3/6/2024

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Have you heard of Ian Bremmer & his website, GZero? Is he one of those guys like Elon Musk who thinks he knows it all? How do you handle guys like that? Do you try to tease apart their good ideas from their BS?

How do you deal with the dissonance that comes from being misunderstood? Do you try to explain yourself? Do you get mad? Do you decide that your listeners are stupid & not worth the effort?

So many questions! After feeling totally misunderstood at a recent committee meeting, I am thinking querying may be the best way to communicate. Quakers use queries to reflect on current conditions & to evoke aspirations. Teachers use them to let students discover new ideas. Since I am both a Quaker & a teacher, questions might be an excellent vehicle for promoting discourse.

According to the U. of Chicago, “a good question can excite, disturb, or comfort, and eventually yield an unexpected bounty of understanding & critical awareness.” Let’s see if the following questions are “good.”

• Do you know Jason Palmer? Do you care that he got 51 of 91 votes in American Somoa?

• How will 38,000 MREs dropped from the sky make a difference to the thousands of hungry people in Gaza, especially when some of the MREs end up in the sea?

• Is it possible for states to deal with interim non-state entities, such as Burma?

• Do you agree with Thitinan Pongsudhirak’s assessment that the junta is “hollowing out towards atrophy, as troops refuse to obey orders and lose the will to fight?”

• Do you think Americans will pay their credit bills on time if the late fee is only $8?

• How do you feel about the early Cherry Blossom bloom on the mall?

  What do you think of using questions instead of statements in these letters?

            BYBS,