8/16/2023

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            From what I could see on the video of your speech in MKE yesterday, you were having fun casting aspersions on Ron Johnson. It’s too bad that the WI State Journal couldn’t find room on their front page for an article about your visit to the Badger State. Oh well.

            It’s wonderful that you are celebrating the 1st anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act at the WH. According to today’s G, it led to a “boom in clean energy investment” & the EV rebate is having the intended effect! Yeah!

            Did you say something on Monday about the 88th anniversary of the Social Security Act? If so, your remarks did not appear in my google search. That’s too bad!

You missed a chance to uplift, the “Mother of Social Security…Frances Perkins (FCP), one of the great unsung heroes of American history.” Apparently, she nagged FDR about the need to help out the elderly & seized the moment at the depths of the depression to introduce what was then considered radical legislation. “Before the passage of Social Security, seniors had to work until the day they died to survive,” & now we take for granted that we can enjoy some R & R in our old age. We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?

            Before I found out about her on the Spirituality & Practices website, I assumed FCP was a man. I’m ashamed to say that, but if I, who proclaim to be a feminist, don’t know about FCP, most other Americans don’t either. Please be in touch with Janek Ambros to see how his biopic about FCP is coming along. I want to see it.

            If FCP were alive today, I wonder what she’d advise regarding Burma. Reuters says that the garment workers there encounter various abuses, so H&M is considering cutting ties with Burmese factories. If they do, workers will lose their livelihoods. It’s a tricky situation! Please continue to monitor the junta so you can seize the appropriate moment to motivate them to change their ways.

            BYBS,