President* Trump, I’m so grateful the event that occasioned the unprecedented hour in the House of Representatives this morning calling out misogyny was not AOC’s murder by a crazed, bigoted misogynist (or Ayanna Pressley’s or Ilhan Omar’s or Pramila Jayapal’s or Rashida Tlaib’s or Debbie Wasserman Schulz’s or Barbara Lee’s or Nancy Pelosi’s) – so, … Continue reading It’s a new day in the People’s House
Inspiration
Signs and perspective taking
President* Trump, Two mornings ago I came across a unicorn sign, as in a very cool one-of-a-kind sign (at least to me). It looks like a purchased or manufactured sign as it’s professionally done and has the same basic structure as all the BLM and “In This House We Believe…” yard signs, but it doesn’t … Continue reading Signs and perspective taking
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
Stories can change the course of history
President* Trump, As I was not falling asleep last night, I realized that part of why I felt so dang tired at the end of the day yesterday was because I didn’t have work to distract me or to help me feel like I was doing something instrumental that was tilting things in a positive … Continue reading Stories can change the course of history
“Black Lives > White Feelings” and better late than never rainbows
President* Trump, I’ve already cried twice this morning and it’s still early. It’s going to be one of those days, I think. The first thing that brought on tears was the 24-second Twitter clip of violinists in New York playing Amazing Grace to honor Elijah McClain, the young Black man who was killed in Aurora, … Continue reading “Black Lives > White Feelings” and better late than never rainbows
Harriet Hosmer ~ marble maker and trailblazer
President* Trump, Yesterday’s letter meandered quite a bit more than I anticipated and so I decided to hold off on telling you about Harriet Hosmer (b. 1830, d. 1908), whose design for the Emancipation Memorial was strongly considered but in the end lost out to Thomas Ball, he of the towering Lincoln over the kneeling … Continue reading Harriet Hosmer ~ marble maker and trailblazer
More dot connecting
President* Trump, What do the following three things have to do with each other? 1) The Friday night attempt to force US Attorney of the NY Southern District, Geoffrey Berman, to resign followed by his Saturday morning firing when he refused to play along; 2) having a 62-year old woman arrested as she knelt to … Continue reading More dot connecting
Good hard conversations
President* Trump, Have you seen pictures of the gorgeous BLM street mural that’s on East Pine in Capitol Hill here in Seattle? It’s in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (the CHAZ) and stretches an entire city block. The one in your almost-front yard is really striking – I like the bold yellow and the fact … Continue reading Good hard conversations
Changing the whole recipe
President* Trump, Racism, along with all the other oppressive biases we hold about one another and ourselves, isn’t like a vegetable stew where you can just pick out the offending bits of celery or rutabagas and call it good – problem solved. It’s more like fruitcake where we can extract the weird green bits of … Continue reading Changing the whole recipe
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