12/16/2023

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            What’s new? It’s a question I plan to answer with something specific every day for the rest of my life. I should be tasting new food, meeting new people, thinking new thoughts, learning new concepts, going new places & trying new activities.

Rachel Wu (RM), of UC-R, found that older adults who took 3 courses/week for 3 months showed cognitive improvements that lasted a year AFTER the study. She argues we need to offer our old folks learning opportunities to help them thrive. Of course, you know all about this, as you learn new things every day to keep abreast of the latest developments. I encourage you to invite RM to the WH so she can help your people develop a better narrative about your old age.

While you are changing your narrative, consider a new foreign policy language. According to the G, folks in the Black Church PAC are troubled by your hawkish stance. They are evoking MLK’s  three triplets of evil (racism, militarism & economic exploitation) & noting the “moral dissonance in the role of the United States government in 2023 to be funding wars where poor people, people of color, melanated people, dark-skinned people are being killed.” Some are even calling you a “war criminal.” Cornel West went so far as to suggest you might have a “LBJ moment” & pull out of the 2024 election. Maybe you can’t start chanting, WINTA, but at least you could use the latest news about the killing of 3 Israeli hostages by the IDF to criticize Bibi’s war strategy.

Please see what you can find out about Burma & Brigade 611. You might use them to help the world see that “defeating” Hamas is folly. The junta thought they obliterated Brigade 611 in 2009, but they have emerged as a major force in recent battles.

If I had more time I’d ponder Theodore R. Johnson’s WP piece about the  Boston Tea Party &  his claim, “we disagree about which protesters should be deemed patriots & which should be gathered up by the long arm of the law.” 

BYBS,