Proposing a select Congressional fieldtrip out West

Dear President Biden,

I learned yesterday that the handgrip thing above the passenger side door in most cars is actually a “passenger assist” and it’s designed to allow one to do a bit of a hoist out of or a more controlled plop into the car. Apparently it’s not for holding onto while sitting idly in the passenger seat with nothing to do with one’s hands. As such, it’s apparently unreasonable to expect that one can hold it and simultaneously comfortably rest one’s elbow on the window ledge. Silly me.

You maybe can tell that I’m still a little snitty about learning this about the darn handgrip thing, but I’m working through it.

What I’m not prepared to “work through” or let go of any time soon is my concern over the continuous ominous signs of global warming and Manchin and Sinema’s ongoing refusal to let go of the damn filibuster. It looks like the Western heat dome event forecast for this coming weekend is going to skirt Portland and Seattle, but nearly all of California, Nevada, Eastern Oregon, and Utah and all the way up into Canada are going to be absolutely unbearable for days on end. The risk of wildfires like the one that wiped out Lytton is going to spike even higher and more people and wildlife are going to die from both the heat and the attendant wildfires.

I know that even if we woke up tomorrow and learned that Congress had already (magically) passed the infrastructure bill that’s poised to start addressing climate change in earnest, it wouldn’t help the immediate situation one iota. But, to state the obvious, the longer the likes of Manchin and Sinema don’t cooperate on that bill, the more likely it is that we’ll pass the point of no return on the environment. I’m thinking that M & S and 10 of their GOP Senate friends should be required to make a fieldtrip out to California’s central valley this weekend and that said fieldtrip must include at least two nights in places with no air conditioning and/or where the power grid has collapsed because it’s overloaded and/or power lines have melted. It’s way beyond not cool that people who can exclusively exist in comfy bubbles are making life and death decisions for the rest of us out here in the thick of it, so I think they need to get a small taste of what we’re facing. Then on the way back, they should stop in Tampa and check out the effects from Elsa.

Of course I’m also pretty damn worried about the voting protection bills and democracy and am beyond frustrated with M & S over these issues as well. It’s unlikely that they don’t know what’s at stake so how the hell they can hew to the idea that to do away with or radically alter the filibuster is anti-democratic? I know they’re both from fairly or very conservative states and they’re probably worried about being perceived as moving too far left, but holy cannoli they need to stop being ridiculous and do what needs to be done since there’s no way that McConnell et al. is going to abandon their greedy, nihilistic race to hell (for everyone else).

In the interest of lowering my blood pressure before I sign off and go to bed, I’ll share that the sky here is filled with the most beautiful “horsetail” clouds and the sunset promises to be beautiful. There’s also some lovely bird trills happening in the backyard and we got to see some gorgeous, completely unexpected, Red Woods on our walk this evening.

We have so much to be grateful for.

May we safeguard the whole of it.
May we be willing to get off our high horses for the greater good.
May we develop the spine and the grit we need to do what’s right.
May we accept that we’re no match for our planet’s self-correction systems.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson