9/10/2024

JRB,

            How was the ADA event yesterday? Now that my husband is using a wheelchair, I am grateful for curb cuts, ramps & elevators, but am surprised that our building does not have an automatic door opener (ADO) in the lobby. Please consider mandating ADOs for multi-unit dwellings.

            I hope you have fun with the NCAA basketball champions today. I know USC Coach, Dawn Staley, will be thrilled to introduce her Gamecocks to you. I’ll be interested to see if she, or her players, say anything about tonight’s debate when they get the mike. According to today’s G, “the American athlete has become not just a Rorschach test for politics, but also a giant funhouse mirror for our never-ending discourses & polarizing disagreements,” so we might hear some interesting commentary.

            Speaking of the debate, what advice have you given to KDH? Have you strategized how to handle questions about inflation? It’s tricky, because Americans don’t’ get economics. They see a price for a gallon of milk or gas that is high compared to a few years ago & don’t recognize that price hikes have stabilized. They’d like to see the price come down, but we know that’s not going to happen. You can call it greedflation or shrinkflation, & blame it on corporations, but that’s not going to change the fact that each time we shop, we pay more than we’re used to paying. It doesn’t matter that less than a tenth of an average household’s budget is spent at the supermarket, each time they buy milk or gas, they experience the dissonance of the higher price, & it makes them angry. Let’s work on improving economic literacy to prevent this in the future.

            As the Arakan Army continues to take over military facilities from the junta, I hope you are talking to Tony Blinken & Jake Sullivan about the situation in Burma. Perhaps we could start by helping the people of Tachileik, which has just been flooded.

I hope you enjoy your visit to Queens today.

BYBS,