8/20/2020

DJT,

            Do you ever read novels? I do. I used to always finish whatever book I started reading -  every word all the way to the end. That all changed when I began reading a book that was riveting, but disturbing. The main character made bad decisions & was disrespectful of friends & family members. I found myself thinking of this character from time to time & feeling angst. Then I decided to stop reading the book. I didn’t want to spend time thinking about someone I found distasteful. I resolved that I wouldn’t read a novel if I didn’t want to hang out with the people in the book. Since then I have left several novels unfinished. I think many of my fellow citizens have a similar orientation to our elected officials. Since our President & Senators inhabit our thoughts, we prefer to have likeable, respectable people in office.

            I will let that kind of thinking guide my writing this morning & ignore Steve Bannon’s (SKB) arrest, bypass the opportunity to speculate about your meeting today with Iraq PM Mustafa Al-Kadhimi & overlook your visit to the Mariotti Building Products facility in Old Forge, PA. Instead, I will focus on Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Charles Q Brown (CQB), who just got promoted to be the first African-American to lead one of the service branches.

CQB is a special man & I hope you spend some time with him. He is eager to address systemic racism, but has the humility to acknowledge that he doesn’t have all the answers. He hopes to have the “wisdom & knowledge to lead & participate in necessary conversations about diversity & inclusion” so he can listen. He knows things that neither you nor I can understand as he has had to navigate 2 worlds where other African-Americans tell him he’s not “black enough” & where he always has to excel to prove White folk’s stereotypes are unfounded.

I’d much rather have CQB inhabiting my thoughts than folks like SKB so please surround yourself with more folks like him. Even better, you could try to be like him.

HYITL