Call Me Pollyanna

And now, 15 annotations to this letter I put together and sent to that cunt Donald Trump through his campaign’s website a few days after Election Day 2016.

I thought, at this juncture, I’d re-evaluate it, and share the extra flare I’d sprinkle on it now (once an editor…always an editor) – footnotes, for color, and candor, if you will.

And you do.

You better do. I can hear dem hoofbeats, and I am not anticipating zebras.

1. You won fair and square. Da, right? (Ha! See what I did there?). Fair and square was the worthier candidate. I think we now know more about how much we, in fact, can “see” Russia from out our window.
2. If he thinks that contemptibly, behaves that contemptibly, and speaks that contemptibly, he’s a cunt. He is you.
3. Respect can get you only so far. The way you have been propped up to pick apart this country, and continue to pillage this country, selling it for parts, at the expense of our health, our kids’ education, all of our safety, not to mention peace on our planet (fuck, at the expense of our planet!), well…at best, it’s willfully ignorant and, at, worst, it’s balls-to-the-walls criminal. To let it go on is dangerous. Gloves on, people! 👊🏽🥊
4. So long as I can tell the story, I will. And lemme tell ya, the American worker is getting a very raw deal in America in 2019. And those in need are not getting help because of bureaucratic red tape surrounding money (here’s looking at you, Prop C). And the American worker comes in all colors and shapes and flavors and ages, so, heads up. The time to help is right now.
5. Know what? I’m sure the Parkland, Fla., families are still reeling from the gun violence they experienced last year. Puerto Rico could still use the help and support of its federal government. Young immigrant kids (too young to know what any of that even means) are still trapped in cages, away from their legal guardians (from their parents), kept from due process. Kept from fucking freedom. Everybody has a sob story, and everybody has the right and the duty to demand better and do better. Pretty sure I already know the answer, but what kind of commander-in-chief are you gonna be?
6. I will not repeat neither any of your myriad insults, slurs, slanders, or libelous comments nor any of your lies. Ever. Much less any of your stupidity, vaingloriousness, or coded tweets. Not here, not anywhere, not anymore. I don’t wanna risk retransmitting any sort of message of yours. You can continue to spew your shit-churning haterade, but it’s enough. #NeverForgetHeatherHeyer. And, people, do go ahead and #DoMore, already. It might not be winter, but whatever theocratic fascist craziness Trump’s boosters have been cookin’ up is coming. For real, 2020 is make or break in America. And that draft dodger already got elected once.
7. Money! There it is. It is all about money. Hiding behind the poor forgotten ones (because woes) to steal money for the rich. That was the in, and it is still happening on the daily today.
8. You know what? There are neglected people everywhere (again, simply ask our Puerto Rican brothers and sisters how far those paper towels went). If people in the Red states – the MAGAs; don’t get it twisted – and the privileged ones in the Blue states (ahem, last I checked all 50 states were American states), if they all had two smarts about ’em, they would advocate for themselves and vote for the people who bend over backward to get them pathways toward affordable health care, quality education (any education, at this point), and who defend their civil liberties and rights. That does not mean the Republican Party, much less the version supporting your so-called presidency. President? More like a wannabe dictator, and one who will never truly recognize admiration in the eyes of anyone not in the payroll or in on the take moving forward in this lifetime. You’re a horrible human being, and you’re doing only harm.
9. Do they, though? Do racists and sexists and ignorant xenophobes – the righteous and prejudiced among us – understand, accept, and truly want equality? Or peace? Methinks nah. And don’t get me started on Mike Pence and that creeptastic Stephen Miller guy. Their tastes, predilections, and dreams are quite specific. And those two mofos are on it like white on rice. (Ha! Another one.)
10. Fuck, that was naïve. Pollyanna, party of one over here. You know who got change around here and better lives for the people they sought to champion and help rise? The trailblazers and the truth tellers. Susan B. Anthony. Martin Luther King Jr. Larry Kramer. The cast of Crazy Rich Asians. Not you. So to be even clearer, if your life’s work involves denying people equal rights, in America in 2019 (anywhere, really), you are the problem. Shut up, check yourself, and try again.
11. I did always say, in the beginning back in the aughts, that iPhones were gonna be the end of life as we knew it. Yeah, I called it.
12. And just the tip, so far.
13. Why’s it so hard? Apparently, the debate of whether employers have the right to discriminate against LGBT people is still on the table, and there’s still a question about women’s rights to rights (chiefly to reproductive rights) and to autonomy to care for their bodies. In America in 2019. These matters are on an agenda kept with supreme intent by these men – by these old (mostly white) men who are going to die. Why? What. Is. The point? It’s like they all want a World’s Worst Grandpa mug for Christmas. The new century, the new world, belongs to millennials and to the generation that will be born tomorrow. It is no one’s right to tell someone else how to live their lives, but it is our duty to look out for one another, and yours now to look out for this country. Our rights begin and end where someone else’s begin and end. Anything less is unacceptable. Anything more is absurd. Cut it out.
14. She was. Hillary Clinton was beyond-perfect for the job. Whereas you are and always will be this nation’s orange hemorrhoid.
15. One 🌎, one ❤️. Anything other than that is willful ignorance. Don’t be a cunt.