My dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            It looks like you had a good visit to Superior yesterday. I’m so glad to hear that we will get a new facility at Soo Locks.

Don’t you think every kid in America should get a chance to see a lock in operation so they can appreciate this incredible feat of human engineering? Of course, it would help to have a before-movie to show the rapids that were in place before the first lock of 1797 was built. This would help kids understand why the lock is necessary.

            The Panama Canal is probably the most dramatic example of a lock system in the world getting vessels up to the level of Gatun Lake and then down again to the ocean – 12 locks in all. Back in the 1920s, my great-grandfather was one of the engineers who kept the Panama Canal in good working order. I wish I had a chance to ask him what that was like but he died in 1939.

            I learned today that if something happened to the Soo Locks we’d be in big trouble. As we watch the Russian military bomb the infrastructure in Ukraine, it becomes clearer just how critical things like bridges & locks are to our economic system. Thanks for drawing our attention to this.

            As you are drawing the nation’s attention to things, please shine a light on the youth in Myanmar who continue to resist the junta with their flash mob protests. You might also thank the Russian youth who are trying to educate their elders not to believe everything they see on TV.

            BYBS,