Dear Trump Supporters…

I wanted to take a moment to speak with everyone regarding Trump.

Life’s been tough in rural America. It always has been. We’ve been the ones who built this country. The food that was put on the plates of our founding fathers was grown by the hands of the working people (or slaves when thinking of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington). The timber, iron, brick, granite, and marble that built their beautiful homes and all of Washington, DC came from our lands and our difficult, enduring work. Countless people have died working in rural America: miners, loggers, farmers, fishermen, mill workers, and more, all to supply a growing urban population. Those who haven’t died in the process, our lives have at least been made shorter and less enjoyable because of it.

This has been the way of it since well before we immigrated to North America. Little has changed as we continue to supply food and goods to urban centers. It has always been expected of us, taken from us without appreciation, without concern or care, all so people in other places can enjoy the “finer things in life” without getting their own hands dirty and risking their own necks.

When the working class did stand up to fight for better treatment, better working conditions, and living wages, they were beaten down time and time again. For Appalachian’s in particular, our history is full of bloody labor battles against the greed of outside corporations. People wanted our coal and our labor at the cheapest prices possible. This is our history and it remains our present. When we’ve been so abused, so manipulated, so demeaned and stereotyped, it’s easy to search for a hero who carries our cause, a messiah who acts as if they have our best interests in mind—someone who even dislikes the same people we do. But not every hero is on our side.

The old saying that actions speak louder than words holds true among today’s politicians—even of Trump. If these people really cared about us, their focus would be on making our day-to-day lives better while creating a safer, healthier future for our children. Despite Trump’s “love” for coal miners, he hasn’t done anything to increase miner safety. He has only promised more jobs without caring about what those jobs do to our health. When he said, “You’ll be working your asses off” but he didn’t say “…in safer, better conditions and with better pay and benefits than you’ve ever had.”

Trump tries to speak as if he knows us, but he has never walked a mile in our shoes. He does not know our way of life. How could he know how to make it better? He simply knows who miners hate (ignorant environmentalists and liberal elitists), then addresses what he knows we need (jobs). He uses this basic knowledge to manipulate everyone into believing he cares about them. He never cared about us before the election. Why should we believe he cares now? Oh, and recall that hard hat he wore at that Charleston, WV rally? That was handed to him by the West Virginia Coal Association, not an actual coal miner. He’s not a friend to coal miners, he’s a friend to coal operators which he’s shown by supporting Bob Murray time and time again. There’s a big difference.

I know that many people support Trump because he speaks his mind and doesn’t act like a typical politician. But that doesn’t mean he is a good person. That doesn’t mean he cares about us as much as he lets on. He is a businessman through and through, and he only does what he thinks will get him something in return.

Too many people put way too much stock in big names. They put too much belief and hope into media portrayals and distractions. What we need now more than ever is each other. We need to care about one another, we need to realize once again how the system really works and who is doing the abusing. We need to think through the BS and ask questions. Behind many actions are motives, and among the wealthy, those motives are rarely have the best interest of working folks in mind.

We live in a world of self-interested people who control the economy, experts at extracting from everyone else to build their power, their fortunes—their egos. Why do we let these kinds of people tell us how to live?

It’s time we start caring about each other once again. It’s time we start learning about each other, breaking down barriers, giving from our hearts, and not letting the media and political interests tell us how we should feel about one another. Our lives are right here in our own communities and I am tired of people trying to shape how we feel about one another while using us for their own interests—be it votes, labor, money, or resources. The people we need to be worrying about, the people we should really be angry with for our problems, are the ones with the big houses , private jets, and money business partners who help get them elected.

It is the people who build large corporations, who run the large banks—who own all the property and keep us in perpetual debt just to keep a roof over our family’s heads. We shouldn’t be worrying about those who are struggling, people like us who are working their lives away just trying to provide for their families, no matter where they come from. We even need to think more kindly about those who have given up on finding a meaningful job, the people who have tried and failed, who have found themselves and their families outcast by our society and who became dependent on government handouts. After all, is it really their fault they became who they are? Aren’t many of us just a pink slip and a missed rent or mortgage payment from being homeless? Couldn’t some of the reason people are on public assistance be our fault for not caring about them? Could it be because we jump to label people and dismiss them rather than walking a mile in their shoes and working to provide each other more opportunity to live and find happiness in just being good people?

We have to remember who we are and what makes those who have blue collars so wonderful. All of my life I thought it was how selfless we were, how much we cared about our neighbors, how we enjoyed living simply, and how that no matter the color of each other’s skin, we found love in our hearts. We realized that we, and everyone around us were being taken advantage of by the wealthy “elite” and we took care of one another.

Today, I think we’ve let the wealthy influence us too much. We covet their lifestyles and believe too much of what they say. We need to teach and be retaught what kindness and giving really means. Judging by his lifestyle and “F you” attitude, I don’t think that’s a lesson Trump knows or cares about, just like most other wealthy businessmen and politicians who don’t spend time listening to the working people of our nation.