'To Donald Trump,' by Leland Melvin, former NASA Astronaut and NFL Player
To Donald Trump
I believe in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of this country even though at the time they were drafted, their tenets of life, liberty justice for all and eventual freedom of speech, religion, assembly, press and petition amendment ratified in Dec 1791, only applied to a select group of people and not ones that looked like me.
Donald Trump, I listened to your Alabama rally rant and could not believe how easily you say what you say.
We have become numb to your outlandish acts, tweets and recent retweet of you knocking down Hillary Clinton with a golf ball that you hit.
Donald Trump, your boorish and disgusting actions are not funny. They actually promote violence against women especially when your followers act out what you say.
I used to walk the grounds of UVA in Charlottesville, VA as a graduate student only to watch in horror as those same grounds became a battlefield being trod by Nazi and anti-Semitic worshippers armed with assault style weapons ready to fight to make America White again. (their words). You actually said there were nice people on both sides. People armed and ready to kill other Americans for the purpose of eradicating Blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Mexicans, Asians, Latinas and even the first real Americans, Native Americans to make America Great Again were “nice people”?
Comparing this to what you say in condemnation of an unarmed black man peacefully protesting by exercising his constitutional First Amendment rights by silently taking a knee is appalling, unnerving and reprehensible.
Today, you called Colin Kaepernick “a son-of-a-bitch.”
You said he should be fired.
You are calling his white mother a bitch.
The strong contrast in language for a black man and a Nazi is very telling. Do you have any sense of decency or shame in what you say to the American people that are part of your duty to serve respectfully with dignity, presidentially?
Our National Anthem has been edited to try not to offend, because when Francis Scott Key penned the song he watched freed slaves fighting for the British and wrote this stanza:
“And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
I guess if I were a slave back then I probably would have done anything to obtain freedom from my American oppressors who were whipping, killing, raping, dismembering, hanging or releasing the dogs on people like me all under our Constitution.
In 1814 former slaves fought with the British for their freedom from their American enslavers.
Key witnessed a battle from a ship off the Maryland shore at Fort McHenry, which inspired him to write what became our National Anthem.
I served my country not in the military, but as 1 of 362 American Astronauts that have explored the universe to help advance our civilization. Not just Americans, but all humans. I also was briefly in the NFL and stood for the National Anthem with my hand over my heart. What makes us great is our differences and respecting that we are all created equally even if not always treated that way.
Looking back at our planet from space really helps one get a bigger perspective on how petty and divisive we can be. Donald Trump, maybe you should ask your good friend Mr. Putin to give you a ride on a Soyuz rocket to our International Space Station and see what it’s like to work together with people we used to fight against, where your life depends on it. See the world and get a greater sense of what it means to be part of the human race, we call it the Orbital Perspective.
Donald Trump, please know that you are supposed to be a unifier and a compassionate and empathetic leader. If you can’t do the job then please step down and let someone else try. I pray that you do the right thing.
May God bless you.
Sincerely,
Leland Melvin
Former Astronaut and NFL Player
https://boingboing.net/2017/09/23/lelandmelvin.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Well done! 
it's too long and too many big words.
Who's gonna' read it to to dotard?
Add 3 other zeros or more and still not enough.
Trump is less than a speck of dust in comparison. 
Hearty Leland's smile shows how nice human he is.
And those 2 dogs. One "kissing" Leland and the other looking as if he was amazed. 
It is all in one : a beautiful photo, emotional and funny.
There is no way to get tired of watching it. 
You could tell right there that he's an awesome guy! 
...to stay close to that waste.
They wouldn't even bit him, scared of being poisoned... 
Engineers of my generation (in university in the mid/late 60s) were extremely honored to be interviewed by NASA, as we watched much of the scientific progress they brought us then - and now. It's a shame the general public has no idea of the great things NASA has brought us in everyday life, in everything from materials science and health, environmental and weather, electronics, aeronautics, and obviously rocket science!
I know that Leland is honored to have been a part of that wonderful program. The folks that do know and recognize NASA's tremendous achievements will feel indebted for all our lives.
Hubs has several "spin-off" medical patents thru NASA. He'll be flattered by your post which I'll read to him. (He has no patience with online forums. Busy today writing another paper for publication. Grind, grind, but he loves his work.)
How can a con artist understand a man like this and the words he wrote. He will only try to take him down with name-calling and insults. Thank you Leland Melvin. This needs to go to all the news outlets.
Love the official photo -
That was a brutal letter.
...I would change only a couple of words. "If you can’t do the job then please step down..." should be "You can’t do the job so please step down..."
Thank you, Leland Melvin!
Mr. Melvin never used the term "President". Perfectly appropriate!
What a wonderful, thoughtful letter from an American hero. Would love to shake his hand someday.
Perhaps we could meet up to get him to sign ours.
He was in Baltimore today. I must check to find where he'll be next. Hubs and I have an invitation to see him in Lynchburg but we don't know when we'll be over that way. Must make the time tho.
Will look it up on Amazon and make that a birthday gift to myself, LOL....but for sure will share it with my son and my daughter who teaches reading in our school system. We will pass it on for Leland! 