President* Trump,

This is the first day of my stay-cation (I’m not counting Friday since I ended up working most of the day) and I’m exhausted – it’s only 7:38pm and it feels like 11:38pm. Maybe I should have expected this since I decided to take some time off because I was tired, but this feels like an especially tired sort of tired. At least I didn’t have a migraine – that’s my body’s favorite trick for days off – it’s finally time to relax some and “bam” I get whacked by a migraine. I’m knocking on wood in hopes that I’m not tempting fate and asking for one tomorrow. We’ll see.

So since I’m tired I’m going to keep this short and will just say that something really awful needs to happen to you and Betsy DeVos for what you are doing to foreign college and graduate students. Someone on Twitter said that you’re really trying to blackmail colleges and universities into opening up fully so that they don’t lose foreign student enrollment (and tuition), and there may be some truth to that, but really, by saying that these students cannot be in the country if they are taking all of their classes online is just cruel. People have lives here, they are doing research, they have leases, they are part of our communities and you all are just doing your xenophobic, base shit to them because you can. As Laura said earlier today, there clearly is no bottom where you all are concerned.

Laura just read me a Twitter thread by an elementary school teacher who did a beautiful job articulating all the reasons that the push to re-open schools this summer/fall is extraordinarily problematic. She opens with all the great news about how kids aren’t as likely to contract covid-19 and if they do, aren’t as likely to have serious cases, and then she does a hard pivot and reminds people that kids don’t get to be at school without adults and the adults, to include teachers, admin staff, cafeteria workers, janitors, bus drivers, and coaches, have adult immune systems, which as we know, are not kid immune systems and in fact, are susceptible to covid-19 and are actually susceptible to seriously bad outcomes. As in f*cking duh.

Again, there is no bottom. And if there were one, it would surely be falling out.

We need to pull our heads out and get real about this pandemic. The federal government needs to step up and help the states stand up viable online educational options (including paying for internet access and proper equipment for everyone who needs assistance with those costs – everyone). The federal government also needs to be paying parents and adults at large to stay home both so that they can be with their kids and to stop the damn spread of covid-19. You and BDV also need to back the hell off your mean-spirited move to make foreign students leave the country. The list of basic, basic stuff you all should be doing is endless and railing at you isn’t going to do a damn bit of good so I’m signing off for the night.

May we be safe from our POTUS.
May we be willing to be loud and stay loud.
May we get some rest when we are tired.
May we accept there is no bottom with this administration; absolutely nothing is beneath them.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson