Dear Donald,
You've said some pretty offensive things about Latino immigrants recently, and I think they're worth addressing. Because, you know, this is the United States of America, where I have a right to speak up even if I'm not a billionaire. Isn't that awesome?
Anyway, I heard what you said about the kind of people you think Latino immigrants are -- people with problems, who bring drugs, crime and rape to America. While your comments are incredibly ignorant and racist, I don't want to spend my time chastising you. I'll leave that to your business partners like Univision and NBC, who have the power to scold you where it hurts. Instead, I'm writing to say thank you!
You see, what you just did with your straight talk was send more Latino voters to the polls than several...
Lifestyle
My fellow Americans,
I love you.
All of you.
And I am done with fear and hate. The old Donald got fired. I am new in Christ.
Yes, I discovered the glory of being forgiven and I have a few things to say.
Last night, Jesus looked at me and loved me. Exactly as he looked and loved the rich young ruler in Mark 10:21.
However, I am choosing to say YES to His invitation, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
So here are I am. Giving everything away. And following Jesus to the end.
I also want to apologize.
I am sorry for using my platform to speak against the true heart of the Gospel. For pretending to speak for Christians when I was really speaking for myself.
I have...
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Dear Mr. Trump,
At first. I was entertained. I knew that you could say whatever batty thing you wanted to, and I could choose to ignore you. You’ve made me question your sanity, but you were good for a laugh. What you said was so unbelievably wild that I had just to pretend you were nuts. That’s how the world deals with you – by pretending you are a robot run by monkeys on the inside who just hit all the wrong buttons and pull all the wrong levers and as a result, you end up saying all the wrong things. Your close minded, awful view of people and the world made me cringe, but as is true with most things, I am ashamed to say I could ignore it until it had to do with me.
I can’t ignore the last thing you did because that last thing hit me in the heart. Mr. Trump, to watch you stand on...
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Dear Donald,
Over 30 plus years you have been an amazing friend; endorsing my books, coming to my shows, flying me on your planes, your helicopters, and even allowing my family members and myself to stay in your house in Florida many times. So, it kinda pains me to know that my public statements about your candidacy have strained or ruined our friendship. However, the fact is, what’s at stake is bigger than us.
I want to begin this tough criticism by reminding you that I am the Chairman of The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, whose sole mission is to fight bigotry of all kinds. Our biggest program, as you know, is to get Jews to fight Islamophobia and Muslims to fight anti-Semitism. We are operating in forty plus countries, including Israel, France, Germany and the United States,...
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My progressive friends,
It seems to me that your politics has two major goals. It has others, but these two seem the most important.
First, progressivism tries to build a powerful but flexible government, one that can alleviate a good deal of misfortune without becoming tyrannical.
Despite much libertarian propaganda, this is a plausible goal. The world is full of undeserved misery and failure; on that we all agree. And I can understand, even if I do not share, your conclusion that the state should face few limits to its ability to help the least fortunate. The chief limit that you propose, of course, is that the state must actually help the unfortunate, and never their oppressors. That’s noble. And again, that’s at least somewhat plausible.
For its second political goal,...
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Dear Dean Geoffrey Garrett and Vice Dean Howard Kaufold,
In 2010-11, I had the honor of serving as a Co-Chair of the Wharton MBA Ethics Committee. I still remember vividly the standards to which we hold our students and community. To quote from the 2017 MBA Resource Guide, section 1D: “The Wharton community is committed to an environment free from discrimination and harassment of any kind.” Our Ethics Code was created “to develop a sense of individual responsibility on the part of each member of the Wharton community to participate actively in maintaining such standards, to foster an environment of honor and trust within the Wharton community, and to engender respect for the ethical standards of the Wharton graduate. Fulfilling this mission is a collective responsibility of the members...
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Dear Mr. Trump,
My name is Amara Majeed, and I am an 18-year-old Muslim American. I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and my parents are Sri Lankan immigrants. To give you some background about myself: I am an activist and feminist. I am the author of The Foreigners, a book written in an attempt to eradicate stereotypes about Muslims. At 16, I founded "The Hijab Project," a global initiative that promotes the understanding and empowerment of Muslim women through social experimentation. I have received a great deal of attention from the media for this project and have been featured by numerous national and international media sources, including but not limited to BBC, MSNBC, Yahoo!, and Seventeen. I was invited to the Senate Floor to receive an official citation for The Hijab...
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Dear Mr. Trump:
I am the greatest threat to ISIS and all Islamic terrorists world wide. I am an educated, independent, ambitious young Muslim American woman and I am immune to their nonsense.
Do not fear me. Do not isolate me. Do not stigmatize me. You are not "doing good for the Muslims" as you stated Mr. Trump.
And you will not do good for America with this kind of one dimensional mindset. I'm your greatest weapon towards fighting Islamic radicalism. Fear me and you fuel their cause. Stand by me and you bring their barbaric, sorry excuse for a state to
its knees.
I am what they fear most. Why? Because I don't buy into the convoluted, perverted blasphemy they claim my religion to be. I believe in the Islam that has encouraged me to think for reason, speak for truth and act...
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Dear friends,
As many of you know I responded to Tony Hoagland’s poem “The Change” at AWP. I also solicited from Tony a response to my response. Many informal conversations have been taking place online and elsewhere since my presentation of this dialogue. This request is an attempt to move the conversation away from the he said-she said vibe toward a discussion about the creative imagination, creative writing and race.
If you have time in the next month please consider sharing some thoughts on writing about race (1-5 pages).
Here are a few possible jumping off points:
• If you write about race frequently what issues, difficulties, advantages, and disadvantages do you negotiate?
• How do we invent the language of racial identity–that is, not necessarily constructing the “...
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