5/29/2024

My Dear Friend & President, JRB,

            How much should memory drive our future? How can we learn from the past without getting mired in it? Does it matter that my great-grandparents exploited serfs in Russia? Do I have to make amends for that? Should I go back to Norway to see where the Falks came from & where they were in the pecking order? Should we just live in the now, now, now & leave the past behind?

            These questions are coming up because my BFF suggests I read Kazuo Ishiguro’s, The Buried Giant, which explores the idea of the “mist of amnesia,” in which nations continue to be haunted by their lurid pasts, despite efforts to forget them.

            As you try to woo the Black voters of Philadelphia today, will you acknowledge the ways in which we continue to be haunted by slavery in this nation? Will you mention that when the 55 founding dads met in that city 237 years ago, 25 of them were slave holders? Will you quote Wm Lloyd Garrison who in 1854 burned a copy of the Constitution calling it "a covenant with death and an agreement with Hell"?  Is there a way to make peace with this history?

            The Constitution is on my mind because I have 3 days left with my undergrads & I want to make the most of those 240 minutes. Should I play the School House Rock song, “We the People (WTP)” & ask them to consider why the founding dads talked about a “more perfect union?” Did they know that we’d be always struggling to be better?

            SPOW, when I googled WTP, I found ProperPatriot.com. While most of the content did not resonate, the following did, “it is our duty & privilege to inherently question those in power. We should not just listen to what politicians tell us what they’ll do but pay close attention to what they do & what interests they serve.”

            As I continue to perfect the art of asking you questions, I will close with one about my perennial topic, “what are you doing to help the people of Burma?”

            BYBS,