8/29/2023

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Don’t you love middle schoolers? I loved seeing their exuberance in videos of your visit to Ms. Thomas’ math class yesterday. I’m sorry that you didn’t give her a chance to do her lesson with the kiddos. You missed an opportunity to say how essential math is to their lives as productive citizens. That’s ok. Zoey Brown will never forget the thrill she got from meeting you.

            Please speak the names, Angela Michelle Carr; Jerrald De’Shaun Gallion, & Anolt Joseph Laguerre Jr. who were murdered in Jacksonville on Sat. The CSM reports that they were gunned down a day before the 63rd anniversary of “Ax Handle Saturday,” when 200 Ku Klux Klan members attacked Black protesters conducting a peaceful sit-in against Jim Crow laws banning them from white-owned stores and restaurants, while the police stood by. Only Black people were arrested.

            As Jacksonville native, Rodney L. Hurst Sr. told the WP, America has “still not come to grips with its own racism,” which is both “invasive and evasive.” We need to teach “accurate and authentic history.” More attention to systematic racism may make all the difference in the 2024 election, so get busy!

            Pura vida! That’s the way to greet Costa Rica’s President Rodrigo Chaves Robles when he visits you today. It’s kind of like Aloha – a life affirmation that works on almost all occasions. That sentiment may be the key to keeping the peace without an army. Please congratulate him on that.

            Don’t forget to check up on things in Burma. The Irrawaddy claims the junta is losing its grip on Bago. Perhaps it’s time to offer the generals some kind of lifeline so they stop their assault on their people.

            BYBS,