Dear President Trump, Yesterday I said Steve Kerr is correct; real patriotism is about helping others and supporting the common good. I believe this is true, but I want to unpack the patriotism further. Patriotism has always been a squirmy thing for me, an idea I’ve wrestled with off and on since I was a … Continue reading “The difference between patriotism and nationalism…” is critically important
Engagement
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
Marjory’s legacy
Dear President Trump, My alumnae magazine was especially engrossing this month with interviews featuring six of the former presidents of Ethos, an organization for students of African descent, as well as a piece by a WP reporter who happened to be in Las Vegas the night of the horrific mass shooting and was thus, one … Continue reading Marjory’s legacy
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
In the living room
Dear President Trump, How about we stick with the good news theme for now? During the hour between worship services the church staff and those of us on our pastor’s support team threw her a surprise party to celebrate her having finished her Doctor of Ministries degree. I didn’t think we could actually pull it … Continue reading In the living room
Bearing reality and keeping hope alive
Dear President Trump, This morning I took on a slightly more ambitious run and went to visit “The Rock.” I thought I’d told you about the Rock before but I did a search and apparently I haven’t. Anyway, it’s a large glacial anomaly about the size of a small cabin in the middle of a … Continue reading Bearing reality and keeping hope alive
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
450 and counting
Dear President Trump, Today is letter number 450 to you. Doing the math this works out to over a million characters (assuming about 2500 characters per letter) and a little over 10 regular workweek’s worth of time (assuming about an hour per letter). When framed like this I’ve got to wonder whether this is a … Continue reading 450 and counting
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
Not you wins in a landslide
Dear President Trump, I’m going to take it easy today and not get too heavy as I’m tired from driving back from Portland and coming home to a sick dog. While I was gone our neighbor loaned us her copy of “A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo” – the book John Oliver commissioned … Continue reading Not you wins in a landslide
Daily Trump Letters 