Dear Mr. Trump:

I wish I could warmly welcome you into your new position.

I wish I had words that would not strike you in such a way;

You may respond with a vicious tweet- or cut off funding to my very educational pursuits.

You don’t know me, so I won’t take your dismantling of the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) ‘personally’ but, I do take offense.

I wanted so badly for your inaugural address to be a statement of unification but instead,

it was another hateful rhetoric, laden with a plurality of negative statements.

I wanted so badly, to know and believe that, when you said- “Today is your day” that you meant it. That perhaps you would for, just one moment, be a leader that every American could get behind, if even just for one day.

When you began a statement with “All of the haters…” at your inaugural ball, I was brought back to the very central reason why I could not, in my best judgement, ever support you.

It is because of your impulsivity, your lack of common sense, rationale, apparent lack of both attention span and attention to detail.

Your tendencies towards insults and your lack of sensitivity.

No, I am not a bleeding ‘liberal heart’. I am a human, and your words hurt me.

Disgust me.

I have the privilege of being a white woman, but I am a humanitarian, a writer, a person who has read so many books that empathy has taken on new meaning.

So,

I fear for my brothers and sisters. I care for my brothers and sisters, in a way that you don’t. In a way that you are incapable of.

I am a proud American, but I am not proud of you.

No, you do not represent me. You do not uphold a single one of my values.

You are trying to reverse the clock, make my rights obsolete. I will not go out quietly, I will be your adversary for the next four years and as long as my rights are under attack.

I will be Muslim for my Muslim brothers and sisters, I will be black for my black brothers and sisters, I will take the world upon my shoulders

(if only to keep it safe and out of your grasp).

I wish, Mr. Trump,

President Trump,

That I could be a welcoming and understanding citizen. I wish that my heart was not cold towards you,

But nothing is without reason.

I hold true to me, the values and beliefs that make this nation beautiful

In the same stark and ominous tone you addressed us yesterday,

I fiercely advocate here;

Not just for me,

But for my friends

Family

Loved ones

Those you have spited

And those whom you will continue to spite.

I will not be silenced,

I will not be forgotten-

Lest you think that we will be trading one forgotten group for another,

You- my toothless lion President,

Will surely hear me roar.