Dear President Biden, Is it just a coincidence that the WP published exceedingly little MLK-related material yesterday or was it a conscious tactic to duck the fact that we are again (or really, still) battling over the systemic racism (and thinly veiled greed) that’s driving the GOP’s efforts to roll back voting rights, state by …
Tilting at a pretty silly windmill
Dear President Biden, Yesterday I read the WP’s 2022 preview – the collection of mini-essays by a handful of reporters and editorialists wherein they attempt to read the tea leaves and predict the big ticket issues for the coming year. Here’s the list of topics (in order): The Pandemic; Climate Change; Elections; Food; Pants; Dogs; …
The end of our system’s lifespan is nigh
Dear President Biden, We’re starting Day 3 of our weather-related, housebound holiday vacation and as grateful as I am that we have a house in which to be bound and that the power has somehow stayed on throughout, this is not exactly the winter break we’d envisioned. Fortunately we got two hikes in on Christmas …
World-tilting invisible history
Dear President Biden, I think I told you a few months ago that I was reading James Loewen’s book Lies My Teacher Told Me, a world-tilting treatise on how American history is so thoroughly white- (and male-) washed as to wholly misrepresent how our country came into existence and the forces that shaped and continue …
Please don’t fall on the filibuster sword
Dear President Biden, I swear I didn’t use the words “surreal” or “unreal,” or anything at all like them before the young woman I was speaking with yesterday said that it’s feeling to her as though we’re living through a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction sort of dystopian time. And then later in the day, Laura said much the …
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Ominous omicron
Dear President Biden, It’s been quite a week, hasn’t it? Did you have a nice Thanksgiving last Thursday? I hope so. And did you observe National Native American Heritage Day on Friday? I hope so. As for us, the less said about the whole Thanksgiving deal the better. I will tell you, though, that 3 …
The System continues to work as designed
Dear President Biden, I’m still checking in with the news a couple of times a day, but I’ve been making the check-ins briefer in an effort not to let myself get lost in the various mucky rabbit holes of our body politic. We’re a flipping mess. And yes, we would absolutely be more of a …
Scramble and Scrabble by candlelight
Dear President Biden, Yesterday the power went out and we ended up making scrambled eggs and playing Scrabble by candlelight (and a battery operated camping lantern). It wasn’t an especially strong wind gust – just 40 knots or about 46 MPH that caused it – but somehow it made the lights toggle on and off …
Pejac’s “The Boss”
Dear President Biden, I’m rarely moved to dive into a verbal description of a piece of art, but something featured on Colossal right now has really grabbed me so I’m going to tell you about it. The piece is by a Berlin artist who goes by Pejac and it is called “The Boss.” I’m including …
Radical resets needed
Dear President Biden, So I think this past week was the longest no-letter-to-a-president interval since I started writing to DJT in February of 2017. I have been thinking about you and about what’s going on (and what’s not going on) but haven’t been able to settle on any one or two things enough to write …
The Biden Letters 