9/18/2020

Dear Friend, DJT,

            I wish you safe travels today & hope you avoid catching CV. It seems some folks are traveling again spreading CV from place to place. This weekend, motorcyclers are convening at Lake of the Ozarks. I hope it’s not another super-spreader event, like the Sturgis Rally, earlier this summer. Some scholars have estimated that 250,000 cases emerged from that gathering, which will cost the health care system $12.2 billion. They used cell phone data to come up with that figure, so like any interpretation of an historic event, it’s debatable.

            I hope that’s what you heard from the historians convened at the WH yesterday. Take the Vietnam War, for example. According to the NYT, it could be considered, “a noble struggle against Communist aggression, a tragic intervention in a civil conflict, or an imperialist counterrevolution to crush a movement of national liberation.” I know that most young men didn’t want to fight in it. So much so, that in Aug., 1970, 20,000 folks in East LA held a march they called, the Chicano Moratorium Against Vietnam. It was peaceful until the Sheriff Department came in and 3 people got killed including Ruben Salazar, a reporter for the LA Times. So, I am wondering, is this the kind of historical event that you would like teachers to stop talking about? I certainly hope not.

            I have told you before, true love is about recognizing someone’s flaws and cherishing them anyway. I love you, even though you do things that really bother me. I write these letters as my expression of that love. I also write them because I love my country, with all of its flaws and tainted history.

If we want kids in America to love the USA, we can’t pretend it’s perfect. They know it’s not. Especially POCs whose families have experienced discrimination for centuries. If we want to keep perfecting our democracy, we need to interrogate its failings. Ideally, kids will gather the facts & write history anew. Isn’t that what you do all the time?

            HYITL,