Letters from the Other Side

9. Dear Time Magazine

From: Yvette van Os

To: Letters @ Time Magazine

Sunday 23 April 2017

Here I find myself writing to you for the first time in my life because of something that is causing me growing concern.

In the past months I've noticed that the media has become totally subjective in their reporting. Once reputable news outlets such as CNN and TIME have become unfair, partial and unprofessional in their reporting. Yes, I'm speaking of your president, President Trump.

Do not think that because I live on the other side of the world that your country doesn't affect my life. America is the global leader, your crisis affects us all.

One of my friends recently told me that the way we hate Zuma is the way you feel about Trump. My friends, I beg to differ.

First of all, our president is already in his second term. We gave him more than enough time to prove himself.

Your president has hardly had a day's peace. From Day One he's been insulted, goaded and drawn out by the media, knowing very well he will respond the way a brash entrepreneur would. The very reason many elected him was because he wasn't a slimy, two-faced, hypocritical politician. Yes, he has to work on his temper, but my goodness have you read some of the things people say to him.

So his frankness is being used against him. Also his boldness. Both which are considered qualities of strength in the business world.

Secondly, our president has been caught red-handed stealing money from the government coffers to build himself a mansion. The last I read (and I stand under correction here) President Trump said he didn't need a salary.

Thirdly, our president has been caught being funded by the Gupta family for certain privileges, such as landing at a military air force base to attend a wedding and maybe even firing one of our best Finance Ministers and reshuffling the Cabinet. Who knows?

The point is, your newly, elected president has been trying his best to improve your economy (and with all those years of business experience, he would know how) not to enrich himself. Methinks you don't know what a bad president is.

My friends, it's time to be honest with yourselves. Are you really being fair when he's only been president for a couple of months? Are you really being professional when you're mocking his hair colour? Does your position of privilege really allow you the right to provoke and goad your president when you should be working with him to benefit your country?

Are all these articles you're writing really examples of journalistic integrity or just subjective opinions which really sound a lot like sour grapes?

Approximately nine years ago when Obama became president the Republicans accepted defeat gracefully and behaved themselves like good sports and mature adults. Your behaviour reminds me of a toddler throwing a temper tantrum. It's really becoming a bit old.

The Republicans worked together with their new president and as a result the country flourished. Their maturity opened doors for debate and reconciliation. Some even won the president's ear that way.

Don't you want your country to prosper? I, for one, do. A healthy America means a healthy world.

I implore you, stop tearing your country even further apart with your reporting. Start working together. You have a responsibility. If you don't, it will lead down a path where state will turn against state and brother against brother. Don't let that happen again.

As a well-known spiritual leader said, America is a great eagle. An eagle needs both wings. The very reason America is great is because of its two political streams. The left encourages growth and expansion. The right helps retain all that is good from the past.

Even though both sides will never admit it, or could even think it possible; they need each other because their strength is their unity in diversity.

My friends, you need to start rebuilding. Stop this foolish mission and get down to the grassroots level again. Stop calling the people who voted for Trump ignorant and uneducated. Your president is just trying to help the very ones no one listened to in the past. Their concerns are just as legitimate as yours. They worry about jobs and feeding their families while you worry about polar bears in the Arctic region. No wonder they are deeply suspicious of the Left. Aren't people our first priority? Then nature and then the environment?

Every president left the White House with a grey head of hair. Why do you think that is? Are there really any easy solutions to all the problems he has to solve? Most are Catch-22 situations.

I loved Obama just like the next man especially his climate work (and I'm not 'dissing' polar bears in the Arctic). But let's be honest, he also made mistakes. Who doesn't? He's human after all.

What I've noticed is an emerging pattern; at the beginning of every term, each new president is called the Antichrist and by the end the Messiah. Or vice versa. Let's be reasonable. They are mere mortals with strengths and flaws.

All I see, from across the ocean, is that every election is a counter reaction to the previous one. For eight years the Democrats got their way. Now it's the Republicans' turn. And so on and so on.

What always made America great was it's smart, hardworking people and it's ability to find solutions, sustainable solutions, help others, take hands and celebrate their diversity (in politics, peoples and ideologies).

So I implore you: stop the Trump-bashing, please! Give the man a chance. Work together with your blue-collared brothers. Use your privileged position to build up your country.

Stop the rants. Stop provoking your president. Stop zoning in on his minutest flaws. Stop the negativity. Stop the insults.

If you write an anti-Trump article, at the very least publish a pro-Trump second opinion. This would be a much truer representation of your country right now. Remember your principles. Show integrity. Be the better man. And for goodness sakes, please stop insulting the president, the First Lady and their team's physical appearance. That's just in bad taste.

You have so much going for you, America. Remember your Founding Fathers and what they stood for. Join hands and become the United States of America again.

I will be rooting for you America!

God bless America!

Your concerned friend

Yvette van Os

Pretoria, South Africa

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