1/3/2025

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Thanks for protecting the ancestral lands of the Pit River & Desert Cahuilla tribes by creating two National Monuments. On this rainy day, it warmed my heart to read that news.

            I’m wondering if I will see you in NOLA. Will you be attending the 17th Annual Joan of Arc Procession to celebrate the start of Mardis Gras? It’s supposed to be quirky, whimsical & spiritual. I’m hoping it’s still “on.” Let me know if you hear otherwise.

Will you be jump-starting another investigation into extremism in the military? According to the G, General Austin started one, but Congress didn’t fund it, so he didn’t get beyond “introducing a tattoo database to screen recruits.”

Matt Dallek, of George Washington Univ, wonders, “how does the government, particularly the Department of Veterans Affairs, try to prevent this sort of radicalization? How do they address the wider problems & challenges that veterans face, access to healthcare, mental health care, readjusting to civilian society & finding gainful employment?”

Please don’t go overboard in your response to these events! According to Laura Dugan, terrorism expert at the Ohio State University, we’ve got to ask ourselves, “Do we want to live in a police state & be safe? Or do we want to not live in a police state & then take the risks of things like this?”

I agree with her conclusion, “We’re not going to be 100% secure from attacks, we’re just not. ... But I personally don’t think it’s worth living in fear, either.”

SoW, the people of Burma have struggled with the balance between security & freedom since the English departed in 1948. According to a piece in History Today, “Conscious of its precarious geopolitical position & its internal political fragility, its priorities have been to maintain the integrity of its borders & its independence…. The possibility that internal disorder might attract superpower intervention has for years been used to justify the suppression of popular freedoms (by the military).”

BYBS,