11/2/2022

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            I look forward to reading about your remarks today about strengthening the infrastructure talent pipeline. I just emailed STEM@ed.gov to find out more about their You Belong in STEM Initiative. It fits perfectly with my focus for my course for pre-service teachers where we talk about promoting positive math identities.

            Have you discovered Gasbuddy.com where you can find the latest prices at each of the gas stations in town? For example, today Gas Mart on L St is the cheapest at $4.99/gallon. Do you think their gas is as good as the $5.42/gal gas at the Chevron, by I-80. Either way, all prices are cheaper than the last time I filled up. Yeah!

            I learned about Gasbuddy in today’s WP which notes a strong correlation between your popularity & the price of gas, explaining, “its visual prominence and the frequency with which consumers must buy it give it “a disproportionate electoral impact.” It says that you & Ron Klain follow the oil market so you can cite specific numbers at your campaign events.

            While I hope the midterms yield a 118th Congress that is more harmonious than the 117th, I don’t think that pandering to the electorate’s appetite for cheap gas is wise. Our climate crisis should take precedence & if high gas prices keep people from driving the extra mile, that’s a good thing. A woman’s right to choose is a better campaign focus! I encourage you to talk more about that & less about the price of gas.

            Please read Yanghee Lee’s opinion piece in the WP today where she enumerates the ways that the UN is failing the people of Burma. She points out that the UN has had a vastly different response to the crisis in Myanmar as compared to their reaction to the one in Ukraine & concludes that it “poses a serious and increasing threat to international peace and security. For the U.N., finally taking decisive action to work for the freedom.” Please speak to Linda Thomas-Greenfield about this.

            BYBS,