10/21/2025
My Dear Friend & POTUS, DJT,
Congratulations on being honored at the Richard Nixon (RMN) Architect of Peace Award Ceremony today. I couldn’t find out much about this award beyond the fact that Empress Farah of Iran & her son won it in 2024. Perhaps it will become more prestigious now that you have won it. I was surprised that RMN still had enough fans to finance such a thing.
I wish I could join your Diwali celebration today. As you noted this time of “introspection, camaraderie, & regeneration” helps us to be our best selves. I hope your introspection includes attention to our magic equation, Truth + Honesty + Kindness = Love (T + H + K = L).
God is change! That mantra helps me accept the bursts of energy that alter the status quo. Sometimes the change affirms & sometimes it discourages. Sometimes it’s constructive & sometimes it’s destructive. I prefer it to be incremental, but I appreciate that’s not always possible.
My experiences in Quaker meetings, on various faculties, in communal living & in family have taught me that consultation can temper impulse, that open discussion enhances deliberation, that opposition forces elaboration.
I worry that we both tend toward the “act now, ask for forgiveness later” end of the spectrum. While this may accelerate change, it can leave unnecessary damage in its wake.
I mention this because I am uncomfortable with your decision to start tearing down the East Wing of the WH yesterday without approval from the National Capital Planning Commission. If building the ballroom is a great idea, they’d be on board. If the plan has some flaws, getting their eyes on the project would help identify & rectify them.
Perhaps your peacemaking efforts are teaching you the lesson my girl scout leader tried to teach me, “slow & steady wins the race.”
I hope your guests at the luncheon & dinner in the Rose Garden don’t have to look at the construction mess.
Please call Sen Marsha Burns to get her take on the junta’s raid of the KK Park scam centers where they detained thousands of people. I’m not sure how they will sort out the criminals from the victims but at least some scamming will stop for now.
BYBS,
