Dear President Trump, So hey, I’m pretty sure being caught “back on your heels” is worse than being caught “flat footed” but neither one is good and both would be generous descriptions of your administration’s inept response to the covid-19 crisis. You see, both these idioms reference situations where someone is surprised by something or … Continue reading Thank goodness for true leaders
Honor
Steady there, please
Dear President Trump, Because the odds that you read any newspaper, let alone the WP, are slim to none, you almost certainly don’t know that their new online format leaves out obituaries. I first noticed this on Sunday or Monday (days are kind of a blur lately) and found it disturbing, but then the next … Continue reading Steady there, please
Bad politics kill
Dear President Trump, Throughout this primary season our daughter has been texting with Laura about the candidates, about how the process is going, how the issues are (and are not) being covered, and who we are voting for and why (I get the texts about recipes and airline schedules). A couple of weeks ago she … Continue reading Bad politics kill
Go figure….
Dear President Trump, Jennifer Rubin’s WP editorial today reminding us that democracy is not a meritocracy was a bittersweet read as it sinks in that Elizabeth Warren almost certainly doesn’t have a viable path to the nomination. Rubin clearly thinks Warren is meritorious, along with Klobuchar and Buttigieg. She notes that Steyer probably should have … Continue reading Go figure….
Righteous prohibitions
Dear President Trump, Following on from yesterday’s letter about history and privilege and how we are finally getting some traction with new, corrective history, today was pretty much a banner day. First, earlier today the US House passed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act 410-4, making lynching a federal hate crime (for the record these four … Continue reading Righteous prohibitions
Part of the way there, but leagues (and leagues) to go
Dear President Trump, I was confused when I saw Michael Gerson’s byline attached to the WP editorial entitled “By Any Measure, Buttigieg is Trump’s Proven Superior” since I was pretty sure that Gerson is one of the WP’s little posse of conservative editorialists. Well, he is in that camp – his party affiliation is still … Continue reading Part of the way there, but leagues (and leagues) to go
Time to whistle in the dark
Dear President Trump, Can you whistle? Probably not, but surely you can hum. I bet people within earshot of you are hearing an off-key hummed version of “Oh Happy Day” or something like that now that you’ve locked down the impeachment trial and avoided the disaster of involving witnesses and document discovery. You are getting … Continue reading Time to whistle in the dark
Truth telling POTUS ~ A thought experiment
Dear President Trump, We haven’t done this in a while and since we seem to be stuck replaying the same old scenes, saying (or yelling) the same old lines at each other, I think it’s time for another thought experiment. Are you ready? No, of course not, but since this whole daily letter writing to … Continue reading Truth telling POTUS ~ A thought experiment
“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
Guided by poems
Dear President Trump, Our church celebrated its 150th anniversary with a doozy of a service this morning. We opened with a short poem by Hafiz: Everyone Is God speaking. Why not be polite and Listen to God? Pretty dang provocative, right? And radical. And incredibly hard for me to wrap my head and heart around … Continue reading Guided by poems