4/20/2024

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Thanks for your efforts to improve the enforcement of Title IX. I am hopeful that the “sweeping new rules barring schools from discriminating against transgender students & ordering significant changes for how schools adjudicate claims of sexual harassment & assault on campus” can be put in place swiftly. My former prof, Ted Mitchell, has his doubts. He & his team at the American Council on Education could use some assurances that no non-complying campus will be penalized for a year or so.

            Please add your voice to the chorus of folks drawing attention to Burma today. Young people there are wondering why the world is ignoring them. Please let them know you see them!

            If you want more information, call Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. He’s particularly concerned about the situation in Rakhine State, where once again, the Rohingya are being used as scape goats & disinformation is being spread about “Islamic terrorists” taking Hindus & Buddhists hostages. He urges, ““Countries with influence on the Myanmar military & armed groups must act now to protect all civilians in Rakhine state & prevent another episode of horrendous persecution of the Rohingya.”

            Hannah Beech of the NYT writes about the East side of Burma, warning of “a shattering of a nation, its vast periphery breaking permanently away from central control.” In poetic phrases, such as “much of the fighting’s rhythm seems syncopated to that of another century,” she captures the situation there & describes a few of the young folk who left the cities to join the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force fighting in the jungle. She concluded with the chilling quote, “we tried to protest peacefully, but the only language the Burma army understands is bullets.”           

            WINTA!

            BYBS,