Dear President Trump,

I got a quite a boost this morning from reading Oprah Winfrey’s Golden Globe acceptance speech and then on my way to work seeing a middle school girl wearing a hoodie jacket that had a DO NOT ENTER symbol emblazoned across the front. The image looked exactly like the big metal street signs and although I can’t know whether she just liked the cool, expressive graphic or if she was trying to make a feminist statement in wearing it, it is wonderful that a middle school girl had the wherewithal to choose an article of clothing broadcasting that no one enters her space without her permission. This should not be a radical, rebellious thing, but we all know it is.

This, of course, ties in with Oprah’s speech, and in particular, her closing statement that future leaders will “take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘Me too’ again.” So, Oprah in 2020. Right now it feels like a somewhat desperate fantasy a lot of us are indulging in because we want someone who is guaranteed to knock you out of the Oval Office. Whether she has any interest in running and whether it’s even remotely a good idea for another non-politician with no particularly relevant experience to become president are both beside the point right now.

If it were to come to pass, I think a Winfrey presidency would seek to reset the priorities and the workings of government. I have no idea how far she’d get or if she’d even survive her inauguration given the vested interests that would be arrayed against her, but oh my, it could be amazing for our country and really, the world, if we were seriously talking about how government could truly support the entire populace and what would need to change about governing in order to accomplish this. Obviously these are my pipe dreams and even if she did run, we’ve no idea how rebellious a candidate she’d be. But seriously, how nice to have such an idea to chew on for a while.

May we be safe long enough to see a new day dawn.
May we be happy to imagine radically different ways of being together.
May we be healthy enough to flex and grow.
May we recognize that time’s up and there shall be no more trespass of girls’ and women’s bodies.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson