An Open Letter to President Donald Trump

A year ago today, Donald Trump was inaugurated was the 45th president of the United States. After listening to his inauguration speech on my bed in Aunty's home in Koreatown, I processed my emotions by writing an open letter to the new president of our country.

Today, one year later, our government has shut down, and many of the emotions I felt this time last year are still deeply uneasy within me. Because of that, I am sharing this letter again.

An Open Letter to President Donald Trump from Jan. 20, 2017:

There are a few things I am struggling to understand today in light of this “transfer of power” we have just witnessed in our nation’s history. So with all due respect to the position you hold, I have a few questions, Mr. President.

You lost me the moment you opened your inauguration speech by thanking “the whole world.” To be honest, I am not sure how much of your rhetoric during the campaign trail was misquoted and blown out of proportion to make the language used sound so venomous and hate-filled. But I do know that those words, no matter how twisted, did not sit well with me, and I am having a hard time seeing passed those words to a potentially softer and more kind truth. So when you thanked the whole world, did you know that this includes Mexicans, whom you intend to build a wall to keep out, Muslims, whom you stereotype and believe are going to destroy America, the news media, whom you blatantly hate, and women, whom you intend to oppress in seemingly every way possible? These are just a few of the demographics that come to mind from my admittedly limited knowledge, but examples that bother me deeply nonetheless.

Please tell me, what do you mean by “all people?” When you talk of “giving the power back to the people,” who does this include? Because the way that I see it, building a wall and deporting undocumented workers, grabbing women by the pussy, and dehumanizing entire groups of people because their immediate heritage does not fit your definition of “American” does not seem inclusive of “all people.” You addressed this speech “to all Americans,” but I strongly believe that your definition of “American” and my definition of “American” are most likely wildly different. Until you can define that for me, I have a lot of questions. If “from this day forward, it’s going to be only America first, America first,” what is your definition of America and who is the American? Do you realize that putting our country first does not only mean cultivating a change in the outward perception of our country, but also cultivating a change in the inward treatment of our people? How do you plan to do this? Or is it only going to be a preferential treatment of white people?

Mr. President, your words have revealed a lot of brokenness in a lot of people, and their reaction to your new place of power in our country is wildly upsetting. Today, in the Los Angeles City Hall, I listened to a woman fully supporting your presidency hiss horribly hateful words at a young woman of color standing close beside her. This woman leaned over and said, “You better run. Donald Trump is going to deport your ass!” I know you are not solely responsible for this sudden surge in broken people that feel somehow entitled to act upon their deep hatred and racism, but what is it about you that somehow newly empowers these formerly mostly silent people? At this point, I am neither standing for nor against either political side. I do, however, stand opposed to any injustice against and disrespect of persons, regardless of whether that comes from the left or the right. But please tell me, why is it coming overwhelmingly, unlike it has ever come in the past, from a populace that supports you?

Please tell me how this moment is my moment? How does feeling fearful to simply walk outside the day after election day, knowing you have won and that people will somehow feel newly entitled because of that, make the moment belong to me? How does being a woman and hearing men talk of grabbing me by the pussy make this moment belong to me? How does being uncomfortable to travel to City Hall today, the day of your inauguration, make this moment belong to me? There is backlash against you and because of you that I fear getting caught in. For those that fear your retaliation against them personally simply for their different cultural background and heritage, how is the United States of America their country? Do not try to tell me that these fears are ungrounded. Something about this whole situation is just not sitting right with me, and it is not sitting right with thousands of people. So how does fear of you make this our moment?

Why does this nation feel so suddenly divided? If “We are one nation, and their pain is our pain, their dreams are our dreams, and their success will be our success,” then why are legitimate United States citizens living in fear of your time in office? If “We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny,” why is verbally abusing one another, followed by a “hail Trump” like the woman in City Hall said today, an acceptable form of discourse? You said that, “Through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.” Maybe I am missing something, but I am not seeing much loyalty. Who, by your definition, Mr. President, is our country? Would that be the African-American men and women who find themselves silenced day after day because systemic racism still seems to affect them enough to merit a trending hashtag movement such as #BlackLivesMatter? Would that be the Hispanic woman in City Hall today who was angrily told to run from you while minding her own business? Would that be the Spanish-speaking woman addressing the council in that same room who was interrupted and assaulted with cries of “English! This is America. Speak English!” and shortly afterwards called a “Mexican roach” and a “damned motherfucker?”

These men and women have a humanity and a right to be treated with dignity that is being forgotten. These men and women are a part of our country. They are American, and yet there seems to be a large outcry against them. If “we will not seek to impose our way of life on anyone,” why does it seem to me that a “white” way of life is the only way suddenly supported in this country? Are you listening to their cries for equality, or are you too busy imposing? Will they be “forgotten no longer” just long enough to kick them out of the country so we can hurt and forget about them again? Why is my heart breaking when I see people pitted against one another in support for you, and in opposition to you? This is not loyalty, Mr. President. This is division.

You said, “When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.” You’re kidding, right? You mean that? Do you understand the definition of the word “prejudice?” Or the definition of “solidarity?” What about that wall you talk so fondly of building? Or the media you talk of dismantling? How about the time you blatantly insulted the mother of a fallen war hero for grieving her son’s loss by assuming her silence was due to her cultural and religious background? I could go on with this list, but my intent is not to dismantle and insult you in any way. I simply want to know why your candidacy and now presidency has somehow newly inspired people to be more blatantly prejudiced than they have been for a long while. The pursuance of solidarity does not look like this surge in hatred that is undeniably sweeping over our nation. It does not look like walls or a whitewashed people group. Something about the new leader of our country not attempting to diminish this bigoted mindset but only seeming to fuel it, does not sit right with me, and I hope I have made that clear.

I do not want to see you fail, Mr. President. I do not want you to let me, or anybody else, down. To be honest, I voted in your favor, and while I have regretted that many times, I do not regret it now. I do, however, regret the immense hatred that my vote has played a role in enabling. I regret being a part of something that blatantly disregards the value of many people, and I regret ever thinking that maybe I would be wrong about those who support you with such hatred. We do not “all enjoy the same glorious freedoms.” This is clear to see in the deep divisions plaguing our nation currently. So, just one last batch of questions. Will you fight for us? Will you fight for all of the American people, meaning every person within our borders, from any nationality, heritage, or ethnicity, with the right to call themselves a citizen “with every breath in your body?” Will you really? Please do. Because there is there such a heavy weight upon my heart about the season our country is about to enter into under your presidency. A protestor’s sign I glimpsed today read, “And if he builds a wall, I will raise my child to tear it down.” Please, Mr. President, do not let this division and hatred continue. I do not want to raise my child to tear down any walls, whether physical or of any other sort, that your time in office may build.

With my best wishes, truly,

Michaela Steiner