A House Divided
America is in dire need of a leader to unite its citizens around our differences.
Dear Next President,
America is sinking. Our country needs a leader who can pull our country back from the brink of insanity. American society is so riddled with fear and a sense of false superiority. We ostracise other nations, in foreign relations and when their citizens decide to reside here. There is a fine line between a reasonable amount of skepticism regarding foreign people; our country has taken leaps and bounds across that line. We have created this idea that some people are not “American” enough. However, I implore you to recall the people who founded this nation. They were the first immigrants, claiming this land for their own from the native people. There is no definition of what a true American is. “American” is an ideal, not an ethnicity, not a religion.
As you take your first steps into the office of President of the United States of America, I ask you to humble yourself. You are now arguably one of the most powerful leaders in the world. That phrase should terrify you. The stability of this nation, indeed, the entire world, potentially rests in your hands.
This is not the time to create more divisions. Our country is already split enough. Every day, there are horrific acts of violence occurring throughout this country; there are people being discriminated because of their religion, skin color, sex, or orientation; there are people dying on the side of the road because they don’t have enough to eat. These things happen because the American people have become more concerned with themselves than with the good of society as a whole. Changing this unsustainable idea of exclusion is a tall order. This kind of intensive societal change needs to come from the top; it needs to come from you.
All I ask is that before you make each decision with which you’re faced, consider whether it will serve to unite the American people, or divide us. In the words of Abraham Lincoln, “A house divided cannot stand”. If we do not support each other in our times of need, we are not a United States. Remember that.
Wishing you clear judgement in your upcoming term,
Mary Oliver