To: The One Who’s Being Shown The Door In 19 Short Days Hey, so I was right – I barely hesitated at all just now when I was writing out today’s date: January 1, 2021. Very cool. And very not all that meaningful, really. There’s so much hype about how we’re closing the door on … Continue reading 2021 ~ a new year with old problems
Racism
Boxing Day and Kwanzaa ~ compare and contrast
To: The Lame Duck Earth Scorcher Sometimes I think I’ve been living under a rock most all my life or that I’m about as incurious as they come. For years I’ve known that the day after Christmas is called Boxing Day and until about 1 minute ago I didn’t even wonder what it was referring … Continue reading Boxing Day and Kwanzaa ~ compare and contrast
A Christmas Eve missive
To: The Scrooge on Steroids You know, this holiday season is about as grim as it’s ever been in my lifetime as we shuffle inexorably to over 350,000 Covid deaths by year’s end. Have you seen the CDC’s projections for mid-January – once the fall out from all the Christmas travel starts hitting? They’re telling … Continue reading A Christmas Eve missive
Kick-ass activist women clean House
To: The Most Prominent Symbol of a Dying Breed I’m just trying this on – not necessarily to buy or lease – but I’m realizing that one of the major arguments against the “burn it all down” position is that those who are already the most marginalized would almost certainly be the most vulnerable during … Continue reading Kick-ass activist women clean House
The MAGA-merica fever dream is breaking
To: The Disgraced Leader of US Well, of course the jury will be out for quite some time on whether the bones of this place, this pseudo democracy (messed up as it is by mega-money and abuses of power) are good and strong enough to bother rehabilitating around. The answer to that overwhelming question almost … Continue reading The MAGA-merica fever dream is breaking
Maybe the bones aren’t so good after all
To: The Wrecking Ball This morning our good friend sent me of Maggie Smith’s wonderful, hard, sobering poem “Good Bones” in response to yesterday’s letter. Here’s a link to the poem on her blog: http://waxwingmag.org/items/Issue9/28_Smith-Good-Bones.php. I’m 99% sure I’ve told you about this poem before, but it was a long time ago so I’ll remind … Continue reading Maybe the bones aren’t so good after all
Role models and a saboteur
To: My Least Favorite Person On my blog, I gave yesterday’s letter the title: “A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it still won’t lead to just indictments of killer cops.” It’s longer and way clunkier than my usual letter titles, but it said what I wanted to convey so I went with … Continue reading Role models and a saboteur
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it still doesn’t lead to just indictments of killer cops
To: The Race Baiter I’m still reading Jill Lepore’s tome “These Truths: A History of The United States.” I’m all of 24% through it and have about 31 hours left to go. It’s fascinating and devastating, in equal measure. I keep coming across quotes and circumstances from 150 or 200 years ago that feel like … Continue reading A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it still doesn’t lead to just indictments of killer cops
Federal executions
To: The Executioner Ok, so the Electoral voters have spoken – you are out, Biden is in. You are out. Biden is in. It’s tempting to just repeat those two huge little sentences over and over for the entire letter – I bet it would look kind of cool from a graphic standpoint. Unfortunately, though, … Continue reading Federal executions
To boldly go where we must go
To: The Hate Machine Yesterday afternoon we participated in Stacey Abrams’s Star Trek: The Next Election (Zoom) party to benefit the Ossoff and Warnock campaigns. Well, actually we just tuned in and watched/listened as Abrams talked with members of the various Star Trek casts about politics and the messages and ethos of the shows. For … Continue reading To boldly go where we must go