10/11/2022

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            I’m heading out to do some penny counting with the 5th graders today so I only have a minute.

            I have two requests:

1) When you have the Indigenous Day event at the WH, please invite Rep Sharice Davids, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation who is running for her 3rd term to represent KS-3. Her district has been redrawn, so she has a challenge on her hands. The KCS just endorsed her because she “shifted her own priorities and plunged into issues important to the agriculture community,” because now, in addition to representing Kansas City, she is now representing rural areas.

2) Do what you can to discourage “parachute science” on fossils found in the amber from the Kachin State of Burma. According to ScienceAlert, “parachute science – where researchers from wealthy nations jet in to conduct research without involving local scientists – is a legacy of a dark colonial history that continues to be exploited today, and which ultimately warps our view of life on Earth.” Scientists buy amber on the black market & publish about it. This kind of exploitation makes matters worse in Burma. Please ask Arati Prabhakar to look into it.

I hope your conversation with the G7 leaders goes well. Don’t forget to bring up Burma.

            BYBS,