Dear President Barack Obama:
First, congratulations on your
victory yesterday. No matter what happens, no matter where America goes as a nation, your climb to the highest office in the land made
history. Your Presidency (perhaps) offers us as a nation, as different and dispirited people a chance to once again unite as one under the stars and stripes as one United States of America. Many have said getting elected was/is the easy part, and now the true test begins as you prove to America,
prove to the world that you can lead. You are taking the helm at a time when America is more fractured than at almost any time in our 200 plus years of history, you are wanting to unite a people when we can hardly (in to many cases)stand looking at each other.
When I went to the polls yesterday I voted for you, not out of support, but as the
lesser of two evils because you as a Democrat could and can maintain the status quo on the Supreme Court. I am one of those people you spoke to last night when you said:
But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.
Joe Biden caught some flack when he said you would be tested early in your presidency, yet he was absolutely correct. You will be tested, and this open letter to you in this simple blog is a test. I disagree with you President Obama, and I want to know if you will truly hear those of us that we are not represented by our government, not represented by you.
Are you a man of your word Mr. Obama? Are you truly going to listen to us, especially those of us that have some serious issue with some of your rhetoric, some of your stated plans should you (which you have) be given the chance to govern us? Listening is wasted if it is not part of dialogue and discussion. I challenge you here...prove to me that you are listening by opening up dialogue aimed at building a bridge to those of us you would govern, not through force of your position, but through compromise and consensus. Show us as a nation, show me as a blogger some of that honesty you have promised by putting aside your campaign rhetoric and having some HONEST TALK about the challenges we face, and what can actually be done to address those problems in a fashion that is first and foremost fair to hurting Americans who live and work on Main Street.
Even before you were elected the rumors began drifting down to the those of us who live and work on Main Street that you wanted to/needed to tamp down the very expectations you have fostered. Borrowing a line from your opponent John McCain, "how about some straight talk" on expectations. Just what promises do you not intend to keep? Explain to us your justification in lying to us, in fostering false hopes for an agenda you can not keep, perhaps never intended to keep. You have made promises that are contradictory in nature, have in a sense positioned yourself to serve two masters, positioned many of us in the general population to be adversaries as we fight to keep the tattered threads of our dreams held together.
As example, you have appealed to, and made promises to the Middle Class American citizen that run contrary to the promises you held out to the Illegal Alien Community. How do you reconcile those competing promises, which group gets hurt as you move your agenda forward? Are you my President, or instead do you seek to serve those who have entered America Illegally, seek to serve those who have violated our laws, are in fact and deed criminals by the very definition of the word. The fact that Americans refuse to take a job at Slave Wages does not mean we will not do the job.
Telling us that illegal aliens take jobs we do not want is a lie that cannot be allowed to stand. Talk to Union Workers in the construction trades who have lost their jobs to illegal aliens who are working for dirt cheap wages. Speak to those who have lost their landscaping jobs to illegal aliens who have brought a pricing structure to the industry that law abiding, tax paying Americans cannot compete with.
In these hard economic times with 800,000 Americans losing their jobs in the last year, we as a nation cannot provide a pathway to citizenship to 25 million illegal aliens when doing so means stealing the American Dream away from Main Street Americans. In a us or them world, many of us on Main Street will fight for our rights if push has to come to shove, will not give up our American Dream to an illegal without a fight, especially if our government and big business continue to push our backs up against a wall.
I ask you President Obama, "Are you America's Legal Citizens president, or are you a president more concerned with the rights of illegal aliens who have stolen our dreams. Will you protect those of us who are Americans first, or throw us to the lions in the name of helping those that want to become Americans, or at least reap the financial rewards that living in America has to offer?"
You cannot escape the reality that illegal aliens have stolen jobs from America's lower and middle class. You cannot ignore the reality that illegal aliens, each and every year, lower the wages of America's lower and middle class by over $230 Billion dollars. Illegal Aliens from Mexico deny our economy much needed economic fuel by sending back home in the form of Remittances over $130 Billion per year. Those are real figures, those are real dollars that are being stolen from the wallets and pocketbooks of REAL AMERICANS, law abiding citizens that are being displaced by illegal aliens in the name of CHEAP WAGES. The Microsoft H1 Visa recruiting system is no better, is nothing more than a way to give our jobs away to others at discounted wages.
Please President Obama, sit down with Main Street America and explain to us how giving illegal aliens a pathway to citizenship is in our best interest. Please President Obama, explain to us how including Illegal Aliens in your comprehensive Health Coverage is in our best interests. Please President Obama, explain to me why our taxes should support a Dream Act for illegal aliens when we ourselves cannot afford a college education? Remember AMERICA FIRST? We want some honest talk Mr. Obama, not pretty little boxes with pretty little bows. We do not want pretty words, and noble speeches meant to deceive...we want some STRAIGHT TALK on these important topics.
