Dear Mr. President

 Dear Mr. President,

Well, here we are a few days past the 100-day mark of your first year as president.  It doesn't seem that long ago when we were counting votes and the capitol was stormed; then your inauguration, and that beautiful poem by Amanda Gorman....  COVID continues to march right on regardless of our accomplishments, though--regardless of yours, too.  But there was one thing that really made me happy to see--the economy is recovering; stimulus works.  People are feeling confident again, though I do wish your infrastructure bill would help out my parents in Bellville.  Things just seem to get more and more expensive for them as they live on their fixed retirement incomes, and that's frustrating to me.  Lack of regulations combined with lack of real, meaningful choices out in their little country community are more frustrating to me than they are to them, probably--but it shouldn't be that way.  So, hopefully our congressional representatives will figure it out in a way that actually helps people instead of just businesses and corporations.  I don't mind helping companies out, too, but helping people like my parents would make me feel better about their later years in life.

President Joe Biden, addressing a joint session of Congress Wednesday, assessed his first 100 days in office and laid out his plans for driving economic growth. MELINA MARA/PRESS POOL WSJ

By now you've worn through all the accolades of firsts from your speech to congress, though I heard concerns from many people about mask wearing and distancing still.  They felt like it sent mixed messages; some wanted there to be masks because we still have mask mandates (and are fighting a virus,) and others felt that there shouldn't have been masks and distancing because then it showed the efficacy of the vaccines.  I'm not sure how I feel about it at this point to be honest with you.  But my gut tells me that we should err on the side of caution when it comes to public health.  Which is why I guess it made such a stunning contrast to the then "West Coast Elite" at the Oscars--sitting around without masks on, flaunting their riches....  It really upset some people I know here in California to see that; though for myself, I can't say I really minded it all that much.  It disappointed me to hear that there were so few viewers, though--especially given how diverse the nominees were this year.  I wish I could say that the drop in viewership is just part and parcel of a younger generation that doesn't watch TV in the same way I do anymore.  But I feel like there's more to it than that--like people don't feel like Hollywood is connected to them these days.

So while this past week had a lot of issues worth discussing, I found two that really got to me.  The first is the way we set up congressional seats in the House.  The fact that our House is set to a fixed number of representatives seems silly to me.  I haven't spent a lot of time to figure out why it was done, mind you, but I feel like as our population grows and becomes more diverse, we shouldn't limit our House of Representatives to a number that was decided by what feels like "forever ago."  I think it bothers me because the House seats seem to not really represent people in a way that is fair; we don't give seats based on actual numbers of people.  We base it on some proportional measure that seems to favor a majority rather than minorities.  And sadly, I feel like that's hurting the ability of people to feel like they're really able to have a say in how our government works.

Anyway, I think it's dumb and should be changed.

Another thing that caught my attention this week was nuclear waste.  I know we've spoken about it last week, as well, but this is something that I don't think we can just shove under the rug and pretend it isn't a problem.  It is absolutely a problem--as are other kinds of waste in our country that are not being properly disposed of.  All I can keep thinking about are those barrels of DDT found off the California coast.  It kills me to think that either knowingly or unknowingly someone just decided to dump their problems into the ocean and let someone else deal with them.  I feel like, in a lot of ways, we've been doing that for far too long.  Pretending that everything is fine when it isn't can help people to get through difficult times, but if we never address the problems--if we let them fester, eventually they can destroy us.

I get that you're not the arbiter of all things that are done in the country, but please don't turn your back on these issues.  We've been needing a fixer-upper president for a while.  Stuff's falling apart and costing us a lot to continue to make half-assed repairs.  Fixing things takes a lot of commitment, resolve, and unfortunately capital, but not fixing things?  Not fixing things can lead to more problems, more costly outcomes, and lives lost.

Believe me when I say that I love the idea of being able to run freely through the world--no strings attached--no guard rails or training wheels, but I've also seen how dangerous it can be without them.  We can't rely on the people who are profiting off the labor of others to regulate their own businesses.  Doing so only gives them carte blanche to cut corners, risk peoples' safety, and foist their problems onto someone else.  Sound familiar?

And you know if Congress and administrations have been doing it, the private sector undoubtedly has.  And that's not fair to any of us.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: do your best to ensure accountability for things moving forward--even when it isn't in your best interests to do so.  Better to have a clear conscience at the end of the day than be surrounded by wealth and accolades, and the lies that are made to create such.

I heard that you will be getting a cat in the White House.  May I suggest adding to your stockpile of Resolve carpet cleaner if you haven't already?  It really does work, and make no mistake, animals are going to have accidents.  That said, I am looking forward to there being a cat as well as dogs at the White House.

So I'm not much for sports, and today is such a nice day, I mostly just want to head back to it; so, I think I'll end here for now.  I know it wasn't a lot this week.  I guess I'm just waiting for another shoe to drop, I think.  Life has kind of been like that of late, and I don't know when it will ever not be that way again.  Which reminds me: this is Mental Health Awareness Month.  The corona virus has left a scar on the world and our collective psyches.  We need to address that if we're going to truly move forward from this.  No platitudes or half-hearted words are going to truly help us; so, ...think on it.  This disease has killed more people than wars have, and we have a lot of memorials to past wars.  Maybe we need a national memorial to honor our dead for this--a place where we can reflect on just how big this really was, and to remind us of just how fragile our place in the world really is.  And it can serve as a reminder of how planning for the worst could save lives in the future.  If that simple tenet that we teach to members of our own military had been followed, things might have gone very differently than they did.  Also, having a place to go to share our collective grief can also help us to find healing, too.

And with that, I'll say my farewells and hope that your upcoming week is a good one, Sir.  Keep fighting the good fight and know that you are not alone (though I'm sure you know that already; I expect some of us out here could stand to remember it too, though.)

Until next week!

~~ Jenni