President* Trump, Have you read the August 28, 2020 letter by the civil rights leaders who formed MLK’s inner circle, the one where they formally pass the torch to America’s youth? I suppose not, but you sort of never know… Anyway, I’ve had the pdf open since the day it was released and featured in … Continue reading MLK’s inner circle and sexism
Income inequality
A Labor Day reimagining of America
President* Trump, Happy Labor Day, you exploitative oligarch. I read an HP article this morning about your pipe dream of withholding federal funding from school districts that reform their US history offerings to more thoroughly address slavery and introduce systemic racism to students. The article included a Twitter exchange involving you and someone who goes … Continue reading A Labor Day reimagining of America
Scarcity thinking: the poison pearl of privilege
President* Trump, I know this isn’t a new insight or take on things, but lately I find myself wondering whether mean spiritedness of the scarcity sort isn’t really, truly the poison pearl of privilege at the heart of most all of our collective and individual problems. Maybe as I write I’ll come up with a … Continue reading Scarcity thinking: the poison pearl of privilege
The Queer Eye lottery and reparations
President* Trump, I seriously doubt it, but it’s possible you’re a closet Queer Eye fan. If you are, then you’ve probably seen Season 5, Episode 2 featuring Rahanna Gray, a dear 27-year old African American Philadelphian who owns a dog grooming business. Just so you know, I’m pretty much going to explain how the show … Continue reading The Queer Eye lottery and reparations
Evil incarnate through and through
President* Trump, evil (adjective): profoundly immoral and wicked incarnate (adjective): embodied in flesh; in human form evil incarnate (example): If you encounter someone who pulls off butterflies' wings for fun, you might describe that person as “evil incarnate.” I didn’t come up with the example above – it’s what Vocabulary.com has to say about the … Continue reading Evil incarnate through and through
Segregation and bootstraps
President* Trump, This afternoon Laura and I watched Sarah Cooper’s latest Trumpian lip-sync on YouTube – “How to Lincoln.” Although Cooper portrayed you brilliantly, it was an especially vile 24 seconds of Trump-speech and when it was over, all I could think to say was that you are loathsome. You truly are. Fortunately, though, this … Continue reading Segregation and bootstraps
The imperative Monopoly monologue
President* Trump, I drafted almost an entire usual-length letter to you this morning, but I’m not going to send it. Maybe it’ll make it out of the gate tomorrow, but today it’s far more important to send you a link to Kimberly Latrice Jones’s brilliant, devastating monologue “How Can We Win?”, which was posted on … Continue reading The imperative Monopoly monologue
May we accept that real change is scary and hard
Dear President Trump, The overriding emotions for me today have been shame and fear, which may explain why I’ve been so irritable and sour. I don’t know about you, but often when I’ve got strong primary feelings on board, niggly secondary ones pile on and poke at me, trying to grab my attention. Well, I … Continue reading May we accept that real change is scary and hard
“Fixing” curves and bringing history into focus
Dear President Trump, This morning I had nada for you. All I could muster was the date and the salutation – I was so blank I thought I’d probably end up just writing a haiku. Well, you’re in luck because that was the then but now I have not one thing to tell you about, … Continue reading “Fixing” curves and bringing history into focus
Different sorts of mothers and warriors
Dear President Trump, In her WP editorial, Margaret Sullivan warns the media not to buy into your propaganda aimed at normalizing the covid-19 death toll, first outlining the false dichotomy between a closed economy being bad and an open economy being good before she goes on to say: “Then there’s Trump’s latest trope: “We have … Continue reading Different sorts of mothers and warriors