Dear President Obama,
It's 2:20 a.m and I just woke up feeling like I have slept all nite. I'm not usually a dreamer which according to my neurologist is a bad thing, but lately it seems like I've been having more and more dreams. They aren't weird or crazy dreams at least I don't think so, they're just dreams. Quite a few of them seem to be taking me back to certain points in my youth, when things were a lot safer and seemed more free than today. Things weren't as politically correct, which by the way i despise. It was an enjoyable time, spent playing with friends and hanging out at the playground. We didn't need coaches, we didn't need equipment, we didn't need nets on baskets as long as there was a rim, we didn't need $200 special shoes. All we needed was a $9.99 pair of chuck taylor adidas and we were good to go. It didn't matter what sport, what season or for that matter, what time of the year. Depending on how many kids we had for each team, we made up special rules such as no hitting to right field, something your administration seems to be quite adept at. You ran one of the best campaigns ever run in my lifetime.
I feel like I'm supposed to do something now, I just don't know what it is. I've never been much for public speaking but I feel like I'm no longer supposed to be silent. I've always loved my country and I feel that literally every day, slowly but surely, little by little she is being taken away from me. I'm angry and uspset that this is happening and I don't know what to do about it. I don't know if I'm supposed to shout it from the rooftop, from the highest mountain or write an article or articles letting others know how I and I think many other Americans think.
The problem now is, that the campaign is over and it's time to lead. I don't mean lead the way you're leading, I mean be a real leader. Our country isn't perfect, no country is but for you to go around the world apologizing for us is absurd. Our country has stepped up to defend freedom, liberty and defeat tyranny quite a few times, I don't hear you giving us credit for that undertaking. Our grandfathers, fathers, sons and now daughters have given the ultimate sacrifice to defend other countries as well as our own. I don't ever recall other world leaders apologizing for atrocities their countries committed. You say you don't want to dwell on the past but instead look to the future. I suggest you follow your own advice.
I grew up in a time of great change in our country, I've seen a lot in my lifetime. I've seen this country grow from being centered in cities to the growth of one small community after another. I've seen a President assassinated and attempts on 2 others. I've seen us land a man on the moon and bring him home again. I've seen us put up satellites, have them orbit the earth and bring us television channels from all over the world. We've put up an international space station and have people living there. I've seen records in sports being broken and rebroken many times. I've seen integregation in all sports and some of the greatest athletes of all time. I was a child of the 60's during the Vietnam War and saw the protests, draft dodgers, flag burning, woodstock, hippies, peace and free love. I've seen amazing technological advances from vinyl records to reel to reel tape to 8 tracks to cassettes to cd's to ipods. I've seen mobile phones go from builing muscles to something that can now be put into a pant's pocket.
I've seen government grow larger and larger and become more and more inefficient. The party in power doesn't make any difference the growth gets larger, the inefficiency gets bigger and the people are getting more and more ignored. D. C. doesn't hear us, we are called brown shirts, loons, crazies and astroturf among other things. You ran on "Hope and Change" and for the most part, it has been an empty slogan. I would remind you, that you weren't given a mandate to destroy our country, our lives and our economy. You have set and decided on your agenda, which is your perogative, but you have turned over the process for congress to carry out. You have allowed them to inflate bills with earmarks which you promised to go over line by line. You promised that 95% of Americans would not see their taxes go up by one single dime and yet you signed a cigarette tax increase. Do you think that not one of that 95% don't smoke? You are pushing for a cap and trade bill which in your own words will raise utility bills for every household by at least $100 per month. You signed a $787 billion stimulus package where you stated if passed unemployment would not rise above 8%. We are currently at 9.4% and your administration admits it will continue to rise. You have created more debt in your now 7 months than all previous President's combined. Your administration has missed every estimate you have given the American public. You have admitted this spending is unsustainable, yet you continue to push your agenda which is creating more spending. You were going to change the way things got done in Washington. You have certainly done that by creating 3 times as many czars as any prior President. Admittedly, I'm not as intelligent as you but the math doesn't add up to me. President Truman said "The buck stops here" and President Kennedy said "Ask not what your country can for you, but what you can do for your country." I suggest you take those words to heart. Stop the dismantling of this great country as if it is your own personal science project.
I grew up watching with my parents Walter Cronkite and Huntley-Brinkley. They were newsmen you could trust and believe, that is no longer the case in today's journalism. When Chris Matthews states listening to you give a speech "sends a tingle up his leg," even to a casual observer the proverbial cat is out of the bag. I hear the news but i no longer listen to it, instead I believe what I see. You are not showing me much thus far and I think at least according to the polls, the American public isn't seeing much either. We are not right wing loons, crazies, brown shirts or astro turf. We are the "silent majority" who has had enough and are no longer remaining silent. We are standing up with one voice letting our feelings known to politicans who for too long have ignored us. We will be heard, we will not be silenced and Washington had better listen and hear our voices. If they continue to ignore our voice, they will soon be joining the same unemployement lines that we are standing in. Maybe then they will finally listen and hear.
