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 …
Soft-pedaled toxic masculinity is still toxic masculinity
Dear President Biden, First of all, congratulations on getting the infrastructure bill passed and signed. Hopefully you all will get the other one done in quick order and then buckle down and deal with voting rights and democracy saving measures since without an at least semi-functional democracy, none of the rest of it matters much …
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Circling back to what matters
Dear President Biden, Busy, tired, uninspired – I’m sure there’s more to it, but that trio of words sound good together and do a decent job of summing up why it’s been almost a week since I’ve written to you. Busy, tired, uninspired, and well, the overwhelm associated with living in this weird situation where …
Letting go of “both sides” for good
Dear President Biden, I do sometimes have original thoughts. Or at least I think I do. Mostly, though, my best thinking is reactive – or perhaps if I’m giving myself grace, my best thinking is responsive. Whichever adjective I go with here, what I’m referring to is my propensity to find the gaps in arguments, …
Mending
Dear President Biden, I so hope you all are truly hard at work saving the planet – for reals. I know you and most other heads of state can’t make for real promises about cutting emissions and all the rest of it on your own, but somehow you all have to move beyond the “blah, …
The filibuster is not foundational to our democracy
Dear President Biden, Just in case it was confusing to you that we were able to make scrambled eggs without power on Sunday night, we have a gas stovetop, which Laura kindly lit for me (if I absolutely have to, I can strike a match or use the flicker thing to ignite the gas stove …
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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 …
A magical leaf
Dear President Biden, Last night when I took Buddy for his evening constitutional I had the great good fortune to see a gorgeous medium-small oval-shaped reddish-orange-ish leaf dangling about five feet from the tree limb from which it likely fell and hovering about a foot above the scrappy lambs ears underneath said tree. Such sightings …
Hard, hard choices
Dear President Biden, This is a hard letter to start. Most of me wants to deflect and focus on something current and removed that deserves hefty measures of righteous anger. Mitch and the GOP mobsters are generating an endless supply of such things so it wouldn’t be hard to pivot to a rant about the …
The Biden Letters 