Dear President Trump,

Who were you so busy calling on Monday that you couldn’t make it to Arlington National Cemetery? Amazing. You sure are piling on the ignoble firsts, aren’t you? It seems especially stupid for you to disrespect veterans. I’m seeing reports that they voted for you 2:1 over Clinton, but the veterans I know don’t like to be taken for granted so if you continue to find better things to do than show up when you are supposed to be honoring them, there will likely be a cost.

Were you calling Whitaker to reassure him that everything’s good with his installment as acting attorney general, that he doesn’t need to sweat it if the Supreme Court is asked to weigh in since you’ve got your “the President can do anything he wants” guy on the bench? Or maybe you were strategizing with Andrew Wheeler about how to most efficiently gut the remaining EPA regulatory statutes since you were about to anoint him as the actual director of the agency. Perhaps you were calling your favorite dictators for mutual pep talks or our historical allies to yell at them about something. I’m sure your list of people to call is long so why not make the case that it’s unreasonable to expect you to show up to honor veterans again this year when you did it last year? Surely they know you love them – I mean you tell them all the time, right?

Well, it’s just anecdotal at this point, but I’m starting to hear stories of how anxious and out of sorts people who voted for you are getting. Children are noticing that once cheerful Republican parents are negative and on edge, like their personalities have done 180’s for no reason. True Red MAGA folks are talking more and more about how scared they are, how messed up everything is and how no one can be trusted. I can’t prove anything, but I’m worried that the more you push the fear and hate mongering agenda, the more your supporters are going to suffer. And some of them will snap, which means more hate crimes, mail bombs, shootings, and road rage. Your horribleness isn’t just weighing on those of us who oppose you, it’s also trashing your supporters and their mental (and physical) health. I sure as hell hope for all our sakes that they figure out how you’re using them because I don’t see how we can make it through two more years of you.

May we all be safe from our president.
May we all be willing to insist on integrity from our leaders.
May we recognize that the toxic political rhetoric is compromising our health.
May you not start a war.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson