It all started with a first-grade field trip to a tiny library that had once been a one-room schoolhouse. We had to demonstrate that we could read (a bit) before being granted a library card. I hadn’t progressed beyond a Dick and Jane reader stage and was quite nervous, but I somehow managed to pass muster with the kind and clearly very lenient librarian. That small paper card introduced me to a special world and since that day I have spent countless hours in libraries where I always find a discovery waiting for me somewhere on the shelves. Libraries are truly special places.

Recent news that the Edgartown library would stop charging late fees for overdue books got me thinking. The world has already changed in so many drastic ways since I received my first library card 60 years ago. In recent years I admit not spending as much time browsing the library shelves as I once did, partly because I lived in a house bulging with books, but largely because of technology, the internet and an outdated Kindle my older brother had recently passed on to me. But even with all this technology and gadgetry I still prefer holding a book in my hands and losing myself in a world expertly fashioned of words alone.

One tech benefit is that I can still read the Gazette religiously even though I live in Nicaragua now. It isn’t the same as holding the actual paper but it’s a pleasant respite from news depicting seriously troubled times and a deeply divided nation in crisis. Like countless other Americans, the news maelstrom has worn me out. A huge chasm has opened like a wound in the United States. Can the country be healed? It pains me to feel that I am powerless, sitting on the sidelines of history.

The question hounded me for several years before the answer came to me suddenly like a slap across the face. We can repair the country with a special sort of library — The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library. Don’t smirk. Like presidents before him, Trump will be entitled, if not expected to build a presidential library after he leaves office. It’s no secret that our current leader is not much of a reader. That may be a high crime and misdemeanor to some but it sure isn’t an impeachable offense so get over it and read on because there will certainly be a lot to sort out and write about once he leaves office.

Remember the Bookmobile? I sure do. Every summer one parked just up the street from my house. It wasn’t any bigger than the step van the milkman used, but somehow it still managed to feel like a library inside. In my imagining the Trump Presidential Library will be housed entirely in the vehicle affectionately known as The Beast, a heavily-armored limousine, a sort of Presidential Batmobile used to move the president from place to place. Red states, blue states it doesn’t matter. This will be the first presidential library to have wheels, and it will travel the country without pause from coast to coast, stopping in cities, towns, and villages large and small. The spacious trunk can accommodate the gift store.

People of all stripes and persuasions will surely flock, freely mingling in a festive atmosphere when the Trump Library rolls into town, some to gape in wonder, some to snicker, but before you know it tailgate parties will spring up and people nearby will be barbecuing, playing wiffle ball and tossing horseshoes together. Light the tiki torches! Instead of librarians, stern crowd control attendants dressed in black as Secret Service agents will be at the ready, mugging for photo ops. Sale proceeds from the Trump Presidential Library souvenir collection will be donated to charity. A real charity.

The U.S. public library system, originally known as Carnegie Free Libraries, was founded by another super-wealthy, great American, an immigrant industrialist named Andrew Carnegie who, like Trump, was fond of putting his name on things. Carnegie Steel Corporation, Carnegie Hall, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Carnegie Museum of Art, The Carnegie Endowment for World Peace are just a few. He was also a major contributor to the Tuskegee Institute founded by Booker T. Washington and numerous other philanthropic endeavors in art, scientific research, and medicine. There is even a Carnegie Library in Edgartown. I believe he did enjoy golf but oddly was never moved to put his name on a golf course.

Donald Trump has put his name on even more things than Carnegie ever did and through his presidency, he’s even put his name prominently on a piece of American history. Like Carnegie, Trump is quintessentially a man of his times, and to be fair should be judged as one. Legacies, after all, are crafted over time. The history of our era has yet to be written, but my imaginary musings about a Trump Presidential Library might one day serve as a non-partisan gathering place, as well as a reminder to us all of what is at stake when a large contingent of our elected representatives chooses to move in lock step while the laws, the very foundation of our democracy, are circumvented for one man’s personal gain.

Robert Skydell lives in Granada, Nicaragua.