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

Dear Mr. President

 Dear Mr. President,

It was really hot today--not the normal kind of hot you'd expect mid to late April, though perhaps I could expect it in May.  No.  This was one of those days where the heat snuck in from the outside and smothered things on the inside making it hard to do much of anything at all.  Yeah.  It was one of those kinds of days today.  Which is fine really, since I don't really plan a lot on the weekends if I can help it.  Those are days where I'm meant to relax and try to catch up with myself a bit after working through all the craziness that happened during the week.  And I have to say, I think I had an almost perfect weekend save for that heat.

I finished a few books this week/weekend--nothing but pleasure to read, but I'm also in a new book club and we're currently reading Camus' The Stranger.  Trying to understand that book is like going back in time and trying to untangle a narrative that I feel is still depressingly relevant.  The stories of colonization and slavery, segregation and religious intolerance around which that narrative is entwined leaves me wondering if we've actually ever really addressed the problems, or if we've just been covering things up and dealing with the symptoms as best we can hoping time and memory will make the problems just magically disappear.  Which, for the record, I don't think works too well.  And when we gloss over things--pretend they don't matter for long enough, we start to believe the lies someone else long before us told us.  And I don't think that's a healthy thing either.

There are some old enmities still floating around in the dark spaces of our current conversations, and I guess I just feel like those shouldn't be overlooked in our biases and the way we look at the world.

Speaking of old things, I have been reading a lot about making more seats on the Supreme Court, and I don't have any good reason to like the idea, but I do.  Just the same, I know that some of the best group work happens in smaller groups (scientifically speaking) of about 4 to 6 people.  Still, I love the idea of having thirteen supreme court justices--one for each of the original 13 colonies of the United States.  And think about how having a larger court might make decisions to retire less...worrisome over time?  Still, some voices might get lost in that large array of justices, but maybe that isn't a bad thing either.  Maybe our justice should reflect more ideas than just those of four or five people.  I guess what I'm saying is that without studying the matter a whole lot, I still like the idea and the number 13 for no other reason than that it sounds pretty cool.  Not a great reason for making decisions; I know.  But it is what it is.

I can't speak much on the childcare and military withdrawal efforts you worked on this week as I don't have kids of my own, nor am I much involved or well-versed in our current military goings-on.  So I will leave that to better and more informed voices.  I did want to say how glad I was to know about your allowing transgender people to serve in the military once more, though.  It may be the only way that they can get the care they need, sadly, since we're not about to go and overhaul our whole health care system--even if we really should.  But I guess I just wanted to say thank you for that.  From where I'm sitting, it feels like a good thing; I just hope that one day all of society will stop being so hung up about all of that.  But I guess if we're still holding on to old ethnic and religious grudges, I'll likely be waiting a long time for trans acceptance as an established thing here in all of America, too.  Still, it's a step in the right direction.

I felt really happy to see that states and cities were stepping up to help you all with the border situation.  I know it's only a stop-gap measure and that you're all working on the real problems, but those aren't likely to be solved any time soon either.  So it makes me proud to see Americans working to help solve the problems rather than just condemning them.  And you should be proud of those mayors, governors, and city officials, too.  We do need to look at a longer-term plan here, though, and I hope you've got something in the works.

The biggest thing I wanted to talk to you about tonight is nuclear energy--which inevitably means I need to speak to you about nuclear waste.  I know that you've said moving forward that nuclear energy needs to be on the table, and while I like the idea of it (especially with our newer technologies and methods,) we shouldn't start something without figuring out what we're going to do with our nuclear waste.  It's a problem Japan is having to deal with.  That Russia had to contend with.  That the EU on Russia's borders are having to monitor.  And the thing that's making our relationships with other countries such a nightmare right now--not nuclear waste specifically, but nuclear proliferation.

The only solution I've come up with in over twenty years of thinking about the problem is to send it into space toward the Sun.  But, of course, there are the hazards of getting it into space, and then what does it do to the Sun?  And if the ship explodes...etc. etc. etc.  But the more I think about it, the more I am still convinced that shipping nuclear waste to the Sun is not a bad idea.  I mean, the Sun is full of nuclear reactions--right?

I guess my point here is that before we start building the nuclear energy dreams of our future, we should look at the costs associated with it--especially the costs of the waste it generates.  We are spending millions of dollars dealing with that right now, and if we continue down the path of nuclear power generation, it isn't going to magically decrease or become less of a problem unless we figure out how to deal with it now.  That's not something we should be leaving to future generations; it's not something that should have been left to us.  But here we are, and there you are.  And I just want you to really stop and take a moment to consider this thing before we get sucked into some "great American Dream" that becomes a great American tragedy because we didn't think about the whole life cycle of something we create.

And with that, I think I'll end for today, Mr. President.  It's late; I'm tired, and I just spent the whole day looking at a screen (reading.)  And I guess I just want to rest a little.  Hope you're having a good week, and hopefully this next one will be even better.  John and I are set to get our vaccine shots on Thursday; so, we'll see how that all goes.  And I guess until next week, let's both do our best.

Until then, Mr. President....

~~ Jenni

Tom Brenner / Reuters
President Joe Biden and Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga arrive for a joint news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House on Friday, April 16, 2021