2/10/2023

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Sorry to miss our note yesterday. I had to rush out of the house to do a pyramid activity with the 5th graders. One of the quiet girls spoke for the first time in whole group discussion. In fact, she spoke twice! We attribute that to small group time she spent with the other quiet kids under the guidance of our undergraduate intern. Yeah!

            While I was busy in Natomas you were having fun in Tampa. I applaud your team for their strategy of going to FL to talk about laws related to Sr citizens. I loved the line in your speech: “A lot of Republicans dream of cutting social security and Medicare. If that's your dream, I'm your nightmare.”

I must caution you, though, Sen. Rick Scott’s plan is to require a renewal of those programs every 5 years rather than elimination of them. He has not called for “cutting” the programs completely. As I approach 65, I am grateful to have that safety net. I wish Americans of all ages had it.

            I see that you will be hosting Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (LILDS) today. It is such a relief that Bolsanaro has been unsuccessful in his attempts to silence intellectuals & overthrow democracy. I hope LILDS gets a chance to tell you about his promise “to deliver more books in place of guns.” Eliana Alves Cruz, an award-winning author, cautions, “we are going to have double the work to get it out of young people’s head that they must defend life with force & instead do so with the force of words.”

            Please uplift Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim for his strong call for fellow members of the ASEAN to take new measures to pressure the government of military-ruled Myanmar to end what he called “atrocities” against its own people. He’s worried about the Burmese refugees flooding the region. Let’s accept some of those refugees here. They’d increase our diversity & add to our labor pool.

            BYBS,