Apology to the 194 countries that signed the Paris accord

Dear national leaders,

I applaud your wisdom in looking ahead to ensure a healthier planet for our children and grandchildren and beyond. I beg you not to judge Americans by the person who now occupies the White House.

You may not understand our nondemocratic Electoral College. It is what makes our country not a democracy. It has allowed both George W. Bush and Donald Trump to become president even though the majority of Americans did not vote for either.

Bush pulled out of the Kyoto Climate Protocol, and now Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Accord.

Please don’t judge the majority of Americans on the basis of his ignorance. We have Donald Trump because we have the Electoral College.

James Madison, the father of the American Constitution and a slave owner, knew that the North would outnumber the South, because slaves couldn’t vote. His proposition for the Electoral College included the “compromise” where black people could be counted as three-fifths of a person, instead of a whole.

Slavery was abolished, but the Electoral College remains. Its origins lie in giving more political power to the slave-owning states.

Germany, you learned from your history and are a model democracy. We are still in denial and acting from ignorance.

I am deeply sorry.

This story was originally published June 12, 2017 at 5:26 AM with the headline "Apology to the 194 countries that signed the Paris accord."