12/24/2023

Dec 24, 2023

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Have you heard of Buc-ees? I just learned about it this AM from a front-page article in the KCS. They are opening a new complex in Springfield, MO with 120 gas pumps. People camped out just to be there for the opening. Their cult following is due to some tasty BBQ & a cute beaver mascot that looks like Buckeye Badger. I hope we don’t get one around here anytime soon. I’m not into gratuitously large gas stations.

            I need to get busy making Stollen, so I will make this quick. I’ve got two asks today.

ASK 1: Follow up your Black Chamber of Commerce gig with something for Black Women Entrepreneurs. I’ve got a young friend in NOLA who wants to start a complex with a restaurant, grocery & farmer’s market in a food dessert. She has identified a location, has a team of energetic workers, but she needs $$$. Do you think Goldman Sachs’ One Million Black Women initiative would be helpful to her? She’s brilliant, resilient & persistent & is seeking counsel. I’d like to be able to point her to some veteran Small Business owners who know her community. Please help if you can.

ASK 2: Keep Burma in your foreign policy conversations. As Ishaan Tharoor of the WP points out Burma could be on the brink of a major conflagration with “intense violence & major uncertainty.” Perhaps Brahma Chellaney is correct when he writes in the Bangkok Post that your Burmese policy is flawed. He shares my view that WINTA & believes that getting the opposing sides talking is the way to peace. Please consider that possibility.

May you enjoy the love of family this Christmas,

BYBS,