11/30/2024

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Did you ever read the book, White Noise, by Don DeLillo, where he artfully captured our monkey minds, which flit from one thing to another exacerbated by the media we consume? I bring it up because I experience that kind of mental hopscotching as I read the news every day. A story about how the WHO deals with fragile & conflict-affected settings (FCS) has pop ads suggesting that I buy a red cashmere cape. The juxtaposition of traumatized children facing life & death situations with mundane consumerism is jolting!

            As POTUS you make these drastic mental shifts many more times a day than I do. Everyone wants your attention & is asking you to do something. You bounce from critical issues such as Gaza, to visiting fire fighters, to what the WH Christmas ornament should be. It must be exhausting.

            The various things that caught my attention today include

1)    Your AIDS Quilt event tomorrow in conjunction with World Aids Day. I’m sure you’ll say something about Change the Pattern, an extension of the Quilt Project fighting to end HIV & AIDS in the South. SPoW, did you hear about Lenacapavir, the new injection for preventing AIDs that only has to be taken twice a year? Should be a game changer!

2)    Dr Richard Marcantonio & others are researching how to harness environmental challenges as a centrifuge for peacebuilding & agricultural restoration in FCS. Please give him a call to learn more about his efforts.

3)    UNICEF has a project in Myitkyina, Kachin State to prevent mother to fetus/baby transmission of AIDS. It doesn’t mention the civil war & displacement affecting the pregnant mother. Nor does it mention whether the junta or an EAO is supporting the project. Bizarre!

I hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday in Nantucket. Be careful about what books you pick up in the bookstore, the world is watching.

            BYBS,