3/2/2021

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Did your conversation with AMLO go well yesterday? I assume so since you stayed on the call twice as long as you had planned. What did you decide about the unaccompanied minors situation? I am amazed that adolescents have the courage & wherewithal to leave their families & travel long distances to come to the US. We should be laying out the red carpet for these kids. They’ve got the kind of hutzpah that this country was built on.

My county, Yolo, used to house unaccompanied minors who needed to be in a high security environment in our juvenile detention center. The kids had mental health issues that arose from the trauma they had experienced. It always troubled me that we were jailing kids whose only crime was to flee an unbearable situation. Let’s try to be more creative in addressing our immigrant issues so we don’t have to jail kids.

Speaking of being creative, I was excited to learn about the creativity of NJ AG Gurbir Grewal who has brought a suit against Smith & Wesson for misleading advertising. He’s trying a tricky maneuver to get access to internal business documents which might show that execs are aware of their role in promoting gun violence. It’s a brilliant tactic to work-around the laws that protect the industry’s secrets. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that it’s effective.

Did you ever wonder why the protest signs in Myanmar are written in English? Today’s CSM offered the answer, explaining that there’s a “global peace industry, enhanced by the connective power of the internet” to appeal to an international audience. In that spirit, please put some pressure on Thailand & Singapore to cut economic ties to the generals. I learned today that Thailand uses Burmese LNG & Singapore invests lots of $$ in business ventures. Money talks so it’s time to make some noise.

BYBS,