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 …
Unpacking US style democracy (and enfranchisement)
Dear President Biden, It seems apropos to be winding down 2021 still stuck in our house due to Covid and the weather. The case count for King County is super high at 599.5 per 100,000 and the side streets here in Seattle are still impassable if one doesn’t have all-wheel drive. Plus, it’s not as …
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“all women and men are created equal”
Dear President Biden, If Twitter is to be believed it would seem that Fox News outlets reporting on your addition of “women” to your recitation of the “created equal” part of the preamble to the Declaration of Independence had completely lost their shit over it. Maybe there’s an outlet somewhere where that was true, but …
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 …
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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A hollow gesture
Dear President Biden, It was so moving to read your proclamation designating October 11, 2021 as Indigenous People’s Day this afternoon – reading it brought tears to my eyes. But now I feel snookered. I thought at first that you were getting rid of Columbus Day and replacing it with Indigenous People’s Day and that’s …
May we accept that we are tiny and brief
Dear President Biden, I’ve been pretty numb lately, but today the picture of the base of the giant sequoia, General Sherman, wrapped in aluminum got me going. Have you seen the sequoias? For real, in person? If so then you’ve surely seen General Sherman. I hope so. I hope you’ve had the awesome opportunity to …
The elephant in our living room is White supremacy
Dear President Biden, At some point during the eons when he was befouling the Oval Office, I told your predecessor about where we were the morning of 9/11. Although I feel like I’m repeating myself, I’ll share those details with you since we just had our first Biden era 9/11. We were on our way …
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Money, ethics, elephants, and home
Dear President Biden, Sort of similar to my way-too-recent decision to read most all of the articles about global warming that I come across, I’ve been making myself read most all of the articles about Afghanistan that I come across. It’s been a lot. Obviously it’s nothing at all like being there or having some …
May we accept and cherish ties
Dear President Biden, I mentioned a few weeks ago that Laura and I have been playing Scrabble lately. What I didn’t say is that we’re back to playing almost every night after not playing at all during your predecessor’s invasion of the Oval Office. It’s one of the things I’m grateful to you for since …
The Biden Letters 