Dear President Trump,

So, so much going on, it is incredibly hard to know where to shine the light. I think I’ll start with a sweet thing. Two weeks ago my daughter lost her wallet when she was in Boston and today she got a little package in the mail from someone in Boston with her completely intact wallet; even her three dollars were in there! Curiously, there was no note, but it was really kind of this random stranger to go to the trouble of mailing it to her.

Another positive thing to tell you about is the beauty pageant in Peru where 23 of the contestants used their time during the recitation of their vital measurements to give statistics about the appalling numbers of women and girls who have been killed, raped, and injured in their country in recent years. They bravely and effectively used the super power of their collective voices to tell their country that things are dreadfully wrong and it is unacceptable that women and girls are being terrorized in their homes and places of work. Some people have questioned whether it was appropriate for women involved in a beauty contest where they are objectified and essentially judged on how pleasing they are to men to be speaking out about violence towards women and girls. But really, who better to do it? The message is going to come across much louder and stronger from this group of women who had this kind of platform than any other imaginable group of women from any other imaginable platform. There is an amazing clip of three of the women in the NYT today. You should watch it. They are so clearly using their powers for good. They had to know they were absolutely throwing out any chance of winning the beauty contest but I’m sure they knew in their hearts they won a far more important battle on behalf of themselves and all the other women and girls in Peru and far, far beyond. We all owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

The other two things I can only mention today in passing, but they are: 1) what are you all thinking in proposing that corporate profits from overseas would no longer be taxed? How could that possibly help anything having to do with real American workers? and 2) we need you to stop being willfully ignorant about climate change and take the new US government report on it seriously.

May we be safe.
May we be happy.
May we be healthy.
May we make it through this insane time peacefully.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson