Dear President Biden,
So much has been happening lately – so much heavy awful stuff – that almost everything I’ve thought to write to you about has ended up feeling too trivial to bother with. I mean, what’s the point of bringing up climate change, income inequality, voter suppression, or worries about more covid mutations when there’s a mad man holding the world hostage with thinly veiled threats of nuclear annihilation?
And at the same time, I’m glad you went ahead and nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court and it’s good to see that Pramila Jayapal is talking about making a go of a compromise Build Back Better bill that would meet Manchin’s specs even though he continues to be a crappy fly in the ointment.
I know that the way to deal with bullies is not to let them suck all the air out of the room and to keep doing what needs doing, so it’s really, really good that you and Jayapal and lots of other folks doing this while you also try to manage a catastrophe. It is, however, fairly crazy-making trying to do normal stuff when Putin is slaughtering innocents and threatening us all, the planet is crisping, and all manner of hell is breaking loose.
In the interest of doing normal stuff (along with some avoidance/distraction), I will do a bit of constructive fussing…. I don’t remember what exactly led me to look at the whitehouse.gov page about the history of the White House building itself but it was definitely something having to do with Black History month. Anyway, when I looked at the page a few weeks ago on the official site I was dismayed to see that there is neither mention of who’s land it was built on or who actually built it. These are not trivial oversights and they must be corrected. I included links to a website on the history of the White House that you all could use as a starting place for correcting the lies by omission on yours.
I also strongly suggest that you get someone to look at the page layout because the final “g” in the word “Building” is peculiarly on the next line. It reads as follows (and looks stupid as all get out):
The
White House Buildin
g
I’ve refreshed the page numerous times since I opened the tab a few weeks ago and it keeps showing up in this embarrassing way, as though we don’t have our act together.
Hmm – it’s kind of a tell, isn’t it?
May we accept that real safety is impossible when nuclear weapons exist anywhere.
May we still be happy to see the daffodils blooming.
May we have the strength and imagination to move towards healthier ways of being together.
May we accept that the current path is unsustainable.
Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson
The Biden Letters 