Dear President Trump,

I think I mentioned last week that I laughed a lot more on the day when I didn’t have time to look at the news. If you cared a whit about me, you’d have wondered why I was bothering to tell you about my laugh frequency. Well, even though you could care less, I’ll have you know that I’m someone who used to laugh heartily every day. There was always something absurd, silly, or just plain funny that caught my eye or ear and I’d laugh out loud and revel in whatever it was for a few minutes. Even though I don’t think I’m clinically depressed, I’ve pretty much stopped laughing. It’s really a banner day when I laugh even once, let alone a couple of times.

Laying it out like this has me thinking that I need to do a better job of taking media breaks so I can see if I can get my laugh back. Actually, what I really need is for you to be out of office and behind bars –that would pretty much guarantee that my laugh would come roaring back. Sadly, though, I don’t have control over your tenure in office and don’t want to wait as long as it will take to effect our liberation from the tyranny of you and your props, so media breaks it’ll have to be.

This really wasn’t what I was going to write to you about today, but I had the experience of actually guffawing out loud sitting here by myself when I read the following passage by Paul Waldman (WP opinion writer):

“…..But with the intense polarization and negative partisanship that characterize our politics right now, persuasion has become harder than ever. It’s why Trump, despite being possibly the most odious human being to have ever run for high office in America, held just as many Republican voters as previous GOP nominees had….”

In case you’re wondering, it was the “despite being possibly the most odious human being to have ever run for high office in America” part of the passage that occasioned my LOL experience. He just f*cking nailed it – the only thing I’d change is I’d strike the word “possibly”. There are other odious politicians (Roy Moore and Greg Gianforte come to mind), but you outstrip them all and I love that Wald pulled off the gloves and said it so plainly. Plus, it was nice to bust out laughing. Even though it was in response to media about you, it helped me remember how much I love to laugh and how important it is to reclaim that bit of myself.

May we all be safe and secure enough to LOL.
May we be happy and may we show it.
May we change what we can in support of healthy good humor.
May we not make peace with regimes that quash our joy.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson