3/5/2022

My dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            How did things go with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö yesterday? The NYT says Finland is considering whether to join NATO, but the whole thing is complicated. I suspect you didn’t have much time to talk about dogs.

            Today, I am dwelling on guns after talking with my daughter about the shootings at a high school in Olathe, KS where 3 people got injured. The media is crediting the school safety officer, Erik Clark, with averting a tragedy by disabling the shooter after taking a bullet himself. When I asked Arden how she felt about it, she said she was aware that she was in a profession where she could get shot & that 2 of her students had been removed from her school because they had expressed their desires to cause harm in the building. She also noted that her students had been exposed to gun violence after sports events.

 I lamented that times had a changed, noting I never feared that one of my angry middle-schoolers would harm me. While this is still relatively rare, it is happening more frequently. At least a few of the folks in Olathe have now come around to being in favor of gun control. Please do what you can to keep guns out of the hands of kids.

I am troubled to see that the Burma junta is revoking the citizenship of many of the NUG leaders. Likewise, an article in today’s Aljazeera about the trauma haunting the journalists & human rights workers in Myanmar makes me wonder about survivors’ guilt, “feeling guilty for being alive, for not suffering what others had to endure, or for feeling one failed to do enough to prevent an event from happening or to save those who died.” I worry that we are all struggling with this. I hope you get a chance to go to church to help you with yours.

            BYBS,