8/30/2020

My dear Friend & POTUS, DJT,

            How are the folks in Calcasieu Parish doing? It looks like it must have been very humid there, given the damp appearance of your face during your news conference in Lake Charles. I had trouble finding females &/or POCs in either of your press events yesterday. What’s up with that?

I didn’t hear anything about a visit to Mossville to check out the BioLab fire. Apparently, after they extinguished the 1st one, a 2nd one started. I hope the folks in Mossville fare better than the folks in the 9th Ward of NO. 15 years after Hurricane Katrina broke the levies, their neighborhood is still a mess. So much so, that the local councilwoman wants to burn all of the damaged properties. The NOFD isn’t too keen on that idea. According to the Times-Picayune, “the federal rebuilding program discriminated in its funding formula against claimants in depressed areas like the Lower Ninth Ward by pegging the payout to home value, rather than the cost to rebuild, leaving many people well short of the money they’d need for a house.” That’s the kind of systemic racism that BLM is fighting against.

         When you visit Kenosha this week, I hope you’ll talk to folks who can help you understand the frustration that kind of thing evokes. Jacob Blake’s father says, “there are two justice systems. There’s one for that white boy that walked down the street and killed two people and blew another man’s arm off. Then there’s one for my son.” Let’s fix that.

            HYITL