An Open Letter to President-Elect Trump on Veterans Day

Mr. Trump,

I did not vote for you. Half of the country did, half of the country didn't. Another half of registered voters didn't bother to vote at all. But I want to tell you about someone that would have voted for you. He would have placed a sign in his yard and likely would have campaigned for you. That man was my father...

My father was a far-right Republican. He was far more conservative than even you. He'd likely be politically right of even some of your colleagues and friends in the GOP. But let me tell you a little more about him.

This is not meant as a rebuke, but as you took draft deferments to avoid Vietnam (I realize many others did as well and this does not make you a coward) he quit school at fourteen years of age to fight for his country, to fight against Japanese invaders and to fight German Fascism and Nazism. He was discovered to be underage and sent home with a discharge, listed as undraftable, and his Navy peacoat--it was January in Chicago, and he was cold.

But I want to talk more about what he gave me. Your father gave you money and the best education that money could buy. My father gave me tough love, moral courage, and an appreciation for the outdoors and nature.

He grew up poor and remained poor for most of his life. He lived in rural Alabama within ten miles of the barn that he was born in for all of his life. Remembering that I told you that he was a right-wing Republican, I want you to know that he also taught me to fight. But not with my fists, but with my mind and my brain.

You see, he fought for those even poorer than himself. He fought for African-Americans, and those that many would call poor white trash (not my words...) in our area of the world who lived down stream of a landfill because a corporation much like yours refused to put monitoring wells in while people were getting cancer at rates disproportionate to other people elsewhere in our area.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s when it was policy and practice for CEOs such as yourself to fire people for no other reason than their age, he fought his employer. This employer wasn't just an employer, it was THE employer in our town. He convinced a man who would later become governor of the State of Alabama to represent him in court, because his attorney believed in him enough to do it for free. But he also did it not out of hate for his employer but because he was in fear of not being able to provide food for his family-- me, my sister and mother. He did it out of love. Not hate.

Just like he fought, so will I. But I can't fight with my fists, my strength, or with power. I will have to fight with words and actions.

When you flew over America while you were campaigning, what did you see? Did you see potential casino sites or Indian reservations, mines or mountains, lakefront resorts or lakes? Have you ever been outside? I mean really outside. In lands so quiet, you can hear your heartbeat. Near streams and rivers so loud in their rushing waters the babble of the brooks will hurt your ears. In lands so beautiful that they move you to tears? Did you hear earth movers, or the cry of a loon, the howl of a wolf?

Well I have.

But we are afraid.

We aren't afraid of you because we don't fear men. We fear your policies. Not necessarily your economic ones, but your ones that deal with science and the environment. Because the United States is a nation of laws not men; men and women die. Laws and policy remain. Sometimes forever, sometimes, not. Men, much more respected than you, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Teddy Roosevelt, men that you are now in the same pantheon of history for all times, respected both laws and nature. But they also respected science, much as they understood it.

When your towers and casinos were built, they were built by men and women, sure... but they were built by science. They were built by people, that because of their training, experience and wisdom, you hired them. But we are afraid that you won't do the same with your Cabinet. The names we are hearing are not the best and brightest that America has to offer. Their policies, ideas, and frankly their qualifications are shaky at best.

We implore you to, at a minimum, allow Americans to keep the public lands that they have. Keep National Parks open for all, not give away to mining companies. Keep purple mountains' majesty and amber waves of grain open for all to explore. To seek out and to enjoy with their families.

Three weeks before my father died, when he could barely walk, and could barely talk, he asked me to take him to a local lake with a scenic overlook. We arrived, and I supported him so that we could make our way up a little hill to the viewpoint. He asked me if I remembered the first time he took me to that lake, and I said that I did.

He, in shaky voice and wracked with sickness simply said, ' Promise me that you will never forget the joy that you had when I brought you here. The gleam in your eye at the beauty. The smell of the pines and the taste of the water when you'd jump out of the boat and swallow half the lake.'

He died about three weeks later. And the military came for his funeral. They folded the American flag and handed it to me on behalf of a grateful nation. For his three weeks of service.

I promised him that day that I would never forget. That I would fight for those less fortunate. To have the courage to stand up to bullies and those that would mock me for my beliefs-- not with my fists but with my mind. To stand up for those that either can't fight, or won't. To stand up for those that don't look like me or think like me.

I won't forget.

Respectfully,

Jason Cleghorn

Veteran

United States Army

Field Artillery, Ft. Benning Georgia 1993-1995

Liberal Democrat

Father

Husband

When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money.