Dear President Trump,

One of the things that hate seems to hate is critical thought. Because of this, hate hates curiosity and it hates logic. Hate hates empathy and compassion. Hate tries to squelch all of these core human practices that knit people together and help people figure out how to deal with the messy reality of sharing space and time with others whom they don’t (yet) understand. Hate fuels the premise that there have to be losers, that life is a zero sum game.

I knew it was coming, all the signs pointed to you and Mr. Bannon continuing to exercise your power in base, mean-spirited, and hateful ways in front of cheering crowds of acolytes who think that life is a zero sum game and by god, they aren’t going to be counted among the losers.

Silencing the press won’t work. I think you all know it won’t work. At least I hope you are smart enough to get that it won’t work. Assuming that you do know this, it’s hard to see what your endgame is. Whatever it is, I know that your logic and tactics are fatally flawed. They will not withstand scrutiny or time. They will fail.

However, sadly, they won’t fail in time to save the most vulnerable among us from being irreparably harmed and they won’t fail in time to save the most desperately angry among us from inflicting irreparable harm on their on own souls because of what they do to others. These harms will be on your conscience and the conscience of your administration and ultimately on all of us as a people. Somehow we are letting you do this.

Those of us who put our faith in love have to resolve every day not to resort to violence in the name of love since that is absolutely fatally flawed logic. It’s hard to channel anger and fear into love, but we have to and I pray that you will see that you have to as well.

May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May your life unfold and intersect with ease.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson