Dear America: A Psychiatrist's Reflections

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POETRY FOR INCLUSION

Dear America,

As I write to you, I am deeply concerned about the urgent issue of our national division, which is tearing at the very fabric of our nation.

Autumn is here, but we lack the maturity to visualize its diverse harvest, which could galvanize transformation and healing.

Instead, we have become myopic thinkers, resulting in all or none thinking and impaired reality testing, promoting an avalanche of incendiary comments.

I do not subscribe to the false ideology that all donkey voters love showing their asses by celebrating the killing of the unborn with pomp and circumstance.

Nor do I believe that all elephant voters enjoy bathing in the mud of vitriol and racism.

Furthermore, I rebuke any blasphemous narrative that voting blue condemns you to hell while voting red is synonymous with God’s delight.

What we need now, more than ever, is to stand united and denounce all forms of hypocrisy and bigotry.

I believe that we must speak out when lawlessness of any form attempts to usurp justice.

Let's remember that we can still love our neighbor and engage in peaceful disagreements. It's a comforting thought in these turbulent times.

My fervent hope and prayer is that one day, we will all come together and share in the abundant harvest that welcomes everyone to the table of imperfect humanity.

Frank A. Clark, MD

Dr Clark is an outpatient psychiatrist at Prisma Health-Upstate and clinical associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Greenville. He served on the American Psychiatric Association’s Task Force to Address Structural Racism Throughout Psychiatry, and he currently serves as the Diversity and Inclusion section editor and advisory board member for Psychiatric Times.^TM His upcoming book, Anticipating Growth, is currently available for preorder.