4/16/2021
My Friend & POTUS, JRB,
It was nice of you to accompany Jill to the doctor’s yesterday for her “common medical procedure.” Having moral support when enduring poking, probing & other assaults to one’s body is comforting. I was grateful when my family accompanied me through a breast biopsy procedure in 2001. I did not expect them to stay by my side, but was so glad when they did. Thanks for modeling good spouse behavior for us.
Are you excited about your first face-to-face visit with a foreign dignitary? In my opinion, it’s one of the highlights of being POTUS; meeting new people, showing them around the WH, discussing interesting topics…Did you invite HI Sen Mazie Hirono to join you? She was born on a farm in rural Japan so she’s got something in common with PM Suga Yoshihide (SY). She could ensure that you are getting an accurate interpretation, too.
You & SY have so much to talk about, I’m not sure 90 minutes will be sufficient. I hope human rights is the top priority. Apparently, Shiori Yamao & her buddies are pressuring him to criticize China about the Uighurs & to pull out investments in Myanmar. The Senkaku Islands will probably come up. It’s hard to fathom how ownership of 8 tiny uninhabited islands could start a World War, but I hope the two of you will figure out a way to prevent that from happening.
Another topic of conversation may be rare earth minerals. I just learned today that they are critical to our climate change efforts because they are used in batteries & magnets. Since China supplies 80% of them to the world, we better figure out a way to get along with them. Japan could try to dig them out of the ocean floor, but they are 4 miles deep so that won’t be too easy. We could try to extract them from coal ash, but that won’t be easy either.
Most things worth doing aren’t easy – that’s what makes life interesting – we have to keep trying until we are blue in the face (that’s what I wrote in my 8th grade diary .)
Keep trying,
