An Open Letter to Our American Neighbours
As I am a Canadian you may not feel that I have a right to weigh in on the U.S. elections. It’s not my country, and I don’t get a vote. But my recent travels in upstate New York inspired me to speak anyway, much as I would if a dear friend of mine was trying to choose between two marriage proposals and I could see the danger she was in of making the terrible choice to marry an abuser.
The snake oil salesman, otherwise known as Donald Trump chose “Make America Great Again” as his campaign slogan. I saw it on the lawns and in the yards of many homes in the poorest rural areas we travelled through. Impoverished communities of white Americans living in trailers and tract homes with rusted car frames and heaps of junk in their yards were covered with Trump/Pence signs. In those communities, I saw no Clinton/Kaine signs. The only mention of Hillary was in a spray painted sign on the lawn of a junkyard that said “Vote for Trump. Hillary sucks”. Somehow this group of people bought into the notion that a billionaire, narcissist who hasn’t paid federal income tax in a couple of decades, who claims to be a philanthropist without any supporting evidence, whose business interests were the direct recipients of his unregistered charitable foundation monies, who is a liar, a misogynist and a racist, is going to improve their fortunes and make America great again. And that is where my problem begins.
I’ve travelled extensively through the U.S. I grew up in a border town. I spent most of a decade working in an executive position with an American bank. I’ve vacationed there hundreds of times. I have many friends and very dear family who live south of the 49th parallel. The U.S. is a beautiful country; from the rolling hills of upstate New York to the mountains of Colorado; from the beaches of Miami to the vineyards of Napa Valley. Boston, Chicago, New York City, Washington, D.C., Miami, Colorado Springs, Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle are just some of the wonderful cities I’ve been privileged to visit. The American people are warm and welcoming and most of them are very, very lucky because through a cosmic accident, and not through any action of their own, they were born in the United States.
At the risk of sounding preachy, I do have a few suggestions about what might make things greater. I’m not suggesting that we in Canada have figured it all out. God knows we have cracks in our own foundations. And for me, it’s more about individual action than it is about the collective. It’s hard to fix everything but if we could each focus on making things greater in our own little corners, we may have a prayer of influencing the greater good. So here goes:
Try reaching out to someone who doesn’t look like you or doesn’t pray like you. I saw few people of colour during my recent travels and no mixed groups socializing. Every small community that we visited had multiple Christian churches but I didn’t see a single temple, mosque or synagogue and yet they certainly must exist. The only way I know of breaking down barriers is to come to know one another as individuals. It is in these interactions that we learn that there is more that unites us than there is that divides us.
If you have more than you need, share. There is much wealth in the country and much poverty. Everyone would benefit from sharing the wealth a little. Sharing feels as good for the giver as it does for the recipient.
Remember your roots. Reread that poem on the inner wall of the Statue of Liberty.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Unless you are one of the indigenous people, it wasn’t so long ago that your ancestors came from someplace else. Choose love over fear. Try to remember that God didn’t draw the lines around the countries but made the world for all of us to share.
My dear friends, you have a wonderful country. It is diverse, beautiful, abundant and free. Please don’t listen to the rhetoric of a self-serving bully who is trying to convince you otherwise. America doesn’t need to be made great again. America is already great.
As I am a Canadian you may not feel that I have a right to weigh in on the U.S. elections. It’s not my country, and I don’t get a vote. But my recent travels in upstate New York inspired me to speak anyway, much as I would if a dear friend of mine was trying to choose between two marriage proposals and I could see the danger she was in of making the terrible choice to marry an abuser.
The snake oil salesman, otherwise known as Donald Trump chose “Make America Great Again” as his campaign slogan. I saw it on the lawns and in the yards of many homes in the poorest rural areas we travelled through. Impoverished communities of white Americans living in trailers and tract homes with rusted car frames and heaps of junk in their yards were covered with Trump/Pence signs. In those communities, I saw no Clinton/Kaine signs. The only mention of Hillary was in a spray painted sign on the lawn of a junkyard that said “Vote for Trump. Hillary sucks”. Somehow this group of people bought into the notion that a billionaire, narcissist who hasn’t paid federal income tax in a couple of decades, who claims to be a philanthropist without any supporting evidence, whose business interests were the direct recipients of his unregistered charitable foundation monies, who is a liar, a misogynist and a racist, is going to improve their fortunes and make America great again. And that is where my problem begins.
I’ve travelled extensively through the U.S. I grew up in a border town. I spent most of a decade working in an executive position with an American bank. I’ve vacationed there hundreds of times. I have many friends and very dear family who live south of the 49th parallel. The U.S. is a beautiful country; from the rolling hills of upstate New York to the mountains of Colorado; from the beaches of Miami to the vineyards of Napa Valley. Boston, Chicago, New York City, Washington, D.C., Miami, Colorado Springs, Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle are just some of the wonderful cities I’ve been privileged to visit. The American people are warm and welcoming and most of them are very, very lucky because through a cosmic accident, and not through any action of their own, they were born in the United States.
At the risk of sounding preachy, I do have a few suggestions about what might make things greater. I’m not suggesting that we in Canada have figured it all out. God knows we have cracks in our own foundations. And for me, it’s more about individual action than it is about the collective. It’s hard to fix everything but if we could each focus on making things greater in our own little corners, we may have a prayer of influencing the greater good. So here goes:
Try reaching out to someone who doesn’t look like you or doesn’t pray like you. I saw few people of colour during my recent travels and no mixed groups socializing. Every small community that we visited had multiple Christian churches but I didn’t see a single temple, mosque or synagogue and yet they certainly must exist. The only way I know of breaking down barriers is to come to know one another as individuals. It is in these interactions that we learn that there is more that unites us than there is that divides us.
If you have more than you need, share. There is much wealth in the country and much poverty. Everyone would benefit from sharing the wealth a little. Sharing feels as good for the giver as it does for the recipient.
Remember your roots. Reread that poem on the inner wall of the Statue of Liberty.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Unless you are one of the indigenous people, it wasn’t so long ago that your ancestors came from someplace else. Choose love over fear. Try to remember that God didn’t draw the lines around the countries but made the world for all of us to share.
My dear friends, you have a wonderful country. It is diverse, beautiful, abundant and free. Please don’t listen to the rhetoric of a self-serving bully who is trying to convince you otherwise. America doesn’t need to be made great again. America is already great.
