To the Children of America—

I don’t know if you’ve been keeping up much with the election, or if the extent of your knowledge mostly resides in your parents’ views. I don’t know if you’re even old enough to grasp the fact that something truly bad has happened after the election on November 8^th. I don’t know if you’re young enough to let this badness slip your mind, leaving you unaffected.

When I was in elementary school, I remember hating George W. Bush with a fiery passion. After overhearing a few conversations that the adults in my family had had, my sister, my cousin, and myself created this image of Bush being very naïve and very dumb. We would write comics about him, fake newspaper articles about all the (in reality nonexistent) selfish and stupid things he had done. But all these fabricated ideas of George W. Bush were just that—ideas. We as elementary school kids had nothing other than our imaginations and our family’s conversations to work off of. Who we assumed Bush was and who he actually was were two very different people.

So why am I telling you this? As an adult who is about to live in a very different America from the one I used to believe in, I want to let you know that it’s okay to think about politics and presidents in whatever way you wish to think of them. However, what I really want for you to do is to notice the world around you. Notice what changes, what stays the same for you. Some of the most recent changes and changes to come are because of a man of whom you may or may not have heard who has been elected to be the next president of the United States. The name of this man is Donald Trump.

Your parents might be speaking highly of him. Your parents might be crying because of him. It’s also very possible that your parents have been shielding you from him and all that he stands for. I do not know myself what I would be doing if I were a parent in the midst of this chaos.

I want you to think about what the world has already become and where it should be in your own eyes. Do these representations match up? It’s up to you to decide how to handle what is to come. Write a make-believe newspaper. Draw a picture for your refrigerator. Create a performance with singing and dancing and every character you can think of. All I’m asking is for you to do something to show how you feel, because your feelings are important, valid, and will ultimately shape the future.

There is a man who has been voted as our next president, and he is not a good man. He does not care about people who are different from him. Not the people with different colored skin, different ways of loving, different ways of believing… none of them seem to matter to him. But I’m here to remind you—because I wholeheartedly believe you are smart enough to understand and know this—the fact that everyone living in this world matters. Did you learn the Golden Rule in school like I did? “Treat everyone the way you want to be treated.” Never forget this; never discard this like Donald Trump has.

I’m writing to you because I want you to know how much I believe in your spirit and your abilities. You have the power to change the world, not just when you’re able to vote but NOW. Your perspective matters. Your opinion matters. Most importantly, you matter. Never forget this, either.

Signed with all the hope in the world,

Zoe Homonoff