4/14/2024

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Are you familiar with Botswana’s strategy for getting through their post-independence period as a unified nation? They sent their civil servants here, there & everywhere to support inter-tribal communication & cooperation. Young teachers went to villages far from home, fell in love & became part of the community. Their mixed-ethnicity kids identify as Botswanans & have allegiances to their mother & father’s communities. It’s not perfect, but they are doing much better than other places where diversity fuels unequal distribution of resources & animosity.

            This morning, as I try to make sense of macho missile launches, I find some comfort in imagining the Botswana strategy on a global level. Take all the humans on the planet, put them in a big mix-em-up contraption, & let them fall to Earth in a new place with new neighbors. While homophily would certainly play out, with people feeling drawn to those who look like their mothers, there wouldn’t be enough of same race people, so they’d have to engage in heterophily to feed, clothe & shelter themselves. Ideally, matriarchies would emerge & we’d be less inclined to resort to killing people.

            My worst-case-scenario self is afraid that Bibi is going to use Iran’s missile assault as an excuse to wage war. I wish you had scolded him when he bombed Iran’s Embassy in Syria. That was over the top! Iran says they’ve had their revenge, so please convince Bibi that he can frame the interception of the Iranian barrage as a victory & not retaliate. WINTA!

            According to Radio Free Asia, the junta generals are losing their confidence & starting to panic. That could lead to some very bad consequences.

            The same could be said of the generals in Israel.

            Let’s get busy inventing the machine that will redistribute all of the people on the planet so we can wage the more important battle at hand against our changing climate!

            BYBS,