This letter to America from “Leslie Knope” is what we needed

In a world where Donald Trump will soon be president, this letter to America from Leslie Knope is exactly the call-to-action we all needed.

Perfectly capturing the spirit of the beloved Parks and Recreation star, a member of the one-time NBC show’s writing staff crafted a get-up-and-fight message from Leslie that’s equal parts feisty, funny, and fierce — just like our old friend.

The letter opens with an anecdote about a lesson Leslie learned about democracy in elementary school. Her teacher had set up a pretend election between a qualified, hard-working tortoise named Greenie, and a too-cool-for-school jaguar named Speedy. But then the whole election got turned upside down when a classmate suggested that a farting T. rex be named a candidate — and the T. rex won.

Leslie recalls,

"'Greenie was the better candidate,' I said. 'Greenie should have won.' [The teacher] nodded. 'I suppose that was the point of the lesson,' I said. 'Oh, no,' she said. 'The point of the lesson is: People are unpredictable, and democracy is insane.'"

She goes on to say that although she acknowledges Trump will be president, she does not accept his win. She rejects the notion that the U.S. has “descended into the hatred-swirled slop pile that he lives in,” and she vows to fight every day for a nation free of sexism, racism, xenophobia, and hatred.

Perhaps the most powerful part of the letter, though, comes toward the end: It’s a message to girls and women that they will one day run this country, and to keep fighting. She writes,

"On behalf of the grown-ups of America who care about you and your futures, I am awfully sorry about how miserably we screwed this up. We elected a giant farting T. rex who does not like you, or care about you, or think about you, unless he is scanning your bodies with his creepy T. rex eyes or trying to physically grab you like a toy his daddy got him. ... You are going to run this country, and this world, very soon. So you will not listen to this man."

So, basically, we need to keep our heads up, our hearts open, and our communities close. Because we’ve got a long fight ahead of us, and we’re not backing down.