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
The Common Good
Declaring independence
President* Trump, I told you some months back that I planned to embroider the Declaration of Independence so that I can print from it and today seems like an appropriate day to give you an update. I still have about another week’s worth of work to do but I’m finally at the really good part … Continue reading Declaring independence
They simply don’t care
President* Trump, Last night shortly after learning that the day’s number of new covid-19 cases had exceeded 50,000, Laura and I were talking about how very strange everything feels. Part of this involved doing something of a compare and contrast between the pandemic and 9/11 since these are clearly the biggest national crises either of … Continue reading They simply don’t care
What the hell?
President* Trump, I’m not quite sure how to make sense of the Worldometer’s numbers for the US and my reaction to them. As has been in the headlines for over a week now, the number of new cases each day has jumped precipitously from a horrifying average level of about 20k to a staggeringly high … Continue reading What the hell?
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?
Why now?
President* Trump, I’m 95% certain I’ve told you about this tree before – it’s the ancient chestnut tree a few houses North of the original 21st Buddha and I’ve walked past it at least once a week for about 10-ish years now. Because it’s sited at the end of the block its massive canopy shades … Continue reading Why now?
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 Hubris Syndrome on steroids
President* Trump, Sometimes I get some pretty interesting things popping up in my “Pocket” – that online service no one asks for that suggests articles based on one’s reading history. The one that’s been sitting open in my browser for a couple of days is an Atlantic piece by Jerry Useem entitled “Power Causes Brain … Continue reading The Hubris Syndrome on steroids
Defunding the police is a good start
President* Trump, I wish Laura or I had thought of the “President*” salutation eons ago – it is so much more appropriate than the “Dear” one, which always made me wince when I typed it. Better late than never, though – eh? So today we added another sign to our front windows today, jiggering things … Continue reading Defunding the police is a good start
Raising up the gnat
“President” Trump, I want to come back to Sister Dang Nghiem and what I’ve learned from her so far. I finished her dharma talk on how to grieve last night and over and over I was astounded by her incredible equanimity and restraint. You see, throughout the entire hour and 23 minutes of her lesson, … Continue reading Raising up the gnat