I’m guessing few of you know much about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which China launched in 2013. We’re ridiculously focused on the latest Presidential tweets, while the rest of the world marches forward.

The BRI is the largest economic development project in history, involving hundreds of projects in 65 countries, and it will change the world…at least for our grandchildren. It involves at least seven “corridors,” both land and sea, which will connect China with Europe, Russia, Africa, India, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. It includes roads, railways, pipelines, communication networks, ports, airports, satellites, and much more (China already has a rail link all the way to Spain).

Massive projects will help build the infrastructure of countries along these trade routes–electrical grids, roads, and a whole lot of green energy (windmills, solar farms, dams). As those economies develop, China will sign trade agreements, and Chinese companies will develop new markets and shut us out. China is also buying control of ports throughout the world.

China is investing a trillion dollars in the BRI–seven times the size of the Marshall Plan. It will help integrate China’s economy with the economies of all of these other countries, bringing both goodwill and influence to China.

China is even bringing Latin America into the Belt and Road Initiative, recognizing that the Trump administration is alienating Hispanic countries (who clearly heard the “s***hole countries” comment). In January, China’s foreign minister met in Chile with his counterparts from 31 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean. China’s goal, obviously, is to lessen US influence in our hemisphere and tie Latin American markets more closely to China (and insert Chinese values).

The United States won’t be part of the Belt and Road Initiative. We’ve been pulling out of international agreements, like the Paris Climate Accord and TPP, and lessening our involvement in international organizations, like UNESCO and the World Bank. China sees the Trump presidency as a strategic opportunity for increasing its influence. While we try to build a wall and otherwise keep people out, China is building pathways throughout the world. China is eagerly assuming the leadership that America is relinquishing (with big money to back it up). More and more, China is calling the shots on the regulations and systems that will govern the world, because we’ve chosen not to be involved in those meetings.

I encourage you to read up on the Belt and Road Initiative. Do a Google search–there’s a huge amount of information about the BRI. It’s important–maybe not for us, but for our descendants and America’s future.

During the past week, I read a couple articles contrasting Donald Trump and Robert Mueller (who is two years older than Trump). Both were born in wealthy New England families, were raised to lead, attended elite private schools, and graduated from Ivy League colleges. But from that point on, their lives diverged widely. We all know Trump’s story, but not so much Mueller’s. He’s quite an impressive guy–the very best of America in every way.

A few weeks before graduating from Princeton, Mueller enlisted in the Marines. He went through the Army’s Ranger and Airborne schools, and became an officer. He distinguished himself leading a rifle team in fierce combat in Vietnam. A lifelong friend said Vietnam gave Mueller “the backbone and the steel that he has today.”

Afterwards, he went into private law practice, making lots of money but hating it. He left to become a US homicide prosecutor, at one-fourth his previous salary, a job one writer compared to a retired general serving as a private. His star rose, and eventually he became FBI director under George W. Bush.

Mueller had a reputation for avoiding the limelight (unlike his FBI successor, James Comey). He would cross out every “I” in speeches, telling speechwriters that it wasn’t about him, but about the organization. He is described as having the same mindset as Bob Dole and George HW Bush, who seldom talked about their wartime experiences and felt an obligation to serve the country–and not boast about it. Said a friend, “He doesn’t brag about himself.” Even though he’s got real, courageous, life-and-death accomplishments.

Mueller has remained married to Ann, whom he married just after graduating from college. One of their two daughters has spina bifada. At one point, Mueller took a job just to be near the treatment she needed.

Mueller is America at its best, a man who gave up privilege to fight for his country and pursue public service. Donald Trump’s life, by contrast, has followed two obsessions: money, and women. Two very, very different lives which are now on a collision course.

Martin Luther King: “We have to repent in this generation, not merely for the hateful words and actions of bad people, but for the appalling silence of good people.”

When I was ten years old, I lived in Harrisburg, Pa. It’s a nice place. But I was thinking. What if my government suddenly forced me to give up my job, to give up my home, to give up my wife and cats, to give up my church, and unceremoniously deposited me in Harrisburg. With no job. No place to live. No nearby relatives. Just dumped me there and I had to fend for myself.

That’s basically what happened to Jorge Garcia of Detroit, who has been dumped in the foreign country which he left at age 10, which for him was thirty years ago. It’s yet another outrage from the Trump Administration’s unbending, no-exceptions-allowed policies. Yet another American family ripped apart by an uncaring government (though a whole lot of my Facebook friends will applaude his deportation).

Garcia was deported on Martin Luther King Day. King once wrote: “The Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not…the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than justice.” That nails what is happening here. Give me law and order, make me feel safe, protect my interests, coddle my fears and paranoia…even if it tramples on justice.

Jorge Garcia was brought to the US illegally at age 10. He has lived here 30 years, and has lived, by all accounts, a commendale life–working as a landscaper, paying taxes, no problems with the law. He married an American citizen 15 years ago, and they have two children who are American citizens, ages 12 and 15. The Trump administration killed an Obama administration policy which protected from deportation the parents of American citizens.

He has tried to get legal, but efforts have been unsuccessful. He has checked in with ICE for 13 years, so when a new president took office, they knew where to find him. He won’t be allowed to re-enter the US–for any reason, I understand–for at least ten years. If his family wants to see him, they’ll need to go to Mexico.

When Garcia’s 12-year-old son was asked how he felt, he said, “Sad, angry,” and then bowed his head and began crying. For ICE, just another day at work. For that boy, a life-altering trauma.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”–Edmund Burke.

It’s outrageous–it’s EVIL–to tear apart families like this. Previous administrations made compassionate allowances, but those days are gone. I won’t be quiet about this.