Dear President Trump,

Since I continue to write to you I can’t pretend I’m ignoring you, but I’m so glad that the Democrats are. I bet Pelosi is behind the strategy; having raised a bunch of kids she surely figured out a long time ago that ignoring obnoxious behavior will change the dynamic and take the wind out of Mr. Mouthy-pants’ sails.

I want to introduce you to two women I read about today. The first is Mary Daly, who became the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco last October. She is the second woman in the position, following in her mentor, Janet Yellen’s, footsteps. There are several cool things about Dr. Daly – she dropped out of high school because of family chaos, but was encouraged by two women who believed in her to get her GED and then was able to go to college because one of the women paid for her first semester. She also seems to be well loved and a genuinely nice person who is focused on mentoring those coming behind her. Apparently several of the regional Federal Reserve presidents, including Daly, recognize that the country can’t prosper if we don’t do a much better job of educating everyone (as in everyone, as in it’s critical that we not leave any (prosocial) talent on the table untapped) and so they’ve been setting up non-profits to address educational disparities.

The second woman is named Laurin Stennis and she is the granddaughter of John Stennis, who was a Mississippi state senator and a staunch segregationist. The reason she’s in the news is that she created a new state flag that carries through the stars in the old version (flipping the color scheme so blue stars are on a white field) but gets rid of the Confederate symbolism. There’s legislation pending to officially change the state flag to this new design. Stennis is apparently not so keen on doing the promotion work because she’s pretty introverted, but the appeal of the design and the fact that she’s trying to change her family’s legacy seem to be propelling it along. The sweetest part of the story was about an African American restaurant owner near the state capitol who, upon seeing the flag prototype and meeting Stennis, told her husband that they need a flag pole out front and that she’ll get to work on the Senators who come to her place for lunch every day.

May we safeguard the future.
May we be happy to promote and support others.
May we push to right old wrongs and make a healthy world for everyone.
May we make peace with the inevitability of change.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson