Apparently, you did not think that what I wrote last night was flattering. I do not apologize; I have deliberately not taken offense at the many ways that some of your supporters have mistreated me whenever they want, because I want to help you if I'm able to help. I finally had enough last night, but I don't need to say it again; I think you heard me.
I did not listen to President Trump's inauguration speech because, even after almost a decade of having presidents of many countries know who I am, it's so stressful that I often can't deal with it.
Having thought about this for a while, I want to ask you also to think about it. I'll say it as advice, because I don't know how else to say it, but it's not a directive.
President Trump is not a stupid man. Don't talk to him or about him as if he is, because he isn't and also because he's the President and doesn't care what you think.
I know that I'm not going to agree with everything that he says while he's President. However, something that has gotten underestimated about him over and over is the value of real world experience. The Democrats mess that up every time; from my perspective, the Democrats, as a political party and setting aside for this discussion the world establishment's 7-year cognitive abberance, have the right idea about society and the Republicans don't, but what I also have noticed about the Democrats is that they constantly talk in a way that conveys how superior they think they are to everyone else. President Obama had less of that attitude overtly, which is probably how he got elected, but the Democrats had Congressional majority in 2010 before the conglomerate started; whatever moral advantage they had as a party collapsed and so did the stability of the party, and so did the stability of the world. My yelling "How stupid can you be" from the first day of the conglomerate's rapidly escalating attacks on civilization was not my most effective strategy. I couldn't believe that nobody was realizing what would happen or how bad things would get, but sometimes belief in one's intellectual and moral superiority is a stumbling block to being smart and nice, and the Democrats led by President Obama were deaf, perhaps because of that belief.
Make your case. That's it; that is all you can do. Think about what you want President Trump to know about why you did what you did, and why you think you should be pardoned, and write and talk about it. You might write and talk every day and not be pardoned before he leaves office, but I guarantee you that commiserating with people about how stupid you think he is won't get you anything other than as many Russian winters as Russia wants you to have. You might be surprised at how approaching people with an attitude of respect, even when you are angry at them or scared of them, can diffuse hostility even if you both never agree. Don't assume that President Trump is incapable of being a gracious person because he has another side and because you don't like him; we all have a side to us that is our way of being angry, and only people who are like us also like that side of us. Everyone else hates it.
Unlike you, my life is really in danger all the time, because of ignorant and vicious people who think it's funny to casually abuse me as if I'm the one who's victimizing them, and because of the corruption of American institutions. Unlike you, invasions of my privacy are being exploited to turn me into a permanent, dirty joke around the world and to make everyone think that I'm a dumb slut. Other than you not being able to live in the United States, I think you have a better situation than I do. I have no privacy at all, and it is intolerable all of the time.
Homelessness is life-threatening. Unemployment is life-threatening. Total social isolation is life-threatening. Being bullied all the time is life-threatening. Being sexually stigmatized is life-threatening. You don't have those crises, and the conglomerate has inflicted them and the threat of them on me 24 hours a day for 7 years.
You are fortunate to have the ear of leaders all over the world; even those who don't like you are part of your audience. Unlike you, I don't claim to be an authority about anything; what I claim to be is a person who has rights and who is outraged by the conglomerate treating me and other people as if those rights are negligible to whomever has the most power. I have also said that I attempt to write and talk only up to the level to which I am educated, and that I am not sure that I ever want to be someone who professionally writes or talks about politics.
I am fortunate that I am not in exile and that I am not dependent on a government to decide whether or not I can live in the United States. Since you don't have that, and since you want to have freedom to move around, don't waste your access to the world's leaders by being a political celebrity; work at convincing them of what you want them to think, about you and about the things that are most important to you. Many people respect you, but this week has proven that you have no time to waste.
I'd rather be facing jail and even execution than what's being inflicted on me 24 hours a day; those things have due process that can be forestalled and overturned. I am a target with no defense, year after year, everywhere, even in my thoughts and facial expressions in my own apartment which I'm about to lose.
Copyright L. Kochman, January 21, 2017 @ 7:56 p.m./additions @ 8:50 p.m.
