Update:

I have chosen to revise the language of the petition to be more respectful. As a graduate of the high school Rabbi Hier founded, I have since had the opportunity to engage in conversation with representatives of this plan of action. While I still disagree with the approach they have taken, I should have done so with much more respect for the thought and intention behind the action.

Rabbi Hier,

Those who have signed this petition are concerned that your participation in the Inauguration helps to "normalize" the dangerous and hate-fueled Trump administration.

Numerous actions of President-Elect Trump during his transition have already reconfirmed his commitment to leveraging messages of bigotry to mislead the American people. Most egregious being the appointment of noted alt-right propagandist Steve Bannon as his Chief Strategist. 

By speaking at his inauguration, especially as a hero of a half-century battling hate and intolerance, we feel you lend those elements of your "brand" -- if inadvertently -- to help create a smokescreen for Trump, implying that he should be let back into the fold of civilized human discourse WITHOUT having to overtly distance himself from avowed bigots and speak out against them.

While you are no doubt there to call upon the American people to seek tolerance and unity, rather than to demonstrate collaboration with white nationalism, it seems to us more likely that your words will not be heard as loudly as your action of being there at all will be.

As members of the Jewish community, the below-signed wish to register their difference of opinion on routes to what is most certainly a shared goal: to defend the American dream that we can live freely, equally, and in harmony with each other.