How I would have written Donald Trumps inaugural address

Had Donald Trump understood what it meant to be a President of and for all of the people in the United States of America his inauguration speech would have had to have been quite different than it was. Instead it was a slightly retooled version of his campaign rally speech.

I was thinking what it might look like. So I wrote the following.

My fellow Americans. The campaign is over. Many things were said in the heat of the campaign. This nation is in need of healing. Not just from the fiercely fought campaign, but from years of difficulties faced by too many working families facing the stresses of a rapidly shrinking and changing world we find it hard to adapt to.

Roughly half the nation voted for me and the other half my opponent. We proposed and fought for two different ideas of what’s best for our country. But today we are one nation seeking peaceful coexistence living on a relatively small planet with a rapidly growing population.

We must learn to live together not as Republicans or Democrats competing to defeat one another, but as brothers and sisters cooperating to survive and thrive together.

So to those who I have given cause to fear the future, I wish I could find a way to assuage your fears but failing to do so I humbly invoke the wisdom of a previous president in a difficult time for our nation. All we have to fear is fear itself.

You have nothing to fear from this administration. I respect your views and our differences of beliefs and opinions are what makes our country stronger not weaker. I welcome your letters and implore you to contribute your ideas for how we can build a more fair, just and broadly prosperous country together in the coming years.

I will listen to your elected Representatives in Congress and give their concerns and proposals fair hearing and when and wherever possible address them in our legislation so you will know your voice is not being ignored just because your political party lost the recent election.

I’ve made people uncomfortable and hurt people’s feelings in the past in the way I’ve spoken to people who challenged me. I’m sorry for having done so but we all learn and grow from our mistakes and that’s what makes America a great country. We are compassionate and caring and willing to forgive and forge friendships with pasts rivals and even past enemies.

Today we are close allies with the great nations of Japan, Germany and Italy even though we once fought a brutal war that nearly destroyed the world. Today we are stronger because we set aside our prejudices and given time our wounds and scars have healed.

It is in that spirit of reconciliation that I ask those who voted for me and those who voted for my opponent and even those who chose not to vote to join with me continuing the great work our nation’s fore fathers started of building a more perfect union.

Whatever your race, your religion, your sexual orientation and your gender is we all live in the same towns together and must succeed in building the same future together to pass to our children and to their children.

That future must be a future better than our past. That future must be one where prosperity is for the many and poverty for as few as possible instead of what we have today where prosperity is held by the few and poverty grows for the many.

That future must be one where weapons of war are beat into plowshares and nations will not learn war anymore.

That future must be one where the clean air, water and unsullied land are the legacy of a just and prosperous society that learned to live in harmony balancing technology and the needs of a growing population with the conservation of nature.

These things will be difficult and the work we have ahead of us will require sacrifices by the fortunate and less fortunate, by the rich and the poor. My fellow Americans if we are to succeed we must succeed together.

Know this. Our future will be a bright one. We are a great nation with extremely talented people from the arts to the sciences and the most innovative entrepreneurs on the planet.

We are the nation that brought the world the first airplanes and automobiles. But we also brought the world jazz. So while I will encourage the growth and rebuilding of our industrial might, I will also ensure we preserve and promote the arts in public education.

Let us go forward together as one nation building a more perfect union and a healthy and just society for all of our people. And my God bless us all.

Well this is of course not what we heard and President Trump given his past behavior does not appear to be the kind of humble person who would be capable of making such a speech and really meaning what he said.

Instead he is quick to anger, and equally quick to threaten and attack. He has nominated people for his cabinet and advisers who are in almost every case opposed to the missions of the agencies they are to run and dismissive of those who disagree with them.

Perhaps this is a good thing for had he been the type to make the above speech and assuage everyone’s fears we would not see the massive crowds fill the streets from coast to coast in America that we saw today. We would not see people rise up to march for peace, human rights, women’s rights, equality, civil rights, and protection of Mother Earth in our cities and in cities around the entire planet. People might have just gone back to arguing on social media and watching television.

But the people have been roused to move beyond our comfort zones and go out into our town squares to participate in our democracy on behalf of a just moral and fair society. And that is a good thing.