Dear President Trump, This morning I had nada for you. All I could muster was the date and the salutation – I was so blank I thought I’d probably end up just writing a haiku. Well, you’re in luck because that was the then but now I have not one thing to tell you about, … Continue reading “Fixing” curves and bringing history into focus
Community
Let’s stop playing follow the leader
Dear President Trump, Yesterday I told you about Brother Phap Luu’s encouragement to let go of blaming others for their roles in perpetuating injustice and climate degradation. What I forgot to include is that he also said we need to stop looking to or waiting for charismatic leaders to solve our problems. My sense is … Continue reading Let’s stop playing follow the leader
Putting down the hot coals – very reluctantly
Dear President Trump, Our church service was super brief today, lasting all of 30 minutes – I think they set a service-speed record. There was no offering time or contemporary voice, and when combined, the two youth-led sermons maybe lasted eight minutes. Given what folks have going on, I think this is all for the … Continue reading Putting down the hot coals – very reluctantly
Piecing together connection and being
Dear President Trump, For about the last year I’ve closed my walking lovingkindness meditation with the following: May we all have the courage and the resolve to be peace and kindness. May we all have the resolve and courage to accept kindness and peace. Maybe I’ve told you about this before – I’m not sure … Continue reading Piecing together connection and being
The ‘Trump Death Clock’ and some pink chalk
Dear President Trump, Here is the title (and subtitle) of one of the HP’s top running stories this morning: ‘Trump Death Clock’ In Times Square Is Grim Reminder Of Preventable Virus Deaths The sign’s creator aims to show “the cost in human lives” (by Josephine Harvey) The TDC recently clicked past 50,000 excess, preventable covid-19 … Continue reading The ‘Trump Death Clock’ and some pink chalk
How we are in the world
Dear President Trump, Over about the last six weeks I’ve changed the final line of the loving-kindness prayer I say every morning at least four times. The other three lines, the ones sending out wishes/hopes/intentions for safety, happiness, and health/strength have stayed consistent except for occasionally focusing on how much I want the person, typically … Continue reading How we are in the world
We’re in trouble when our enemies have more substance than our loves
Dear President Trump, OMG has time gotten wonky. I thought I had opened the tab holding W. B. Yeats’s poem “The Stare’s Nest By My Window” days and days ago, but it was just yesterday morning that it was the featured ‘poem-a-day’ poem (an interesting choice for Mother’s Day). It was a very long, very … Continue reading We’re in trouble when our enemies have more substance than our loves
Different sorts of mothers and warriors
Dear President Trump, In her WP editorial, Margaret Sullivan warns the media not to buy into your propaganda aimed at normalizing the covid-19 death toll, first outlining the false dichotomy between a closed economy being bad and an open economy being good before she goes on to say: “Then there’s Trump’s latest trope: “We have … Continue reading Different sorts of mothers and warriors
Testing, testing….
Dear President Trump, Personally, I think you all should have been testing everyone in the White House for covid-19, including you, Pence, and your families, every day since the beginning of February. Why the hell weren’t you? From a national security standpoint such precautions would have been totally reasonable. Maybe your magical thinking-speak really is … Continue reading Testing, testing….
Hope and a big gamble
Dear President Trump, There’s nothing like starting off a letter to you still teary and feeling verklempt after reading a sweet article about President Obama. Guess what he did yesterday – he called three Chicago schoolteachers and had video chats with them to express his appreciation for them and their work. They were so beyond … Continue reading Hope and a big gamble
Daily Trump Letters 