Dear President Trump,

I fell again this morning. I left late and was trying to make up time by running on stretches where I normally walk because of the poor pavement. I went down hard but missed my face this time so don’t have to have more orthodontic work done. I did, however, wrench my right big toe and land hard on my side. I wasn’t sure whether I fractured something so I gratefully used my health insurance to get checked out. I don’t have any fractures, but learned I need to keep exercising to deal with the arthritis in my feet. I’m not sure what I’m going to do once I’m healed up. I love my morning run/walks, but this tripping over cracks in the sidewalk is awful. I’ll figure out something. I sure wish, though, that we took better care of our collective stuff and invested in infrastructure.

It occurred to me today that because most of the problems with our sidewalks here are due to tree roots you would probably blame Western Washington for having a lot of trees and say we should cut them all down. Given your shockingly insensitive response to the catastrophic wildfires in California, this seems about par for your course. I really don’t get it – do you think all of your supporters would melt into brown sugar if you acted like President of the whole country? Do you think they are incapable of rallying around anything but digging more coalmines and bashing asylum seekers? Actually, I’m quite certain that it’s not really their sensitivities that concern you. Whether it’s refusing to participate in Western shows of solidarity and remembrance, trashing and endangering desperate people fleeing violence, or attacking your own people who have the misfortune to live in places that are especially sensitive to climate change, you have to act like an A-1 jerk or you won’t recognize yourself.

As mad as I am at you, I also feel sorry for you – yours must be a miserable existence. But truly, for all our sakes, I hope your existence becomes way more miserable. After you leave office in 2020 I hope you are found guilty of enough wrong doings that you spend the rest of your life behind bars. Not only would that be a satisfying outcome at a personal vengeance level, but it would be a strong deterrent to future would-be autocrats.

May we be safe from A-1 jerk leaders.
May we be happy to keep showing up and opposing said jerk leaders.
May we keep ourselves healthy and strong for the long run.
May we not let you have any passes or any peace at all.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson