate millions of my fellow citizens. Plan to read my letters on a new blog and referenced on Twitter, and I will offer facts for the fiction you and your administration already seem intent on spewing. Please be sure you see my signature and learn to spell my name. I may not be a celebrity or wealthy – but I am an American citizen who will exercise her free speech rights under the Constitution you have just sworn to defend. I will hold you to the highest standards and all laws of any American, because that is what it means to be President of the United States of America.
An American Citizen whose family has been here longer than you,
Rev. Devon Jeanette Noll, BSBA, MPPA
