Dear President Trump,

I’m in the other room typing to you listening to Laura and our friend who’s visiting from Houston talking about who Laura follows on Twitter. It kind of feels like when I was a kid and my parents would have parties and I’d stay up listening to everyone talking and laughing. It’s nice, if distracting. Laura explained how she took herself off Twitter because it was getting to her and revving her up too much, but it was fun to hear her explaining who she follows and why. She was quite animated and seemed rejuvenated. It was especially great to hear her telling him that she’s not going to go quietly into the night. Yes!

Speaking of my parents, my mom texted tonight and told me she made a sign that she set up in her front yard somehow propped up with chicken wire and it says “Your VOTE Matters.” I’m really proud of her – I think it’s very cool. We need to make one too. Even for those of us in quite “blue” states (she’s in Oregon), we need to be clear that our votes matter, that the make-up of our state congresses are critically important, that the make-up of our city councils are critically important. We cannot be complacent.

Our ballots came in the mail today and I took a picture of our daughter’s and texted it to her. Right away she came back with “Nice!” She voted in the Washington State primaries before she left for school, but this will be her first regular election and she’s excited. I’m so glad she’s excited. Really. I wish for all 18 year olds to be excited to vote this November and every two years henceforth for the rest of their lives. And 19 and 20 and 21 and 22 and …… 77 year olds and beyond. Just think what a world of hurt demagogues like you would be in if at least half the citizenry was excited about voting, was excited about being engaged and really, really cared enough about our collective life to know the issues and cast their votes accordingly. We may not be as laser focused and organized as your homogenous money-grubbing cabal, but in all our noisy, messy, creativity I think we are far more likely to work out systems that actually account for and benefit all of us. So yes, our votes matter and our investment in our democratic process matters too. In fact, our lives depend on us believing these things. And acting on them.

May we the people safeguard our democracy by engaging.
May we the people be happy to vote.
May we the people insist on a healthy, level playing field.
May we the people keep our hearts centered on peace for all.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson