3/24/2020

My dear Friend & POTUS, DJT,

Patience! I know that it’s hard to wait, but right now, it’s what we all have to do. Sit tight, keep our distance and hope for the best. My 85-year old mom Zoomed yesterday with 16 of her off-spring. She tends to be easy flustered by technology so if she had the patience to figure out Zoom, you can have the patience to sit tight while we flatten the curve.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that the stimulus package passes. I am resigned to the fact that Boeing and United will get some loan guarantees, but I will be totally bummed if the cruise companies get something. I’m sure that Pam Bondi will tell you otherwise, but just because she represented you in your impeachment trial does not mean you have to do her the favor of bailing out the cruise industry that she used to lobby for. I know you’d like to help your buddy, Micky Arison, but you need to remember that Carnival is not a US company. It does not pay taxes. His employees are mostly Filipinos, & his business is not essential to the economy.

I have come to the conclusion that cruising is a luxury that does more harm than good. I took a cruise once & will admit that I enjoyed it immensely, but I learned while on the boat that the staff are treated like slaves, working 80-hour weeks with no days off for 8 – 10 months. Besides, they are terrible for the environment, consuming large amounts of fossil fuel and dumping trash into the ocean.

I encourage you to take a look at yesterday’s Guardian article of journal entries written by my neighbors, the Morse’s, who just came home after being cooped up at Travis Airforce Base while quarantined among the other Grand Princess passengers. Carnival did not take good care of them and does not deserve any of my hard-earned tax dollars. Enough said.

Stay the course,