8/12/2020

My dear Friend & POTUS, DJT,

            I’m sorry that you are not as excited about Kamala Harris as I am. Sure, I disagree with her about a few things, but you have to admit, it’s really cool to have a woman with light brown skin with immigrant parents from India and Jamaica running for Vice President. Even more exciting is that she could win! Of course, you have to paint her in a negative light, as you did last night in your conversation with Sean Hannity, but deep down inside, that progressive person who used to be pro-choice and friendly with LGBTQ folk, is happy to see KDH on the ticket.

            What’s up with the “Kids First: Getting America’s Children Safely Back to School” event that you are hosting at the WH today? I appreciate that you included “safely” in the title. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) making schools safe is pretty complicated. Unfortunately, the schools in Cherokee County, Georgia, weren’t successful. According to today’s NYT 925 folks are quarantined & school just opened on Aug 3.

            I hope you invited Randi Weingarten to join the event. She can tell you what the teachers in her union are worried about. She has authorized them to have “safety strikes” & they are keeping their eye on the rate of positive tests in their localities. They’ve set a benchmark of 5%. Now you & I both now that number can be manipulated depending on test availability, as well as the algorithm used by the data scientist, but if you do want teachers & students safe, we’ll need to invest a lot of $$ so schools can follow all of the guidelines set out by the AAP.

            Speaking of data scientists – I was impressed by the tenacity of Rebekah Jones, the FL data crusader who refused to fudge the state data when the Gov wanted to open things up. You gotta love a woman who knows how to create a data dashboard & started up her own when the state fired her. She says, “I wear insubordination as a badge of honor.” We can both relate to that.

            HYITL,