Happy birthday, Mr. Trump; it's not too late to change | GUEST COMMENTARY – Baltimore Sun
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Dear Mr. Trump,
Happy birthday!
I’ll bet you didn’t expect to get a birthday greeting from someone like me who will never in a million years vote for you. But I wanted to send you good wishes today because I feel a connection to you. I was bullied as a child, and you have bullied others ever since you were a child, but we share a fighting spirit. I admire your determination to “never, never, never give up.” And so, I am inviting you to use that fighting spirit to transform your character and your actions from evil, or mostly evil, to good.
“What’s in it for me?” I hear you ask. Put simply: You will be happier; that’s what’s in it for you.
At this point, I imagine you saying, “Forget it! I like myself just the way I am.” And you do, in fact, appear to delight in yourself and take pride in your actions. Still, as a retired therapist and a private citizen observing your actions and your words, I can tell that deep down, you are utterly miserable and in deep emotional pain. The symptoms of your pain include attacking and threatening judges and potential jurors; separating children at the border; comparing immigrants to “vermin”; sexually assaulting women and denying or bragging about it; calling people abusive names such as “whack job,” or “Crooked Joe Biden” (names that apply equally or more to yourself); summoning a mob to overthrow the government; and lying about the 2020 election being stolen when you know perfectly well that you lost. If you were happy with yourself, you would not need to do these and other malicious deeds.
One way out of your misery is to admit that you are in emotional pain and heal from it. If you do this admittedly very-difficult thing, your anger, hurt and fear will diminish greatly, and you will no longer need to take evil actions. You will be free to treat others the way you would want to be treated. You will be far less stressed. You will naturally want to be kind.
Many people contend that you are incapable of changing your actions and character. They say that you have no heart, no soul, no conscience, no moral compass, and no capacity to acquire these things. If they are mental health professionals, like me, they say that you have a personality disorder, that cannot be treated, only “managed,” at best. However, the mental health profession has been gravely wrong on numerous occasions. “Homosexuality,” for example, was considered a mental disorder until as late as 1973. So why not assume that you have an inclination to do evil, like every other human being on the planet, but also the capacity to choose between doing evil and doing good. Why not assume that you do have a heart waiting to be reclaimed and an ability to do good that equals or surpasses your inclination to do harm. You might, potentially, be the kindest person on earth!
In fact, I want to thank you for an act of kindness that benefitted me and my loved ones directly, namely, facilitating the development of the COVID vaccines. They saved and vastly improved the quality of my life and the lives of my friends and family. I don’t have first-hand knowledge of this, but I have read that you have done other kind things, such as helping a Harlem hospital repair its elevator system, stopping a motorcade to thank firefighters, and sending $20,000 to a bus driver who stopped a woman from jumping off a bridge. If even one of these actions is true, it is definitely to your credit.
It won’t be easy to build on these acts of kindness, but you have the courage to change. The world will obviously be better off if you do change your character and behavior, but you, Mr. Trump, will benefit most of all.
I wish you luck, and hope and pray that you take this letter to heart.
G.J. King (gabriellaking66@gmail.com) is a retired counselor. retired counselor
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