6/6/2025

My Dear Friend & POTUS, DJT,

            This is a momentous time for me. I taught my last class yesterday, am in the midst of a hosting a 36-hour mini-reunion & am preparing for a new phase of life. It’s all good. I’m relishing every second knowing things will calm down in 9 days.

            I’m not sure how you manage to survive 4 years at this level of intensity & I’m not surprised that, on occasion, you say regrettable things, like your quip to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz yesterday that D-Day was "not a great day" for Germany. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to faze him. What did you think of his response that it was the Nazi dictatorship that had a bad day on June 6, 1944?

            On other matters (OoM), what did you talk about with the Fraternal Order of Police? Did AG Pam Bondi (PJB) make an objection to their gender exclusive name?

            Speaking of PJB, please tell her to cease & desist with her use of the phrase “zealous advocacy.” Enlightened lawyers have decided that approach to defending a client leads to unethical behavior. In my mind, it’s downright cruel to “not regard the alarm, the suffering, the torment, the destruction, which he (the legal counsel) may bring upon any other.” That kind of talk may have been persuasive when defending Queen Caroline in 1820 in the British House of Lords, but it has no place in the federal government today. Even though it’s a catchy phrase, best to find something else, like “ardent truth seeking.”

            Do you think it’s good to have zeal? According to Galatians 4:18 “it is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always.”

This pronouncement presumes we are good at discerning when our “purpose is good.” Our egos can make that discernment tricky, & it’s common for folks to get overly zealous for a bad purpose as the Burmese junta recently did in arresting a 6-year-old for murdering a retired general. SoW, please make some noise about that!

            Do you think ERM got overly zealous with DOGE? Rachel Maddow made a strong case about that in her show when describing his attempt to take over the US Institute of Peace. I appreciate that you have distanced yourself from him.  Clearly, he could use more discernment. Perhaps reading the I Ching would help him slow down. You might consider doing the same.

            BYBS,