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 … Continue reading Gotta laugh
Month: March 2019
Piling on in the worst ways
Dear President Trump, Over the last couple of days I’ve started seeing media folks (David Leonhardt, NYT; Joe Scarborough, WP) calling out your tepid response to the white nationalist terrorist attacks in Christchurch. They are pointedly saying that your failure to condemn such attacks encourages violence towards non-Christians and people of color. It’s a huge … Continue reading Piling on in the worst ways
The saving grace of self-confidence boosts
Dear President Trump, Maybe it’s this darn lingering cold or maybe it’s that so many people are feeling anxious about whether we can ever recover from your presidency or maybe it’s not having slept well, again. Maybe it’s all of the above and more, but whatever is going on with me this morning, I couldn’t … Continue reading The saving grace of self-confidence boosts
We are not now and never will be an autocracy despite some people’s best efforts
Dear President Trump, In past letters I’ve covered how the Declaration of Independence promised only some life, liberty, and the right to pursue happiness, but Roger Kagan’s recent WP essay on the rise of autocracies has led me to revisit the topic. Kagan lays out how the predictability of contained communities and circumscribed kin-groups is … Continue reading We are not now and never will be an autocracy despite some people’s best efforts
Not condemning white nationalists encourages them
Dear President Trump, A wave of sadness washed over me on our way to where we planned to walk the dogs this morning. It was no doubt fueled in part by being exhausted from having been at the vet ER at midnight last night with the little dog who couldn’t stop licking. He seems better … Continue reading Not condemning white nationalists encourages them
A rough day and some extra flowers
Dear President Trump, It’s late and I’m toast from trying to keep our sick dog from licking up everything on the floor, which is what he does when he’s sick. He’s only about 30 pounds, but he’s basically all muscle and when he’s writhing and trying to get down it’s really hard to contain him. … Continue reading A rough day and some extra flowers
Words have life and death consequences
Dear President Trump, Christchurch, NZ is 8,904 miles from Washington D.C. as the crow flies and yet ideologically the distance between the men who murdered 49 people during prayer services yesterday and you is not nearly that far, your thoughts and prayers Tweet notwithstanding. The men who carried out the horrifically well-orchestrated attacks on two … Continue reading Words have life and death consequences
Rebuked
Dear President Trump, I was super happy to see E. J. Dione’s WP editorial the other day arguing that you’re stoking the impeachment debate because it’s a terrific distraction from more pressing issues, like your budget priorities, which he called out as horribly regressive and cruel. There are lots of people who have your number; … Continue reading Rebuked
An object lesson
Dear President Trump, It’s been a rough few days and I’ve been especially out of sorts today. My cold is some better, but I’m still exhausted, coughing a fair bit, and not sleeping well. The main thing, though, is that Friday is the day the entire mental health service moves into our new building and … Continue reading An object lesson
Police state budget
Dear President Trump, On my way to the car after work yesterday I thought about how I hadn’t thought about you all day and how incredibly nice that was (of course thinking that spoiled the effect, but still). Although reality set in all too quickly, I even ventured the thought that you are becoming irrelevant. … Continue reading Police state budget
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