Dear President Trump,

It’s snowing again and there’s a film of ice over about a quarter of the reservoir across the street. We’re supposed to get another 3-ish inches of snow tonight and then around 6-8” more tomorrow and a totally unclear amount on Tuesday. I think a lot of us are going to be working from home this week. When our daughter was little we went to church snow camp over the pass and the last several days have felt like snow camp at home, which really, is quite nice. Hopefully the electricity will continue to work since “quite nice” is predicated on being able to come inside to get warm, being able to cook and having hot showers.

So, I’ve got a couple of good ideas for you. The first one is the best and it’s that you and your entire administration should admit you attained power illegally and then say you want to atone for your misdeeds by resigning and reporting to federal prison. I realize you won’t be down with this idea, but I like it – a lot.

Ok, another of today’s good ideas is church by Zoom. We “attended” this morning’s worship service along with 74 other households and it was terrific. I think the staff and clergy must have done several test runs as it went off without a hitch. They even arranged for the people who usually play music and lead hymns to do that and opened up the audio for prayer time so we could hear each others’ concerns. I’ve not been on many Zoom “meetings” before and hadn’t appreciated how interactive they can be, but I get it now. It was really nice to be able to see most the other people and to be toggled back and forth between seeing live images of the main contributors and the words of poems or hymns. Lots of folks also used the chat option to chime in so it felt like we really were together.

The final good idea to tell you about is how Sandusky, Ohio voted to swap the paid city holiday of Columbus Day for Election Day. I think this is a brilliant idea! The Mayor of Sandusky says it’s not a political move, that it’s not meant to benefit one or another party, and I can see that, but ditching Columbus Day is at least kind of political, if you ask me. And I love the idea of a small-ish town in Ohio leading the way on a major “power grab” for the people; it’s absolutely wonderful.

May we be safe to try new things that just might work.
May we be happy to take some risks.
May we build healthy foundations that support full inclusion and representation.
May those who have enjoyed the spoils of power make peace with the coming changes.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson