President* Trump, I’ve been back to visit the huge maple (turns out it’s not chestnut after all – not sure how I made that mistake, their leaf shapes are super different) that has the way too tight bench constricting it a bunch of times since I wrote to you about it last month. The residents … Continue reading Constraints and breaking free of them
Sustainability
Taxes, death, and bad karma
President* Trump, Paying taxes has always been fraught given how much of our national budget goes to support the military, the pittance that goes to support the real, practical needs of our people and our planet, and the paltry share that’s provided by corporations and wealthy people. Most years I’m able to focus on the … Continue reading Taxes, death, and bad karma
Absolutely nothing is beneath them
President* Trump, This is the first day of my stay-cation (I’m not counting Friday since I ended up working most of the day) and I’m exhausted – it’s only 7:38pm and it feels like 11:38pm. Maybe I should have expected this since I decided to take some time off because I was tired, but this … Continue reading Absolutely nothing is beneath them
Better yet, let’s declare interdependence
President* Trump, I know you don’t see the titles I come up with for these letters so I’ll tell you that yesterday’s title was “Declaring independence.” It was a reasonable fit for the gist of the letter and reflected my strong belief that it’s high time we throw off our government since it still privileges … Continue reading Better yet, let’s declare interdependence
This is not the best we can do
President* Trump, So my starting-out typo tonight is that I accidentally entered 3030 for the date, which occasioned a very quick string of very conflicting feelings and thoughts; a spike of angsty adrenaline signaling that I’m not very confident that humanity is going to be around in 3030, a brief “serves us right” thought, chased … Continue reading This is not the best we can do
Testing, testing — anyone there?
President* Trump, Our county health officials have been encouraging everyone who has attended a protest (or protests) to get tested for covid-19. Accordingly, our daughter and her boyfriend went and got tested mid-week last week and Laura and I were tested on Sunday – all of our tests came back negative. How often do you … Continue reading Testing, testing — anyone there?
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 president* we needed at this time
President* Trump, Laura suggested switching out the scare quotes and swapping in an * to indicate the illegitimacy of your presidency since this is likely how you’ll be listed in the history books. It may take a bit, but the writing is on the wall that you were aided and abetted by Putin and his … Continue reading The president* we needed at this time
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
Strong medicine
Dear President Trump, The graphic accompanying the WP’s lead story this morning announcing that the official US number of covid-19 deaths passed 100,000 yesterday isn’t the gut punch that the NYT’s Sunday cover was, but it’s still quite moving. The idea that each person’s death is marked by a point of light on the map … Continue reading Strong medicine
Daily Trump Letters 