A Hope for Peace - January 20th, 2025

This week I am going to take a break from our blog series. I felt I needed to make a comment in recognition of the inauguration on the 20th before posting my final blog of the series, Writing in the Face of Discrimination. I acknowledge that I may be isolating myself here and that I am an author in a small market. I also know that this post is not about writing but rather a statement about the world today. As so much of what is happening today places me, my profession, and my readers in the crosshairs of what is threatened, I feel obligated to share my thoughts.

On January 20th, our nation will be swearing into office our president-elect, a man who promised to deport unprecedented numbers of people without due process, and who has promised to criminalize people for simply being themselves. We swear into office a man who was convicted of an obscene number of crimes, a man who has aligned himself with a doctrine, a manifesto, which clearly outlines a plan to dismantle our government and nation's civil services. I acknowledge that our president-elect was fairly elected. I acknowledge that there is a large portion of this country that supports and backs this person. I also acknowledge that the manifesto which he has aligned himself with, Project 2025, is concerning in its objectives. I can honestly say that I have taken the time to read the document. I can honestly say that I have an issue with its agenda and that if we see true adherence to this plan by our soon-to-be President, and it is supported by our Congress, there could be some real issues across our country.

In 2004, I wrote a poem acknowledging similar concerns based on actions indicated by then-President George W. Bush. I had no idea that these would be so amplified by a future president.

Oh, Bully Man

Sierra Burke (©2004)

Oh, Bully Man, with elected education,

You self-proclaimed man of cloth.

Now my ten-year-old lies dying.

Your Religion says I must sit and watch.

Oh, Bully man, in your safe white house,

Now my loved one, so dear to me,

And I must pay a salary twice to you.

Oh, Bully Man, with red blood,

My blood runs red also.

Why when we both go to war,

Must I be someone awful?

As we travel through this time of uncertainty as a nation, I ask several questions of our new administration:

• What will happen to all of those people who are dependent on student loans if the Department of Education is radically changed?

• With our education system already stressed and struggling for teachers, how does this stress, which is driving people away from the field, help our students and young people?

• Why judge a person by their gender or sexual identity when it has no impact on you, and you have no evidence that it can or does?

• When we have no historic claim to this land which originally belonged to the indigenous people, who are we to suddenly decide that we should violate the treaties with them? Additionally, why now deport mass quantities of others trying to do nothing other than what our ancestors did years ago? Should there not be a due and just process for this?

• If you don’t believe in climate change but you do claim to be a Christian, do you not then acknowledge that you as a Christian are walking down a path of sin with your hateful actions toward so many different people such as immigrants, blacks, Jews, LGBTQ+ community members, and many others and are inciting the seven plagues and bringing on the end of days? Would it not be better to practice repentance and work toward love?

• You claim to be a man of business. How is it that you can look at so many business models and see that tariffs, which have been employed in the past with failure, will only hurt the economy? Yet you choose to threaten them and move toward their use when they will do nothing but hurt the consumer and the economy?

  
  

I have many other questions, but I fear that I am directing them to the wrong person. Perhaps it is not the President who should be answering them, but those who paid to put him in office.

I recognize that this is a ceremonial moment for our country, and I truly hope for the best over the next four years. There is no guarantee that these concerns will precipitate but the comments and promises from the election and the actions that have occurred in the ensuing time since have led to uncertainty and worry by myself and many I have spoken with. I hope for a positive and promising future for our country. In 1963 Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. made an impassioned plea for peace in our country. He dreamed of a day when black and white men and women could walk together in unity. On the day of our inauguration, our country will also recognize and honor the life and magnanimous efforts for peace and unity of this wonderful human. At this time, I make a similar plea, may peace be with us all.