8/29/2026

My Dear Friend & POTUS, DJT,

Read any good books lately? If so, you need to talk about it at your next interaction with the press, because according to recent articles by Amherst Prof. Austin Sarat, college students don’t know how to read “long, complex, challenging books” & haven’t experienced the satisfaction that comes from putting in the sustained effort to decode the meaning of a dense text.

If you haven’t read a book lately, you could join me & my friends in a book club. Peer pressure might motivate you to turn off your devices & pick up a real, turn-the-pages, text. 

I’m reading Farewell to Manzanar right now & just got to the part where Wakatsuki-Houston describes how the set up of the mess hall in the Japanese internment camp prevented her family from eating together in the way they had in their home in Orchard Park. This chapter might help you understand why ICE shouldn’t be separating families. 

If you prefer something denser, we could try Dr. Mon Mon Myat’s(MMM) book, Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK): The Realities of Power in Burma’s Authoritarian Legacy. According to the Irrawaddy it explains ASSK’s “ideas based on the Buddhist concept of metta (loving-kindness), as well as her notion of the Revolution of the Spirit, & the need to be psychologically free of fear.”

Reading MMM’s book would introduce us to the Greek’s idea of thymos, which “emerges from the emotional depths of the soul, where fear of humiliation drives the passions & corrupts the human heart. When this happens, anger, indignation & violence can result.” Contemplating thymos might help you understand why your obsession with voting makes you seem irrational to people like me.

Pondering how fear fuels tyranny might also help you better understand the situation in Iran & how your EFO has had the unintended consequence of emboldening the Basij who are amplifying fear among the citizens of Iran. 

As Margaret McNamara would say, “Reading is FUNdamental” so please consider picking up a book today.

BYBS.