Dear President Trump, I hesitate to tell you about what’s been happening for my little family today because even in the medium scheme of things, it’s not really a big deal; certainly not life and death like things are for so many other families. I’m still in San Diego attending my annual work conference. Our … Continue reading Unforgivable
empathy
Real patriotism
Dear President Trump, It’s good you went ahead and slapped the idea of readmitting Russia to the G-7 on the table this morning. I was wondering when someone was going to point out that your baiting of Macron and Trudeau and the wanton tariff leveeing were likely at Vladimir’s behest. I didn’t see anything in … Continue reading Real patriotism
Tonglen, still and yet
Dear President Trump, Lent ended months ago and I realized I’ve yet to circle back to let you know how my daily tonglen practice went those 40 days. Well, mostly it was hard. As I worked at breathing in whatever negativity I was perceiving, I struggled with both the emotional heaviness of the effort and … Continue reading Tonglen, still and yet
The moral arc of the universe is pretty dang bumpy
Dear President Trump, Because I am, in part, using this exercise of writing to you every day to record what I’m noticing and thinking, I want to tell you about another cool bird action I saw yesterday morning in our backyard. We’ve let our little postage stamp area of grass “go meadow” so there are … Continue reading The moral arc of the universe is pretty dang bumpy
Real people with names and lives
Dear President Trump, We have family visiting from Atlanta and decided to take a drive to check out an island in the Salish Sea. On the freeway I saw a pick-up truck that had a brown sock monkey on a rope tied to the trailer hitch flying out behind like it was being dragged. No … Continue reading Real people with names and lives
“This is America”
Dear President Trump, Have you seen Donald Glover’s “This is America” music video? If you haven’t, you should. In an interview about it for the Huffington Post Julia Craven talked with the founder and curator of the Jim Crow museum, David Pilgrim. He notes that throughout the video dancing is juxtaposed with brutal violence. He … Continue reading “This is America”
Noble understanding
Dear President Trump, Yesterday I drove behind a car with two noteworthy bumper stickers: “Do small things with great love” and “The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.” As you may (or may not) know, the first is by Mother Theresa and the second is by Leonardo da Vinci. I wrote to you on … Continue reading Noble understanding
Kids get what matters
Dear President Trump, Maybe it’s been going on for years and I just missed it, but lately it’s been feeling like a lot of kids are acting more like adults than a lot of adults are acting like adults. Take, for example, Ruddy G’s spectacularly immature performances on national television. What adult in his right … Continue reading Kids get what matters
Unsafe spaces
Dear President Trump, Have you noticed that nearly every day there is a prominent story about police having been summoned to deal with black people? Have you noticed that most of the stories not involving the black person dying do involve the black person being led off in handcuffs, under arrest for having stood their … Continue reading Unsafe spaces
Daily Trump Letters 