President* Trump,

I am now convinced that the Twitter-person who linked you and Jr. hydroxychloroquine push to your desire to get people out working and spending again is correct. I was pretty well convinced last night, but after reading more about the debacle that is the coming school year and your all’s desperate, desperate desire to have schools open and operating in person regardless of the dangers to individuals and communities, the hydroxychloroquine push makes even more sense. Are you going to start penalizing people who resist taking hydroxychloroquine like you’re threatening school districts that decide not to open fully with in-person instruction in the fall?

Has no one sat you down and told you that leaders who hold guns to their people’s heads to force them to do things they know aren’t in their (or their children’s) best interest aren’t going to be very popular? Seriously, your whining about Drs. Fauci and Birx being popular while you are decidedly unpopular was absolutely pathetic. And infuriating. Who the f*ck cares about their own popularity when tens of thousands of their people are dying everyday unnecessarily? Vainglorious assholes, that’s who. I mean sure, if you were attempting to do right by the science and the public’s health and you were unpopular because of this (Gov. Whitmer comes to mind), then that would need to be addressed to benefit the greater good, but that’s absolutely not the case here.

A friend of ours who’s going to visit her parents in the Midwest next week said her mother isn’t worried about contracting covid from them because Dr. Stella Immanuel said on the steps of the Supreme Court that hydroxychloroquine is a totally effective cure. So you’re no doubt still popular with the folks who desperately want to believe Dr. Immanuel (and you) that there’s a magic pill that will allow them to cuddle their grandchildren who’ve just made a cross-country flight without worrying about getting sick.

You know what? To play on those heartstrings and convince people that they have a covid Plan B is criminal. And to demonize those who are telling the truth about the scary science around hydroxychloroquine is to reserve a special place in hell for oneself because that’s truly evil.

Ok, having settled the fact that only a monstrously callous leader would hawk what is essentially poison to their people AND attempt to force children and those charged with their care into buildings everyone knows will quickly burst into proverbial flames, let’s look at the school opening situation more closely.

First, I need to admit that in my relief at no longer having a school age child, I’ve not paid this grim situation as much attention as I should have and I venture that I’m not alone in this. There are so many proverbial fires blazing that parking one that isn’t immediately personally relevant was kind of nice. But truly, we’re all interconnected and just because I don’t happen to have a school age child and am not facing that dilemma personally, doesn’t let me off the hook if for no other reason than creating more hotspots and letting more illness fester ultimately escalates everyone’s danger.

Second, this whole damn situation is disproportionately putting women workers at serious risk, with gender and labor experts predicting that it will be many, many years before women can get back to our collective pre-covid level of engagement and placement in the workforce. I know – your answer is to open schools and daycares so women can go back to work (and help rev the economy) so they don’t lose so much momentum. But dude, putting women in such a bind where they have to choose between their children’s safety and their jobs/careers is cruel and inhumane. You and your lackeys made this mess and you need to come up with solutions that don’t throw either women or children under the bus.

And third, you’re making President Snow of the Hunger Games look pretty darn tame.

May we be safe from our POTUS.
May we find ways to disabuse our loved ones of your bullshit.
May we be strong and support each other as we figure out how to truly take care.
May we accept that we have to care about it all.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson