Outreach to my Rivals Up North, Across the Country, and Around the World

I wrote this early yesterday morning on U.S. election day in response to Brad Melter’s post over the weekend about his stance to never vote for a bully, ever. He wrote his post for his kids, not Republicans or Democrats. It took numerous LinkedIn replies for my response to fit below Brad’s post on LinkedIn, so I deleted my replies and converted it to this article.

Words in (italicized parentheses) were modified from yesterday's present tense to today's past tense.

Now is the time to help each other, all of us across our country, as we reach out to the world and model another peaceful transition of power. This transition will take more than two months, and most likely more than four years because we really need a new generation of leadership across the U.S. and globally. Trump knows this and will hopefully be successful in this transition by the time we get to the 2028 presidential election.

Yesterday’s words: ?

Love you, too, and all my friends and the few family members who are Democrats and/or (voting) voted for Harris.

Brad , we certainly are not aligned on many topics, such as athletics, academics, religion, and politics, to name a few. With that said, I love your work, your wisdom, and your difference of opinion because we may be different in many ways, yet we have a few common ties as UMich alumni and fellow Americans. Since you are a historian, author, and lawyer, there is a lot I still have to learn from your posts, books, speeches, and other fine work.

As a former NCAA athlete, engineer, operations manager, business leader, corporate strategist, and Buckeye, I’ve traveled countless times up north to Ann Arbor, all across Michigan, and been bullied. Former competitors, customers, colleagues, and classmates might say I’ve often asked for it.

For example, walking across the UMich campus last May right after your commencement speech with a Varsity O hat and Israeli Olympic shirt was not the best way to win friends and influence people. I hope it got people thinking about the toxic environment on some of our country's most prestigious campuses?and why we must find common ground to change the way we educate our kids, young adults, and lifelong learners like you and me. The bright side is that the Big Ten now provides a much better, well-rounded college experience than most Ivy League schools.

I understand you’re tired of fighting. I hope our kids, younger loved ones, and all Americans still have some fight left because World War III has already begun. As North Korea joins Russia to increase the fight in Ukraine and Israelis are more than a year into the war for their lives and country’s survival, most Americans have no clue what’s going on globally or even along our southern border.

Given just a few large drug busts on the southern border, there is likely enough fentanyl already smuggled into the U.S. to kill every American citizen, and we have no idea where it is or who controls it. While physical wars continue overseas, a cyber or chemical attack could quickly hit us hard across the U.S.

(If Trump wins today), Since Trump won yesterday, economic battles will escalate in 2025, and mainstream media will report that the Trump administration started WWIII.

We all know global unrest escalated after the sudden and poorly designed Afghanistan withdrawal. We saw Afghanis trying to cling to landing gear and falling to their deaths as C-130s quickly evacuated ~22k people and left enough military assets in country to arm enemies for years to come. With Harris being the last person in the room, this early Biden debacle sent a signal to Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and the rest of the world that a Biden–Harris led U.S. will not lead the world toward peace. We will more likely retreat, leaving American citizens behind to be held hostage or brutally killed. At the same time, D.C., Ivy League elitists, and mainstream media look the other way and fuel domestic battles, criminal accusations, charges, and convictions against Trump and many of his supporters.

If Harris (wins today), won yesterday, (we’ll) we’d continue to degrade our country with similar policies that are weak on crime, tough on oil & gas, costly initiatives requiring continued printing of money, increasing energy costs resulting in continued price increases of everything else, and unresponsive to the global bullies that will wipe a few other countries off the face of God’s green earth before we get involved in WWIII.

Harris (is) was afraid to share her true stance on the border, crime, energy, economy, reparations, and so many other topics because her hometown and home state are obvious examples of the direction Harris-Walz would (take) have taken the entire country.

Enough of the heavy stuff. To lighten it up a bit, as back-to-back World War Champions, we are already fighting to save our country. All of us are in this fight together. Buckeyes and Wolverines, the Big Ten, Ivy League, SEC, and all other conferences across the U.S. All 50 states and the hard-working Americans are already in this fight together. We’ll need Michiganders ready and able to fight because the Wolverines are the most recent to three-peat the greatest rivalry and The Game, which we will watch once again in 24 days.

Will the U.S. regain moral and ethical global leadership?

Are (today’s) yesterday’s candidates for President the best we can do?

We need a new generation of leaders. As Gen Xers, our time is quickly passing too. You may be tired of fighting, and I likely only have a few more years or maybe a decade or two of fighting left in me.

Remember, one of the greatest Michigan Men was mentored by a Buckeye. Bo and Woody battled through a “10 Year War” in the 70s. That decade ended with the Carter administration peacefully transitioning the presidency to the Reagan administration. A half-century later, it’s amazing how similar the American and global situation is today.

If Harris (is) were elected, we (may) might have spend spent the next 10 years wallowing on the sidelines of WWIII until Israel is wiped off the map, from the river to the sea.

(If) With a Trump (wins) victory, we’ll see an increased battle through global economic pressure, similar to his first term. Hopefully, the physical battles, hatred, and vitriol, domestically and abroad, are toned down and stopped because the rebalance of fair trade is a much better economic stimulus than an escalated WWIII. If WWIII escalation is upon us, it’s time to three-peat.

Either way, we’re in this together.

We will make it through the next four years together, and we need to see new American leaders and global leadership emerge well before 2028.