8/28/2023

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            When you visit Eliot-Hine Middle School today, please ask the kids if any March(ed) on Washington on Sat & if they did, which speech they liked the best. I only saw snippets, so I don’t have too much to go on, but I loved Rev. Sharpton’s line, ‘The dreamers are in Washington DC. The schemers are being booked in Atlanta.” I always appreciate Andrew Young’s advice, “Don’t get mad, get smart” & his reminder that the ballot is “the passport to freedom & opportunity.”  Most passionate of all was Dr. Jamal Bryant’s  in reciting his litany of indictments. He spoke my mind when he said, “I come to serve an indictment where $25 billion is going to the Ukraine, where nobody is saying anything about Somalia, Niger & in the Congo.” I would add Burma to the list.

            Please also ask the kids if they know who planned that march. I doubt they will. Bayard Rustin is not a household name.  Hopefully the upcoming Netflix movie about him will remedy that. Did you ever meet him?  I wish I had. He died in 1987 before I learned about Quakers, but fellow Pennamites with interests in Civil Rights, perhaps you crossed paths. He lived the Friends testimonies better than most, landing in jail for refusing to fight in WWII, being open about his sexuality & advocating for non-violence as a means to shame white supremacists. He was a genius & I hope you say his name today.

            Interesting news from Burma, Chinese officials visited Myitkyina to meet with officials of the Kachin government whose army is fighting the junta. It’s a big deal that XJ’s people are talking to an EAO. According to Mizzima, China has undertaken extensive rare earth mineral extraction activities, backed by significant investments which they are trying to protect.

            Are your people meeting with the junta’s enemies? Are they keeping it on the down low? Bringing it out in the open would help the world to see that the “rebels” in Burma are legit.

            BYBS,