Dear President Elect Donald Trump,
I need, no, we need you to share a message. American women and children need your help. Locker room talk, as the media played it off, has spread a fire like nothing I have ever seen. Your comments were never designated for mature audiences only. Children sat with their parents and watched as recordings reflected what I hope is not the prominent characteristic of your presidency. I thought to myself "we raise our children with morals, his words won't change that." But then something happened that prompted this plea.
A child in a local school, a boy, only nine years old, threatened one of his classmates. He told this little girl, stripping her of her innocence and security, that he hopes "Donald Trump wins President" so he could rape her. This is beyond parenting. This is echo of your character our children heard as we sat and watched your campaign unfold. This is what we now have to fight against to raise our children to be good people. But how can we? How can we tell our children they need to be better than the President; the head of our country; the man who above all others, should project an air of utmost honor and respect and esteem and trust? How out of one side of our mouths say you must respect women, then out of the other say you must respect the President when the two do not match at the source?
This is what I ask. . . .
Please make a statement that sexual assault and rape is never acceptable. Please promise that during your presidency you will see that our society will take rape and sexual assault more seriously. Please commit that you will work with law-makers to see that these criminals receive harsher punishments. Please be a better President than what dozens of women have accused you of being. Please make a difference to past victims and future victims that their stories will be taken seriously, that they have nothing to fear, and that the law will be on their side. Please show us that locker room talk is not how a respectable man lives.
A nine-year-old girl should not fear her classmates. A nine-year-old boy should not know threatening language, or at the very least should know that it is unacceptable to say or consider doing these things to another person.
Please President Elect Donald Trump, we need your help. I am not asking you to raise our children. I am requesting that you set an example that our children can aspire to. I am asking that your leadership sets an example that all Americans can be proud of. I beseech you to make changes that make our children safer.
I hope this letter finds you President Elect Donald Trump. But more so, I hope you understand the need we have for your leadership as a role model, and the actions necessary you must take to stop sexual assault and rape of our children.
Sincerely,
A concerned woman, mother, aunt, daughter, sister, and friend
