11/23/2022

My Friend JRB,

            How’s Nantucket? Are the newlyweds there with you? It must be nice to be surrounded by family.

            I’m sure you heard about last night’s shooting at the Walmart in the Tidewater area of VA. My brother -in-law’s optometry business was quite close to the site of the shooting, so it hits close to home.

7 mass shootings in 7 days. Will this wake the country up?

The prevalence of guns in the USA troubles me deeply. That along with the finding of a recent survey that 20.5% of respondents thought that political violence is, at least sometimes justifiable, “in general,” makes me profoundly worried. When I see that 50% agreed that “in the next several years, there will be civil war in the United States” I wonder “what is the world coming to?”

The news from Burma does not help. While the junta may have just released some “prisoners”, they also just torched 130 of the 400 houses in Bahin as they abandoned their police outpost there.

To resist sinking into apprehension over the state of the world, I take deep breathes & try to look on the bright side. Thomas Friedman’s piece in the NYT today reminds us that democracy prevailed in the midterms, & most of the election deniers lost. Despite alarmist news about turkey shortages, I found a 16 pounder at TJs which I will cook on Fri so we have the requisite sandwiches for the weekend. Best of all, the World Cup is captivating my husband & helping him get out of bed in the morning despite his chronic pain & debilitating anxiety.

While all is not well with the world, the sun is out & we are blessed with another day.

BYBS,

RCA

PS - Please be in touch with the ASEAN folk & remind them not to be fooled by the junta’s “election.” Daw Zin Mar Aung warns that any election based on the military draft constitution of 2008 will not be fair. She is hopeful that as Indonesia takes over ASEAN it will be more effective in addressing the Burma situation. I hope she is right about that.