5/22/2020

My dear Friend & POTUS, DJT,

            I was so happy to see that you wore a mask yesterday at the Ford plant, and I had to chuckle when I heard you say, “I look better in the mask.” I encourage you to don the mask more often. It sets a good example for everyone.

            So, I hear that you were impressed with the Liquid Carbon edition of the Ford GT but were put off by the price tag. A $750,000 car IS ridiculous!!! Did you know that the fancy carbon-fiber is hand-built by a specialist in Canada? He somehow weaves the fibers & it has to be perfect since it’s not painted. It’s such a work of art that it really should not go on the road.

            It was nice to see State Rep. Karen Whitsett again at the listening session with African-American Leaders. I loved her ideas about helping POCs become homeowners instead of renters & empowering seniors to stay in their homes. While I liked her idea of having a new college in Detroit, I wondered how could it be “Historically Black” if it were brand new. Since we no longer discriminate based on race, it would just have to be a college, wouldn’t it? Bringing in a satellite campus for Howard or Spellman would work. Maybe John James can look into that.

            Please take a glance at David Brooks (DB) column today. He points out that our 244-year-old honeymoon is over & now, we have to face the same insecurities that all of the other countries in the world have been facing. As he puts it, Americans “could be individualistic, anti-authority, daring and self-sufficient because on an elemental level we felt so damn safe.” He concludes, “the American identity that grows up in the shadow of the plague can have the humanity of shared vulnerability, the humility that comes with an understanding of the precariousness of life and a fierce solidarity that emerges during a long struggle against an invading force.” That’ll be a good thing, don’t you think?

            HYITL,