3/17/2023

My dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Did you know that Patrick was British & never canonized? Taken to Ireland as a slave at age 16, he learned the language & customs. After escaping & going back to England, an angel came to him in a dream & told him to go back to Ireland as a missionary. He studied religion & then returned. He “chose to incorporate traditional ritual into his lessons of Christianity instead of attempting to eradicate native Irish beliefs.”

Isn’t it intriguing that a Brit converted folks to Catholicism, who now make a big deal about the difference between their religion & Protestantism & don’t like England? When I used to hear about the Troubles, it always seemed strange to me that people were fighting over such minor differences.

Did you consider inviting Michelle O’Neill to your celebration of St. Patty’s Day with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar? As one of the leaders of Northern Ireland & Sinn Féin she wants to see a united Ireland.

The politics in Northern Ireland are too complicated for me to understand, so I had trouble interpreting the comments Hillary Clinton made to the BBC suggesting “that DUP Assembly members opposed to the Windsor Framework should resign & allow the others to form a new government at Stormont.” I did appreciate her observation that, “you never agree with somebody 100%of the time. Find the 60, 70% of what you do agree on, get it done & then continue to talk & argue about what remains.”

I wish the junta would adopt that point of view. According to the Irrawaddy, “at least 79 Myanmar junta forces as well as a resistance fighter were killed in the last six days as People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) & an ethnic armed organization (EAO) stepped up their attacks on regime targets nationwide.” WINTA

            Speaking of WINTA, I was bummed to learn that Poland is giving fighter jets to Ukraine. Please do not follow their lead!

            BYBS,