Open Letter to Donald Trump

Dear Mr. Trump,

I love you. I find those words—to my shame—difficult to say to you. Yet they are perhaps the most important statement I can make to you. As one who strives to follow the teaching and example of Jesus, loving others comes, for me, second only to loving God. So, I love you, and I pray for you. As a human being who bears the image of God, you deserve my love and respect for your humanity. That said, I cannot sit idly by while every day you move a little closer to possibly leading perhaps the most influential country on this planet.

Nor will I rant here about the troubling rhetoric you have used on the campaign trail. Enough animosity has already spewed forth from all sides with regards to your comments, and it saddens me as much to see people say loathsome things about you and your followers as it does to see you and your supporters espouse animosity towards others. Looking at your campaign—and, sadly, at many who react against you—I see a glut of hatred, insecurity, fear, and ignorance. Such qualities define the conversation around you. Hatred laces your words, and comes flying back at you from all sides in a vicious cycle, leaving no room for grace or constructive dialogue. Enough is enough.

While I find your ideas repellent, and while the sexist, racist, xenophobic, and generally abhorrent language you have used offends me deeply, I will as best I can resist the temptation to stoop to the depths of hatred where most conversations about you lurk. Instead, I want only to share with you a simple example provided by your home town, New York City. I have seen the best of humanity this last year as I slogged through grueling cancer treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. I ask that, next time you find yourself in NYC, you go to the pediatric ward at MSKCC, where I spent much of the past year.

There you will find families from across the globe whose dress, language, and religion brings a wondrous bouquet of diversity to a tremendously bleak situation. All of the families you will find there stand united in a single desire; to have their children happy and healthy again. If you forget, as it seems you may have, that we are all simply people, all of us very much the same where it really matters, then please, go back to your home town, and remember that this country, and all of humanity, is made stronger by diversity. I pray that you come to see with horror that the discord you have stirred up on the campaign trail stands in stark contrast to the peace and unity of humanity at its best. Please remember, if ever you once knew, the most important lesson a place like New York City can teach.

All the best,

 - Morgan Bolt

March 29th, 2016

After a long delay, I'm going to start journaling our road trip of the past month! I plan to split it all into a handful of entries over the next week or two, since we went a lot of places and this would become a very long blog post if I were to catalog all our travels in one go.Since the last update, when we were in Lincoln, NE, we stopped in...

Amarillo, Texas. We decided not to go to the tourist trap that is the restaurant serving 72oz steaks. I only really mention Amarillo because it is in Texas, and it helps illustrate how ridiculously large Texas is, and how often we went back and forth between New Mexico and Texas. Also, we had Texas-shaped waffles there.

Texas-Shaped Waffles

Carlsbad Caverns National Park (New Mexico). A truly impressive cavern, and by far the biggest either of us has ever seen. The elevator was out of order, so we made the pleasant hike down to the main chamber, which is richly decorated with every imaginable variety of cave formation. We had the entire campsite to ourselves and enjoyed spectacular sunsets over the Guadalupe Mountains from a short hike out of our campsite. On the whole a very relaxed, quiet time, without many other people around.

The Entrance to the Cave

Chandelier Formation, Carlsbad Caverns

Guadalupe Mountains National Park (Texas again). We just waved at it as we drove past/through, and didn’t bother to stop for a picture with the sign. It made for a beautiful drive though!

White Sands National Monument (New Mexico again). A unique spot, with white gypsum salt sand dunes in a valley surrounded by mountains, some tipped with recent spring snows. The sand is surprisingly cool to the touch, and we hiked barefoot, as that apparently is one of the things to do there. Sledding is the other, but we passed on that. This was, if I remember rightly, the first truly hot day of our trip.

White Sands, New Mexico

El Paso, Texas (again). We enjoyed the absolute best Mexican food we have ever been privileged to encounter ever here, at a place called Maribu’s. We love border states/towns.

Rock Hound State Park (New Mexico, again!) A wonderfully friendly campground host who found a space for us in an already-overfilled campground started off our time here on the right note, and the brilliant night sky and surprisingly pretty lights of the small town on the plains below kept the pleasant feel going. We enjoyed nothing but positive experiences with camp ground hosts this vacation, and serving as campground hosts is now our current retirement plan. In the morning we hunted for interesting rocks and kept a few, since you’re allowed/encouraged to.

Pheonix, Arizona (and Tucson, Sedona, Flagstaff, Jerome, and Prescott, AZ as well). After stopping briefly at Saguaro National Park in Tucson, a surprisingly lush piece of desert, we visited my brother Erik and his girlfriend Dalyss, spending time at a rodeo (surprisingly interesting) and hiking on “South Mountain” (there’s a South Mountain by Messiah College too, and probably several other places). We then headed up to the Sedona area, where the landscape transforms dramatically from the heat and desert of Pheonix. Sedona lies surrounded by spectacular red rock cliffs and buttes, forested with pine. Further north, we ate supper in Flagstaff, which felt to me a lot like a Colorado Ski town, which it basically is. Snowy mountains, people with skis strapped to their car roofs, and great places to walk around and eat. We also visited some long-abandoned pueblo sites, called Montezuma's Castle and Montezuma's Well (apparently the Spanish conquistadors, whose place names we use today, thought Montezuma was pretty important). Having only been to far Northern Arizona (think Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest), we really enjoyed getting to see pretty much the whole entire rest of the state!

Saguaro National Park

Sedona

Montezuma's Castle

I'll pick up with Joshua Tree next time!

March 27th, 2016

Happy Easter!


Sorry for the huge delay in posting here. I have not had the internet/time/time while I have internet to update blog posts. We'll be back in Corning Tuesday, and I'll post a couple long updates along with pictures of our travels the last month.

Again, Happy Easter!