7/15/2025

My Dear Friend & POTUS, DJT,

                  Are you a fan of AI? I’m not sure about it. I love that it aggregates info in a flash & puts it at my fingertips. I hate that it fails to verify the accuracy of that info. I worry that it will make us all intellectually lazy & that it has huge environmental costs. I wonder if we are going the way the humans in the Wall-e movie who sit around all day watching screens.

                  As you visit PA today to celebrate how AI will reinvigorate that state, please remind Gov Shapiro to proceed with caution & acknowledge those in his state who warn that the construction of data centers “seems like it’s being rushed.”

                  Speaking of proceeding with caution, please reign in your ICE people & shut down the hotline where citizens can accuse neighbors of being undocumented. Lauryn Pfrommer-Pease, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, says the hotline has “become a powerful tool for non-immigrants to wield against those they suspect of being foreign-born over personal disputes or for strategic advantage.”

                  It sounds too much like Germany in 1933 to me. According to Google AI at that time  “the motivations for informing on Jews… included antisemitism, racism, strong belief in Nazi ideology, fear, personal gain, professional gain, & personal disagreements.”

Let’s not repeat that grim history when neighbors stood by as people were taken from their homes!

                  SoW, did you hear the news that the Arakan Rohingya National Council (ARNC), officially launched on Sunday? They claim to represent the Rohingya people inside Myanmar and abroad, including those displaced by violence & living in refugee camps. They are calling on the international community to “act with urgency” regarding the Arakan Army’s persecution of the Rohingya in Rahkine State which they say “is nothing short of a calculated & systematic genocide.”

                  If you need some positive news in your day take a look at When art sews friendship between foes in the CSM which reports on the Bayeux Tapestry which France is lending to England next year. The article notes that “art often serves as a peace-builder. It can reconcile former enemies by depicting the shared emotions after a conflict, leading to an empathy that may last centuries.”

Please remind the world to Make Art Not War!

BYBS,