Dear President Trump, It isn’t often that I choose a title for a letter to you before the letter is written, but this afternoon I decided today’s title needs to be Degrees of Freedom, which really, is kind of ironic since by choosing the title ahead of time, I boxed myself in to talking about … Continue reading Degrees of freedom
Change
I beg your pardon, but inequality is not a mere distraction
Dear President Trump, I have a hyper-local vignette and a bigger picture take for you for today. I’m not sure whether I’ve mentioned this before, but pre-you, Laura and I played Scrabble most weeknights. However, once you were installed as POTUS, it wasn’t until covid-19 slowed everything down and eliminated my commute time that it … Continue reading I beg your pardon, but inequality is not a mere distraction
This virus is a wake-up call that we can’t afford to sleep through
Dear President Trump, There’s a beautiful (very long) poem by Kristen Flyntz titled An Imagined Letter From Covid-19 to Humans that I got from a friend at church. I looked it up online and found that it appeared a little over a week ago and has been circulating on various social media sites. I’m including … Continue reading This virus is a wake-up call that we can’t afford to sleep through
Compassionate calm and calm compassion
Dear President Trump, Last week a friend of ours asked if we’d be up for doing a Zoom book club and Laura and I both signed on. We have only one copy of the book and it’s about mindfulness so I’m probably going to be the lone reader in our household. The book is by … Continue reading Compassionate calm and calm compassion
Questions and more questions
Dear President Trump, I know we aren’t supposed to panic – check, got it. Well, I’ve got it in theory, anyway. How about you? I’m thinking you’re probably feeling waves of panic too as this thing barrels ahead, no holds barred (I know viruses aren’t sentient, but this is how it feels). I would venture, … Continue reading Questions and more questions
Getting really real
Dear President Trump, Friday the 13th came a day early for Robert Redfield, didn’t it? Seriously, did you watch the tape of Katie Porter relentlessly aiming her logical questioning super powers at him yesterday, finally extracting a begrudging “yes” from him that all Americans, regardless of their ability to pay, can be tested and treated … Continue reading Getting really real
Oh, it’s just words (not)
Dear President Trump, When one’s community is in the midst of a crisis, whether of the immediately obvious variety like the covid-19 situation or of the drip, drip, drip variety that is climate change (at least here – elsewhere it’s far more in people’s faces), it probably seems like a bad time to zero in … Continue reading Oh, it’s just words (not)
What’s with all this positive Warren media coverage now?
Dear President Trump, I think you’re just going to have to bear with me for a bit here since I’m still mostly focused on Elizabeth Warren and the fact that her campaign couldn’t get the traction it needed when it comes to votes cast. We are coming up on Washington State’s mail-in ballot deadline this … Continue reading What’s with all this positive Warren media coverage now?
Heartbroken and resolute
Dear President Trump, So it appears that the US white male patriarchy has a reprieve for (at least) another four years as far as the presidency goes. I know there hasn’t been any real doubt about this for the last month or so, and really, it was probably just a relatively small handful of us … Continue reading Heartbroken and resolute
Apologies and amends
Dear President Trump, As you know, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about historical corrections and it occurs to me that I should clarify that there are at least two different types of historical corrections: 1) corrections to the historical record itself (e.g., telling the story more completely and accurately by bringing in points of … Continue reading Apologies and amends