Dear President Trump,

It’s been an incredibly hard, sad day and I’m not even directly affected by the worst of what you did today. I don’t think I’ve got it in me to string together a coherent statement that is even remotely clever so I’m just going to list all the things I’m feeling sad and/or scared about that have anything to do with you.

1. Your decision to end DACA and to punt the futures of 800,000 young people down the road for congress to deal with.
2. Waking up to a greenish gray sky laden with ash from a wild fire burning over 300 miles away in Oregon’s Columbia Gorge because someone set off fireworks during a burn ban. I have family living in the “be ready to go” evacuation zone and I’m scared for them. This has to do with you because the fire was able to take hold due to extreme drought conditions here in the Northwest and you have elected to roll back environmental protections and efforts to address climate change in favor of short-term profits.
3. The overnight temperature here never got down below 70, which basically has never happened before in Seattle. Again, your refusal to take climate change seriously is why this is on the list.
4. Your immature responses to North Korea are beyond terrifying.
5. Your threat to pull out of the trade agreement with South Korea and your ridicule of their measured approach in trying to deal with North Korea.
6. Your “rob the poor to pay the rich” tax plan.
7. Worry over how the people in the Houston area are coping and whether Hurricane Irma is going to wreak havoc and hurt a lot of people. Again, climate change related.

There’s more but these are the most pressing things and right now I just feel exhausted with all these horrible things ricocheting around in my mind.

I took the day off from work today to have a four-day weekend and basically think I had too much down time to worry about the mess you are making of the world. So I think I’ll call it a day and hope things look a little less bleak tomorrow. And because I feel as though I’m holding hot coals that I can’t throw at you, we both need tonight’s blessing to focus squarely on you:

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

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson