5/18/2024

JRB,

            As you visit Atlanta, please send my condolences to Airman Roger Fortson's family, who laid their 23-year old son, to rest yesterday. His commander called him “a man of honor, a man of integrity, a man of courage.”

            I attribute this tragedy to racism & guns. A white police officer with 4th hand information about an apartment disturbance panicked when he saw a black man answer the door with a gun at his side. If Roger were white, the officer may not have panicked. If Roger was unarmed, the officer may not have panicked. If the officer did not have his gun out, he’d have a few seconds to think clearly & warn Roger to drop his weapon.

I wonder how we can convince the folks at the NRA convention in Dallas that guns cause more problems than they solve. Do they know that they are more likely to use their gun on themselves or a loved one, than on a stranger?

On a happier note, did you see the WP piece, “What science tells us about Biden, Trump & evaluating an aging brain?” which begins with “the 2024 presidential election has turned into a crash course in gerontology.” Apparently, “judgment & emotional stability can improve with age” & are “more essential to effective leadership than the ability to remember names or deliver a speech without a flub.” The article included 40’s “killer joke: ‘I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience,” & KJP’s quip that by doing your “very rigorous job (you) pass a cognitive test every day.”

            Please call Army Col. Samuel S. Miller to congratulate him & 7th TB(X) on the completion of the Gaza pier. You will recall my great-grandpa, Col. Harry Trippe did something along those lines during WWI, so I am aware that civil engineering in a war zone is tricky business.

            I hope we can start getting humanitarian aid into Burma sometime soon. So many people are suffering there & things will probably get worse before they get better.

WINTA,

BYBS,