President* Trump, It wasn’t just the direct references and the montage of images honoring those who were among us who are no longer among us because of your nihilistic responses to COVID-19 and systemic racism that tethered last night’s Democratic convention content to sober, painful here and now realities. It was the whole, whole thing, … Continue reading A big tent made of an awesome patchwork quilt
Dreams
Words matter, a lot
President* Trump, Last night as I was trying to fall asleep, I realized that I closed out yesterday’s letter to you in a highly problematic way, one that betrays my implicit racial biases that, unfortunately, run parallel to the WP editors I called out earlier in the week. Here is the offending text: “This tree … Continue reading Words matter, a lot
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
A very special “hi”
Dear President Trump, I pretty much left it all on the field today and don’t have a lot of time or energy for letter writing tonight. Still, though, I have something cool to tell you about. Guess who said “hi” to us tonight? Stumped? Well actually, quite a few people said “hi” to us tonight. … Continue reading A very special “hi”
A long, complicated, sordid tale
Dear President Trump, Because there are so many steps involved in making a man, of sorts, into a President/King, here’s another installment of President is King and King is President….. Once upon a longish span of time there lived a small handful of people in our land whose lives revolved around the making of men, … Continue reading A long, complicated, sordid tale
Dreams, identities, and democracy
Dear President Trump, After I wrote to you about Ruby Sales last night, I watched her TED talk from September, 2018. She opened with the story of the attack on her and her friends back in 1965 that resulted in the deaths of Jonathan Daniels and another man. She explained that the sheriff had jailed … Continue reading Dreams, identities, and democracy
Another wise woman
Dear President Trump, If you’ve not gotten this before, I’ll tell you plainly that Laura is a terrific finder. I see things that happen to pop up right in front of me and I regularly sleuth out what I need for paper and letter writing, but she actively searches out new stuff all the time … Continue reading Another wise woman
“I’m not here to occupy space; I’m here to make it” ~ Representative Ayanna Pressley
Dear President Trump, Because I’m 99% sure you missed it, I’ll remind you that yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr.’s actual birthday (he would have been 91). In honor of him and the day, there was an MLK celebration at the VA yesterday and since some meetings were cancelled I was able to attend. The … Continue reading “I’m not here to occupy space; I’m here to make it” ~ Representative Ayanna Pressley
Fortunes
Dear President Trump, It’s been quite an odd day today and now at the very end of it I’m pretty worn out. I may or may not tell you about it tomorrow or the next day – we’ll see – but part of it involved gathering up the 50 or so fortunes from fortune cookies … Continue reading Fortunes
“Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful!”
Dear President Trump, Yesterday after the (vacation) morning dog walk we swung by the Green Lake Library so Laura could pick up a book she’d put on hold months ago (the one I found for her is going to come through the UW library system at some unknown point in the future). As per our … Continue reading “Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful!”