Dear President Trump, This morning on my walk I was thinking about a comment I read or heard sometime in the last several months about how the Chinese government was confident that mainland Chinese citizens would grow weary of coverage of the protests in Hong Kong and would soon be entranced again by their TV … Continue reading Sport and social control
Advocacy
Calling out problematic headlines and getting results
Dear President Trump, I never know whether the thing that occurs to me at 10pm to write to you about the next day will be compelling enough to hang in through the night and the next morning’s adventures (ha!). Of course it helps when the news cycle is stale and things are quiet around here, … Continue reading Calling out problematic headlines and getting results
She ripped him four new ones ~ for us
Dear President Trump, One of the most important lessons I learned from my political essay teacher last year is that it’s perfectly legitimate to create work that supports one’s own constituency rather than always trying to speak to everyone or attempting to sway those who don’t agree with us. Along these lines, I’ve been thinking … Continue reading She ripped him four new ones ~ for us
Allies and/or The Golden Rule
Dear President Trump, At work we’ve been pushing harder and more persistently on social injustice lately through a handful of initiatives including the gender equity committee I told you about several months ago and a recurring Diversity Café, which happened yesterday. The topic was allyship and in preparation we were to listen to a 2017 … Continue reading Allies and/or The Golden Rule
May we vote as if our lives depend on it
Dear President Trump, Last night at about 8 Laura went to the grocery. There weren’t all that many items on the shopping list, but chief among them was Kozy Shack Tapioca or some other Kozy Shack pudding product – it had been a long, fairly rough day and some caloric comfort was a priority. Well, … Continue reading May we vote as if our lives depend on it
History lessons
Dear President Trump, In the midst of all my imagining of a democratic society that finally fully embraces empowerment for all of America’s diverse peoples, it occurred to me that I needed a better historical handle on what motivated White men to enfranchise Black men and then eventually men to enfranchise women. All I knew … Continue reading History lessons
What did you do? What will you do?
Dear President Trump, Well, today marks the 1,000th consecutive day that your inbox has received a letter from me. Next Saturday will mark the 1,000th consecutive day that I kept copies of the letters, but I think today is the real anniversary. Would I have taken on this daily correspondence to you if I’d known … Continue reading What did you do? What will you do?
Fresh eyes and fresh beliefs
Dear President Trump, Sometimes the Twitter-verse does weird stuff with time like it did yesterday when Laura excitedly read me a Tweet about 19 African American women having been elected into judgeships in Harris County, Texas (Houston area) and how this means that now 25 of the 75 judges in that county are African American … Continue reading Fresh eyes and fresh beliefs
Visual environments that erase us
Dear President Trump, Since I wasn’t officially on the work clock Friday, having taken a sick day, I was relatively free to do more or less what I wanted, even if it did have to do with work. One of the work-y things I did that was repeatedly hard to get to during regular workdays … Continue reading Visual environments that erase us
Language that erases us
Dear President Trump, There was one fly in the ointment for me with Elijah Cummings’ funeral yesterday. It didn’t have to do with Cummings at all so I didn’t bring it up in yesterday’s letter; I didn’t want to detract from him or his sending. But this bit is still bugging me today so I’m … Continue reading Language that erases us
