You never call; you never write...

Our thirty-first letter to President Trump:

 

President Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Washington DC 20500

26 February 2017 

Dear President Trump,   

In all of my letters to you so far, I've written to you about things that I think you should change to better serve the American people. You haven't responded to any of my letters yet. Maybe this is because the volume of letters has been overwhelming.  Maybe this is because you don't want to talk about criticism of your job, which is a problem.  Maybe this is because you don't read any of the letters the American people and sending you. which is an even bigger problem.  Our family has sent over 30 letters to your White House.  Why have we not received even a form letter from your team?  As American citizens, we would appreciate an answer. 

Maybe it is easier to answer questions than respond to legislative requests.  If so, I would love to know what you consider to have been the best part of your presidency so far. That might help me to understand some of your decisions.  I look forward to your response.  

Sincerely, 

K.

Honor Students and Teachers, Mr Trump

 President Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave

Washington D.C. 20500

24 February 2017 

Dear President Trump,

Today I have the privilege of speaking to a large room full of teachers about some ways they can be better teachers.  On a Friday, they will be focused and engaged and will ask me har questions about how to connect content with students in a meaningful way.  Then next week, they will be back in the classrooms, managing large numbers of students, caring deeply for each one of them, sharing their passion for learning and making a difference in the world.  When they have finished teaching for the day, they will go home and grade papers for another three or four hours before going to bed.  I have watched my wife do this for nearly thirty years and she cares as fiercely for her fourth-graders and her subject matter as she did the first year she taught – probably more.

I am not at all clear about how you hope to impact education.  To be honest, based on some of your other initiatives, I am rather apprehensive about what that impact might be. 

I would ask you, however, whatever programs you propose, to think first not of the educational testing corporations who might profit, not of how the proposals might impact the owners of charter schools or what impact it might have on teachers’ unions.  I would ask you to think first of the students and second of their teachers and consider how you might make teachers’ work easier, how you might act to honor them, and  how you might celebrate their good work rather than contributing to a culture that blames teachers for the shortcomings of the political system within which they work.

Regards,

Bill Boerman-Cornell

Mr. Trump, don't cut Barrel of Monkeys and the Grant Park Orchestra

President Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Washington D.C. 20500

23 February 2017 

Dear President Trump,

I am writing today to ask you not to cut the funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which the New York Times reported on the 19^th of February.  I have been paying taxes for nearly 40 years and am most enthusiastic about the portion of my taxes that go to fund the arts.

I could tell you that the United States spends a miniscule amount on the arts – both in comparison to what we spend on other things (arts funding comprising less than one percent of the budget according to the Times article) and in comparison to other industrial nations.  Instead though, I would rather let the products of that funding speak for me. 

One of my favorite theater groups in Chicago is Barrel Of Monkeys, a group that takes the creative writing of Chicago Public School elementary students and turns that writing into a series of delightful short skits that make me laugh my guts out.  Similarly, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera, the free Grant Park Orchestra, and several of the city’s larger theaters draw funding from the NEA.  If you have never sat in the Pritzker Pavilion on a breezy summer night listening to the Grant Park Orchestra with Chicagoans from all walks of life, you have truly missed something. 

I know you have disparaged Chicago recently, but I think that the arts are one way that Chicago shines.  NEA grants allow these excellent organizations to reach more people with good and moving stories and music.  Why would you want to take that away from people?  To do so would be a mistake.

Please revise your budget and either keep the current levels of funding, or, if you really want to make the lives of Americans better, increase the funding.

Regards,

Bill Boerman-Cornell

Who Opens President Trump's Mail?

Whoever Opens the Letters for President Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave

Washington D.C. 20500

22 February 2017 

Dear Person who opens the Mail for President Trump,

Our family has been writing a letter to President Trump every day since he took office.  Frankly, it is hard participating in such a one-way conversation.  We know that President Trump gets a lot of letters every day, and we don’t mind continuing to try to reach him with our requests and suggestions, but it would help if we had some idea of the process. and knew that there was somebody reading our letters.

How many people like you work at opening his mail?  Do you keep tallies of where people stand on different issues and deliver those tallies to President Trump?  How often do you do this?  If there are really awesome letters that take your attention, are you able to show those to President Trump?  Does he ever look at any of the letters he gets?  What are the chances he will ever see ours?  Do you think seeing letters from Americans ever has an effect on his decisions?

