On August 9, 2016 I penned an editorial that did something I did not wish to do in my role as leader of our firm – based on m/Oppenheim’s values shaped in service to diverse nonprofits, I took a position related to not electing a particular person to be our President. I stated that Donald Trump’s behavior during the election process does not belong in the White House.
Now I am writing to say that we must give President Trump a chance.
Those of us who felt strongly about this election do not have to be naive about the fact that certain ideas and behaviors are dangerous to the America we know. Fellow citizens who took a position against Trump as I did, whether republicans, democrats or independents, persist in the belief that a President of the United States can not malign and encourage his followers to attack others. We must certainly insist that any individual with the awesome power of the presidency treat others with respect. But we must not indulge our own ego by trashing our new President before he has a chance to even take the office.
These are difficult times. At the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 we got a republic. Americans of the 21st century must prove equal to the challenge of keeping it. Let’s stand firm in proper conduct, listen and give President Trump a chance.
Mark Oppenheim