Dear Mr. President:
This week while working at my downtown Minneapolis job, I peered outside my street level window at the United States Post Office across the street where the American flag waved in the crisp April wind. I stared at it whipping around the pole, the stars and stripes wrinkled and distorted, and I started to think about what I thought that flag represented to me. And I couldn’t come up with anything.
Amidst all of the “birther” rumors, I found myself spending entirely too much time analyzing the state of this country and it’s people. I will be honest with you, I’ve never been a very patriotic person. I don’t have the flag displayed anywhere, I usually don’t sing the “Star Spangled Banner” at events, and the fun of the 4th of July seems to be lost to me. People in this country continue to disappoint me with their judgments, their naïve and ignorant behavior, their love of money and power, their need to partake in violence, and most importantly, the continuing need to work against each other rather than together as a nation.
What kind of country is this when a strong, smart, political figure is elected President, yet one out of four people continue to question his legitimacy? When has any other elected President been questioned about their US citizenship? It has never happened before. And what this tells me is that America hasn’t made the progress I’d like to believe it has made.
I struggle constantly with the want to be proud of the country I live in. I am proud of the rights that I have but it seems that so easily, these rights could be taken away from me. I want to live in a country where people of all backgrounds are welcomed and are not judged because of the color of their skin, their sex, their choice of worship, or who they choose to love. I want the people of our country to have the same rights because we are all Americans and because we should work together.
Why should one person have more rights than someone else if we are, in fact, the United States of America? How are we united in this “land of the free and home of the brave” when not all of us are fully “free”? Those people I consider “brave” are those who wake up every morning and are not afraid to be themselves in a country where so many people are trying their hardest to tell them to be someone else.
I understand that you’re not the only person in control of what happens in this country. I understand that it isn’t easy to be the President of the United States and it’s impossible to please everyone. But it is my true, undeniable, deep within my heart belief that everyone deserves fair and equal treatment. Simply, I feel like it’s just part of being a human to let people live as they please and to leave our judgments at the door. Why does humanity continue to be defined by each individual person? The last time I checked it was the humanrace and humankind and it wasn’t divided out into individual categories based on personal beliefs and backgrounds.
I’m not so sure how much power you really have and I’m really not so sure how much I trust this government of ours. And I know it's almost impossible to change the way people think. But even though I’ve only been of voting age for 10 years, for the first time I thought we had a President who could make me be proud of America again. I still believe you can do this, Mr. President.
When will we truly be the United States of America?
Best Wishes,
Nicole T. Meyers
Professional Writer and Human Being.
Lead with your heart. And please don't be afraid to.
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