9/11/2020

Dear Friend, DJT,

            Joe Biden says this is a solemn day. I agree. My heart is heavy for all of the families that lost their loved ones on that day 19 years ago, as well as those who continue to lose loved ones to the cancer that they contracted from their rescue activities at that time.

9/11/01 is one of those days that is etched in my memory. I left for work after seeing just a few minutes of the towers burning. We switched off the TV so our 4-year old wouldn’t be traumatized. I was bereft as I rode my bike to the SDSU campus. Those evil deeds challenged my belief that there is that of God in each of us. Do you ever have that kind of crisis of faith?

            Reading about Sgt. Maj. Thomas "Patrick" Payne who you will be honoring with the Medal of Honor this afternoon lifted my spirits. I’m sure you know all about his heroics in freeing hostages held by ISIS back in 2015. I appreciated his words, “once you are able to control your fear, that's the bridge to personal courage and personal courage is contagious on the battlefield.” I also love his humility. He doesn’t consider himself a recipient of the Medal, rather a “guardian” of it, because he believes that all of the soldiers that he fought with are heroes.

            I would love to see you practice that kind of humility in the next few weeks. Doing so might prevent you from undermining yourself, again. As you know people are baffled that you would be so self-destructive to talk to Bob Woodward 18 times knowing full well that he uses his pen as a sword. Jared says you like to “touch the flame.” Others suggest that you decided, it was “better to pet the bear than to poke him.” Either way, practicing some humility would behoove you.

            HYITL,