6/5/2021

June 5, 2021

My dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            I think you are at the WH this morning, but it’s hard to tell. I hope you are at the beach house, continuing to celebrate Jill’s birthday. Perhaps you are busy preparing for the upcoming G7 summit where you’ll get to hobnob with 10 leaders of the world’s great democracies. It’s discouraging that there’s only 1 woman in the group & you are one of the 6 white males. I wonder if we will ever see that gender/race imbalance change.

I hope you’ll all read, David Smith’s piece in the G today where he writes about a growing “authoritarian ecosystem.” He’s afraid that democracies, like ours are to perishing through death by a thousand cuts. He fears the invisible, incremental accretion of power. Of course, that didn’t happen in Myanmar where democracy disappeared overnight. In any case, the G7’s Build Back Better motto & the new corporate minimum tax are promising. I hope you all continue to make progress.

            I’ve been reading about KDH’s upcoming trip to Guatemala & Mexico. The NYT claims that she’s proving her loyalty to you by taking on Mission Impossible. Immigration is such a challenging issue! If we believe in freedom, then folks should be able to leave their homes in search of a better situation. Ideally, the planet would reach equilibrium where folks would distribute themselves around the planet to enjoy peace & prosperity. Maybe we can get to that place if the population would stop growing. If every woman could control her fertility & have 1 or 2 babies after launching a stimulating & satisfying career, the world would be a wonderful place. We wouldn’t have to fight over resources & people wouldn’t have to flee their homelands.

            Perhaps you could share that dream with the old boys at the G7 next week.

            BYBS,