Dear President Trump

Dear President Trump,

I appreciate your time in (potentially? possibly?) reading this letter. I know you must be busy so I will keep this brief.

As you well know it has been an awful election season. Americans and America is more divisive than ever before. Unfortunately for us all you were one of the two least popular candidates in our election history. You have contributed to this by using rhetoric many, including myself, find troubling. Even on inaugural weekend there were protests all over the globe including Washington, DC and while I heard your press secretary debate attendance numbers, I did not hear anyone discuss the sea of angry people that took over the nation's capital. Indeed, we are divided. I write all this to give context to what I humbly hope is your next, intentional step:

You are in a great position to lead.

Mr. President, with all due respect, this is your opportunity to lead us - all of us - in a direction all rational and reasonable Americans can get behind. Mr. President, this is not the time to continue blaming, insulting, disregarding or creating alternatives to realities most can plainly see. Those of us that are with you and those of us that oppose you all have one thing in common: we want to see your next steps toward reconciliation. This is your opportunity to lead.

I must admit I did not hear your inauguration address. But I am hopeful you appreciate that We the People are looking for your actions - not just your words. You have an opportunity to lead us all, Mr. President. It first starts with your deeds. Please value de-escalating conflict rather than escalating it. Please value being slow to anger instead of continuing to fire off mean-spirited tweets. Please show compassion to the least of these, to the meek and the mild. Please value all of us - even the ones that did not vote for you. Please embrace the ideals contained in that ancient poem held tightly to the breast of our beacon of liberty in the NY harbor. Please acknowledge there are separate and unequal realities for people of color.

For if you do, and I am praying you do, we will have absolutely no choice but to follow you because you will have led us not with the strength of your right hand but with the compassion of your heart. Leaders don't run over people. Leaders hold up their followers, their teams. As a Christian man I am reminded of a man who did not overcome the world through His might, but merely followed His path of righteousness and changed an entire world.

Sir, things cannot get much more divided. What is your plan for uniting us all? Your future and all of ours depends on you having the right answer.