5/30/2021

My dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            It’s Memorial Day Eve. It’s going to be hot here today & even hotter tomorrow, but for the moment the air is cool & still. All seems well with the world.

            I wish that were the case. I heard last night that my Friend in Myanmar has reason to be fearful. Someone close to him was killed by the Tatmadaw after being tortured. Another Friend in Yangon reported that things are so tense there that everyone jumps when a mango lands on a metal roof. This sense of foreboding haunts too many people in this world. I don’t know the answer, but I do know that it isn’t more violence.

            Others agree with me including Michael Rasmussen (MR) & Stephen Funk (SF) who Rowan Moore Gerety wrote about in the NYT today. Both are COs (conscientious objectors) who declared their opposition to killing while serving in the military. SF went AWAL in Iraq for 47 days before declaring his CO status & MR had an epiphany to “Stop traveling the road of hatred and violence” on his way to fly a supply mission. SF went on to found “veteran artists, a collective of friends recently separated from the military who organized creative opportunities for other veterans to express themselves, reintegrate with the community, and heal invisible wounds from their time in service.” MR is figuring out what to do with his life & is hearing from some of his buddies about their “misgivings with the way the United States wields military power.”

            So, here’s a radical thought for you to ponder, given that War is Not the Answer, you can divert all of the $$ going into the development of new weapons to pay for your infrastructure projects. Free 2 birds with 1 key.

            HYITL,

            RCA

PS – Keep negotiating with the GOP on the infrastructure bill. We need a bipartisan win!!!