6/17/2021

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Joys and sorrows. That’s what we call them in our Quaker Meeting. The ups and downs of life. I’m feeling them this morning & I’m sure you are, too, but you are probably focusing on the joys. According to the NYT, you face life with “stubborn optimism,” the “ultimate cheerleader” who sees the positive where others don’t.  I aspire to be that way, but some days are harder than others.

            The joy of today is learning about Opal Lee & her quest to make June 19, a national holiday. I’m in awe that she could walk the 1400 miles from Fort Worth to DC at age 89 in 2016. Will you be giving her a call this afternoon when you sign the bill declaring June 19, “Juneteenth National Independence Day” our 11th Federal Holiday? Why isn’t it called, Emancipation Day, as Rep. Clay Higgins would prefer?

            The sorrow of today comes from reading about Kinma a village in the Magway Region of Burma where 200 of the 240 houses were burned down by the police. An elderly couple died in their home & the rest of the villagers are hiding in the forest. Please pray for them. While you’re at it, please also pray for the people of the Tigray Region of Ethiopia where similar atrocities are occurring.

            I’m grateful that your meeting with VPP went as well as could be expected. Returning ambassadors & working on nuclear arms control are a good place for us to start improving relations with Russia.  It’s too bad that you had a snarky response to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at your press conference. I appreciated that you later apologized about being a “wise guy.” I don’t think that meeting will go down in the history books, but as Historian & fellow Dartmouth Alumna, Anette Gordon Reed says, the “facts of history are often stranger and less assimilable than any self-serving mythology will allow” so who knows, maybe this meeting is the start of something big.

            BYBS,