Dear, Untied States of America.

You have indeed pulled your strings too tight and now look where we are. Look at the mess you - we've made. We are practically drowning in loose threads and torn seams. We are not yet ripped in two, but we are far too close for any simple patch job to fix.

No, we've had enough patch jobs. What we need is a good tailor, and we've all got to play a role in finding them. Yes, them. (And not only in regards to gender neutrality.) There will be many tailors in the future who will be needed to mend the disheveled garment we call America.

But for now we have not come to terms with this, or we have but do not yet know how to go about it. We each have an idea of what-who-why is best and we each want to voice it. This is good. This is what we need—willing people to stand up and propose something, talk about something, make things happen. But we can't all do that at once and this is our problem.

We all have one thing in common, so we bind together on that front, standing in angry solidarity side by side with the same end in mind: to fix whatever it is that has gone wrong.

We are the angry mob.

Yes, an angry mob - of the good variety. Meaning we are passionate about what we stand for. But we are angry, and we are a mob, however well-organized we may be or how neat our picket signs are. There is nothing wrong with this as long as there is good cause - and I think it's safe to say we have good cause.

I am a part of you. I hold my torch and pitchfork up high along with you. Together we aim to storm the castle and we ride as one.

But something confuses me. I wonder if you might answer it for me? Your consideration at least would be greatly appreciated.

If we are angry for the same reasons and we share the same general sentiments, why, then do we so often seem angry with each other as well?

We represent a wide range of individuals: members of the LGBTQIA community, African American, Latinx and immigrant, the list goes on and on. In short, lots of people who have lots of reasons to join the mob and be angry together.

I and many others however seem to have a problem you see, and that problem is this: I do not identify within the bounds of any concrete minority group. I am a heterosexual white woman, and my femaleness, although threatened under our new president's potential agenda, is but a small part of a very large fear which others face.

Therefore, I realize as a heterosexual white individual, though I'm surely warranted in my worry over the next four years, I perhaps don't have as many directly personal concerns in regards to my safety and security within this country. I would, however, think it quite clear that though my individual person may not be physically affected by some of the terrors Donald Trump brings to the table, those terrors will affect me.

I do not pretend to understand much of what is going on or what our country has come to. I am not sure anyone really can. It is all a jumbled, boiling mess and we are angry and scared and sad that we have reached this point. We feel cornered and we grasp for what is familiar and what separates us out - something which can let us see ourselves as individual and human in a world where there are those who may not be so quick to acknowledge it for us. We want to be heard. Therefore, we reach for differences and pull on them hard until we can be distinguished from the person standing next to us regardless of what else we might share.

This is when the threads begin to snap.

I do not pretend that I am not a white woman from a white town in a predominantly white state. Understandably, these are kind-of hard truths to deny and I acknowledge them.

I do not pretend that all of this is alright, that it is all just some twisted sadistic dream, that in four years time we will be able to simply forgive and forget, live and let live, and purge the color orange from all of our lives.

Because I cannot pretend to believe that which I do not. And I do not believe this to be true. I do not believe that we can simply forget, nor do I believe that we can simply "move on."

Yes, in four years time someone else will run for President of the States, but I cannot be certain that it will be the United States up for grabs. As it is we seem to be having trouble keeping our individual communities together, leaving little hope that whole states can remain intact for long.

We are already untied, and though we strive for cohesion, we still manage to tear each other apart. I greatly regret that we see difference as a threat in this country, or in any country for that matter. I personally do not understand the sentiment or the fear. Though we might stand together, cry together, protest together, we are not together. There is a line, always a line, fine as it may be, between us. And some fine lines are easy - too easy as we have seen in this election - to cross. Others are difficult and frightening and easier to ignore than to face.

We need to change that. It is too tiresome to constantly be on edge, to tiptoe around issues and fear polite candor - polite meaning we listen; we consider; we withhold judgement, and candor meaning we say what we must when we must but also as we must.

We do not say hurtful things because we ourselves have been hurt.

We are kind.

We are positive.

We are united.

Now pull yourself together and start mending your threads. We have work to do.