Dear President Trump, In the midst of all my imagining of a democratic society that finally fully embraces empowerment for all of America’s diverse peoples, it occurred to me that I needed a better historical handle on what motivated White men to enfranchise Black men and then eventually men to enfranchise women. All I knew … Continue reading History lessons
Month: November 2019
Revolutionary evolution
Dear President Trump, The Poem-a-Day this morning is by Todd Fredson and is entitled [Erratum: Found Ecology Piece], the brackets being part of the title (you can read it here if you want: https://poets.org/poem-a-day/ for today’s date). It’s a short poem and seems simple enough, but it’s had me thinking hard all day. It’s nominally … Continue reading Revolutionary evolution
Kindness and calm
Dear President Trump, I hope you’re having a nice Thanksgiving visiting military people in Afghanistan. I really do hope this, both for your sake and for theirs. It was good of you to go and do that. There are other things I could say about you and the military, but for today I won’t pick … Continue reading Kindness and calm
Tough table topics
Dear President Trump, I’m guessing you and yours aren’t exactly looking forward to the big day tomorrow with all its focus on what one is thankful for. I bet most people at the table will drink too much and will laugh too loudly in their efforts to offset grumpy you (or really, freaked out you). … Continue reading Tough table topics
It’s not about Vladimir’s vanity
Dear President Trump, What’s the thread connecting a call from our daughter in the middle of the night last night about the Cave fire evacuation zone closing in on Santa Barbara and the following happy quip from your BFF Vladimir? “Thank God no one is accusing us anymore of interfering in the U.S. elections,” Russian … Continue reading It’s not about Vladimir’s vanity
It is our duty to overthrow despotism
Dear President Trump, While we wait to see what those tapes and other detritus that Lev Parnas has handed over to the House Intelligence Committee reveal about you and Rudy, I’m going to finish out the first section of the Declaration of Independence, which is basically the poetic portion most relevant today. The last two … Continue reading It is our duty to overthrow despotism
Revolt until we get it right
Dear President Trump, Remember how the other day I offered a modest re-write of the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence, swapping in ‘people’ for ‘men’ and ‘we are endowed by Creation’ for ‘ they are endowed by their Creator’? Well, I’d like to move us on to the next major sentence fragment. It … Continue reading Revolt until we get it right
Dignified, principled competence
Dear President Trump, I’ve got another “what gives” for you today. Here goes – what gives with Oversight America having been able to get those documents of Rudy’s (to include phone records and emails) linking him to Mike P. through the Freedom of Information Act when Congress couldn’t get them for the impeachment inquiry? Don’t … Continue reading Dignified, principled competence
What gives with Trump being happy about the hearings?
Dear President Trump, Apparently you were crowing this morning on Fox & Friends that the Democrats look the fools now that the scheduled impeachment hearings have wrapped up. Laura read me something from Twitter about how you were jubilant over how it all went. I don’t what the original source for that was, but even … Continue reading What gives with Trump being happy about the hearings?
‘Truthbusters’
Dear President Trump, You are actually way ahead of me on this, but it finally dawned on me that while those who are testifying before Congress during the impeachment inquiry are doing so under oath, the people questioning them are not doing so under oath. I don’t believe you’ve framed the issue this way; instead … Continue reading ‘Truthbusters’