12/23/2024
My Dear Friend & POTUS,
Your website continues to malfunction, so who knows when you will get this letter. As is my practice, I will write anyway. The good part is I can write more than 2000 characters. The bad part is I have to print or handwrite or …
I have sent an inquiry to my Rep, Dawn Matsui to see if her office can find out why the “contact the POTUS” function is no longer available. We’ll see if she gets back to me.
So, on this day 69 years ago, my parents got married in Montclair, NJ & 248 years ago, Thomas Paine (TP) published his pamphlet, “The Crisis.” It’s opening lines stand the test of time. “THESE are the times that try men's souls.” The rest of it tries to recruit soldiers, so I am less enthusiastic about it, but the guy sure could put a sentence together as is evident in the next bit, “the summer soldier & the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man & woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.”
If I had more time I would write about the links between TP & today’s Hexagram 28, about critical mass. If I was really inspired, I could weave in something about Burma & your commutation of 37 death sentences.
I do see a connection between Hex 28 & your decision about the death penalty. As Michael Servetus writes re; Hex 28, “this is not the time to follow the crowd. Sometimes you are obliged to go it alone.” So even though Fox News is pointing out that you commuted the “death sentence of Philadelphia drug kingpin,” you can rest easy knowing that you followed the wisdom of your best self & did what you thought was right. That takes courage.
If you have thoughts about TP’s pamphlet or the Burma situation, I’d love to hear them. In the meantime, please do your thing as Consoler in Chief & call my mom on this wedding anniversary. You’ll know just what to say.
BYBS,
