President* Trump, I’ve been back to visit the huge maple (turns out it’s not chestnut after all – not sure how I made that mistake, their leaf shapes are super different) that has the way too tight bench constricting it a bunch of times since I wrote to you about it last month. The residents … Continue reading Constraints and breaking free of them
Change
History keeps repeating itself; will we finally act this time?
President* Trump, I finished all of the material in the 10-minutes-a-day section recommended by the Justice in June website (https://justiceinjune.org/#10-minutes) and moved on to the first podcast recommended in the 25-minute section yesterday, “A Decade of Watching Black People Die” (https://www.npr.org/2020/05/29/865261916/a-decade-of-watching-black-people-die). Ironically, I got interrupted about 10 minutes into it and didn’t come back to … Continue reading History keeps repeating itself; will we finally act this time?
This time
President* Trump, I picked the first little handful of raspberries from our bushes this morning. Some went into my yogurt bowl and some were a surprise for Laura. It was a nice antidote to what was a pretty rough night filled with bad dreams, restlessness, and a trip outside with Old Lizzie. Then, on my … Continue reading This time
Good hard conversations
President* Trump, Have you seen pictures of the gorgeous BLM street mural that’s on East Pine in Capitol Hill here in Seattle? It’s in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (the CHAZ) and stretches an entire city block. The one in your almost-front yard is really striking – I like the bold yellow and the fact … Continue reading Good hard conversations
Changing the whole recipe
President* Trump, Racism, along with all the other oppressive biases we hold about one another and ourselves, isn’t like a vegetable stew where you can just pick out the offending bits of celery or rutabagas and call it good – problem solved. It’s more like fruitcake where we can extract the weird green bits of … Continue reading Changing the whole recipe
Shows of force ~ now and then, then and now
President* Trump, Everything that I’ve seen written about the illegal assault on peaceful protestors last Monday to clear Lafayette Square focuses on your desire to strut over to St. John’s to have your picture taken holding up a bible. Every single one of the dozens of articles I’ve read, whether they are directly about the … Continue reading Shows of force ~ now and then, then and now
Defunding the police is a good start
President* Trump, I wish Laura or I had thought of the “President*” salutation eons ago – it is so much more appropriate than the “Dear” one, which always made me wince when I typed it. Better late than never, though – eh? So today we added another sign to our front windows today, jiggering things … Continue reading Defunding the police is a good start
A haiku for Charlena
President* Trump, This evening Laura and I marched in the arm of the BLM protest here that originated at Magnuson Park in honor of Charlena Lyles, the Seattle resident who was four months pregnant when she was shot seven times by SPD three years ago in her home. I have no idea how many people … Continue reading A haiku for Charlena
The president* we needed at this time
President* Trump, Laura suggested switching out the scare quotes and swapping in an * to indicate the illegitimacy of your presidency since this is likely how you’ll be listed in the history books. It may take a bit, but the writing is on the wall that you were aided and abetted by Putin and his … Continue reading The president* we needed at this time
Righteous eventualities
“President” Trump, It’s been just over 1.2k days of writing to you and I’m finally done with the polite “Dear President Trump” salutation – you never deserved it, but for the longest time (a seriously very long time) I couldn’t bring myself to address these letters to you in any other way. I’m over it … Continue reading Righteous eventualities