Do you ever get tired of opening the mail for President Trump?  What is the best part of it?  What is the worst part?  Do you ever get discouraged?

Thanks for doing your job.

Regards, 

Bill Boerman-Cornell

Make good decisions.

President Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Washington DC 20500

21 February 2017 

Dear President Trump,

Believe it or not, adults make an average of about 35,000 decisions every single day. That’s 245,000 decisions per week, or approximately 1,050,000 decisions per month. That’s an incredible amount of decisions.

But you aren’t just any adult. You’re the president of the United States. There’s a  lot more pressure on you, because while some people's’ decisions affect their family, their business, or their clients, the decisions that you make every day affect thousands, even millions of people.

Your decisions affect people of all religions, races, and cultures. Your decisions have the power to save lives and keep people safe or to take lives and put people in danger. Your decisions have the power to change what other countries think of the United States. Your decisions could change the world – for better or for worse.

Not many people could say that about their decisions.

So, President Trump, please think about your decisions first.  Please make wise decisions. They can affect so many people. And if you’re unsure about a decision, please ask our all-knowing God for guidance. 

Sincerely, 

 

F.

Two Sides to Every Story

President Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Washington DC 20500 

18 February 2017

Dear President Trump,  

There are two sides to every story. If I only look at things from my own point of view, it can be hard to see why others disagree with me. This is why it is essential to surround myself-- and for you to surround yourself-- with different voices and opinions, with different viewpoints and people of different backgrounds. I know this is something you say you value as well-- in your inauguration speech, you said, "We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity." 

I am worried that you are forgetting what you said. You constantly and consistently bash any news outlets that print anything non-complimentary about you. This must stop. I understand that if you are truly trying to do what you believe is right, it must be frustrating to hear others criticize your actions. But calling them "fake news" is juvenile. When you call news outlets names, but have no evidence to back up the cries of, "fake!" then people will cease to respect your opinion. 

Life would be a lot better if every news broadcast said the same thing. Complete consistency in reporting would make it easy to get the official facts of an event. However, that is not a free press-- there would be a party with specific interests and biases controlling all of the information the people of America received. America considers the freedom of the press to be something so important that we explicitly protected it in the first amendment to our Constitution. As someone who is sworn to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, you must respect this as well.

Sincerely,

 
K.

Mr Trump, are you okay?

Honestly, it is getting harder and harder to write civil, rational letters to a president who continues to act in an increasingly irrational fashion.  I apologize for any snarkiness that is intruding into this letter.  The fault is mine. 

Incidentally, this is our 25th letter to President Trump.  No responses yet.

 

 

 

President Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington DC 20500

16 February 2017 

Dear President Trump, 

Are you okay? 

I ask because today’s press conference was frankly odd to watch.  You treated  the reporters with what seemed at times like rudeness.  When the one reporter asked what your administration intends to do about the rise of anti-sematic attacks, your response was to chew the reporter out for not asking you a simple enough question.  Sir, as President of the United States, you should perhaps expect complex questions.  And honestly, although the situation might argued to be complex, the question was pretty simple.   

So there are three possible explanations.  The first one is that you have never developed the social grace to respond to a question with a polite answer.  You might have said that your administration was still looking into the problem.  You might have said that you were concerned about the issue and intended to look into what could be done about it.  You might have said you were concerned.  You didn’t.  You accused the reporter of lying when he had initially agreed with you when you told him that he had a simple question.  This is not the way a president should act.  

The second explanation is that you really don’t care about the rise of anti-Semitism and are proud of that fact, so you enjoy messing with reporters. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that this is not the case. 

The third possibility is that there is something wrong.  You interpreted a question about your policy as an accusation that you were anti-sematic or racist.  You asserted, after you accused the reporter of lying, that you were not anti-Semitic and that you were not racist.  While there may be people accusing you of that, the reporter at the press conference was not doing so.  So perhaps you can see why I am concerned. 

So I ask again, are you okay?  Frankly I, and most of the rest of America, are worried.  Please write back and let me know.   

 Regards,

 Bill Boerman-Cornell