Dear President Trump, Judging from the headlines, it’s a tough time to be an outspoken woman, isn’t it? In the WP alone there’s coverage of three disturbing stories that look to me like bald warnings to women to shut the f*ck up. The most chilling and sad is the murder of 75-year-old Sadie Roberts-Joseph, a … Continue reading Strong women are being targeted even more blatantly than usual
Advocacy
A good news break
Dear President Trump, As I left work today I was mentally fishing around for a topic for today’s letter and decided to look out for acts of kindness on my way home to tell you about. Usually there are at least a few instances where someone is clearly patient and/or generous with another driver so … Continue reading A good news break
Contemporary gerrymandering and who counted as people way back when ~ Some serious deja vu
Dear President Trump, You must have done a little happy dance when you saw that your SCOTUS boys came through for you and yours on the gerrymandering case. I got about three pages through Robert’s majority opinion and was feeling so queasy that I had to stop and find Kagan’s dissent. Part of the Roberts-quease … Continue reading Contemporary gerrymandering and who counted as people way back when ~ Some serious deja vu
“Political” isn’t a dirty word
Dear President Trump, I've thought some more about both the “stop to think” and “Kindness is Magic” messages I wrote to you about yesterday and want to add a couple more things about them. First, I realized this morning that the encouragement to “stop to think” is probably mostly about being intentional about thinking, it’s … Continue reading “Political” isn’t a dirty word
Prejudice and Pride
Dear President Trump, The other day Laura texted our daughter to check in with her on the last day of their respective quarters to congratulate her on being almost finished with her first year of college and to see how she was feeling about finals. She texted back saying she’s feeling ok about how things … Continue reading Prejudice and Pride
“No one breathes”
Dear President Trump, I wasn’t going to stay for service at all yesterday. The plan was to go to choir practice at 9 and leave right afterwards because there was a choir potluck later in the afternoon and I didn’t want the whole day given over to churchy stuff. The plan was going just fine … Continue reading “No one breathes”
Housing for goodness’ sake
Dear President Trump, Recently I was on the periphery of a conversation that kept dipping in and out of tense territory. It never quite landed squarely in the squirmy zone, but it still had me wishing it would end much sooner than it did. The first person involved made a compassionate, yet practical, argument for … Continue reading Housing for goodness’ sake
Marginalized voices
Dear President Trump, I told you yesterday that Laura and I took the dogs on a walking tour of the University campus to see the heron rookery. We tagged on visiting a couple of the newer buildings on campus that Laura wanted to show me with the idea that I could go in and check … Continue reading Marginalized voices
So many phoenixes rising (out of the ashes of the patriarchy)
Dear President Trump, This morning I have three true stories for you, all of which I heard on the same day last week. The first involves a woman who re-entered the work force a few years ago and whose talents have quickly become apparent. Recently her boss asked her to take over a poor-performing department … Continue reading So many phoenixes rising (out of the ashes of the patriarchy)