In your acceptance speech last night, you went on to ask us, as in me to make sacrifices for the better good of America when you said:
And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.
It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.
So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.
Some of us, myself included feel we have already sacrificed enough for America, have given and given some more, we are tired of those that take and take, yet never give back. Being honest, as a Boomer I am worried that your call for sacrifice is once again going to see people in my age group picking up the tab for someone, everyone else in some fashion, am worried that once again we are the scape goat for some great vision, some great future that we ourselves never benefit from. In my own 53 years on this planet, have watched as our nation asked over and over again for our sacrifice. Being honest, from my own perspective, it is always the average blue collar Main Street American who pays the ultimate price for government mandates and bailouts. If our President is asking us to sacrifice, the rich and elite breath a huge sigh of relief knowing it is not them that will be asked to pay the bill.
Affirmative Action has been good for Black Americans and other minority groups, but who really paid the price for that helping hand up? Those of us who could least afford the price were asked to pay, are the ones that paved the way for that which was/is affirmative action. When a factory job was given to a minority because of the color of their skin, someone else was denied a job based on the color of theirs. Affirmative Action does not heal racial tensions, but instead feeds them, as Affirmative Action is a reverse racism that builds and fosters resentments based along racial lines. If I am denied a job because of the color of my skin, I am going to resent the person or group that got that job based on the color of their skin. Equal rights includes equal competition, not competition wherein one selected group gets a BENEFIT going in that sees them getting a job when they were not/are not the BEST QUALIFIED.
When Ronald Reagan signed into law the great Amnesty of 1986, it was the lower and middle class that paid the price, took the hit with depressed wages, and lost jobs. We were promised it would be the last such Amnesty, we were promised border and work place enforcement in return for accepting something which we greatly opposed. When Social Security needed saved, it was the blue collar worker that picked up the tab, while the rich and elite get a break, paying the tax on only a portion of their salaries.
Modern history...how about the Wall Street bailout? Who has paid the price for the greed on Wall Street, and our government's inability to do its job in regulating both the banking and lending industry? The majority of Americans opposed that $1 trillion dollar bailout, yet Congress over rode the will of the people and passed it into law anyway. We oppose helping out those home owners in foreclosure as that is not fair to the rest of us, yet you Mr. Obama have said you would support such a bailout. Such and act will leave myself and hundreds of thousands of Americans like me in upside down mortgages as we wait for the real estate market to turn around...is it fair to make me pay for the sins of others in such a fashion? Especially when bailing foreclosed home owners out will actually put them in a better financial situation than I find myself in. They have their interest payments reduced, perhaps even have a certain percentage of their debt written off, and I am left holding my own bloated mortgage for having done the right thing? Is that your American Dream President Obama? It that your plan to help out Main Street America, or is it your plan to help the Black and Latino community at the expense of America's White Middle Class? (The majority of foreclosed homes are owned by families that have at least one minority adult.) Why should my taxes be used to bail them out if in doing so, they get the chance to move ahead of me in the line to living the American Dream...sorry, but I do not buy into the Christian teaching that those who are first shall be last, I believe we reap what we sow, and that government has no business giving a hand up to anyone if in doing so they put them ahead of others in the line.
You spoke today (November 5th) about your challenges, and almost instantly took everything you promised off the table. The one thing you kept on the table was Energy...I'd like to talk to you about Energy, specifically Nuclear Energy. Right now the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) is rubberstamping the license renewal applications of every aged reactor in America in the name of a Nuclear Renaissance. You say you are not ruling out nuclear energy as a part of the solution, but it has to be done safely. Prove you mean that Barack Omama...our current fleet of reactors are leaking vile radioactive contaminants into our environment, into our communities including, but not limited to Strontium 90, Tritium and Celsium 137.
It is my belief that Indian Point, which is three miles from my house contributed to, or caused my wife's breast cancer. At every turn in the road, the NRC and Entergy hide the truth from the citizens, push off vital safety inspections, and are forcing us to play host to a dangerous set of reactors we do not want for 20 more years. Again, our community kept our end of the deal, we did our part for America playing host for 40 years. It should now be someone else's turn to saddle the risks of nuclear power. I am asking you through Presidential Decree to order an Independent Safety Analysis at every reactor site in America, am asking you through an executive order to halt all license renewal activities till these Independent Safety Analysis have been completed. Further, I am asking you to order a Inspector General investigation into the entire License Renewal Process, and where warranted TO REVERSE NRC decisions if safety issues were ignored or set aside during the License Renewal Process, including if necessary setting aside Renewed Licenses that were wrongfully/illegally granted.
Nuclear energy is not safe, and thousands of Americans are dying as a result of its environment toxins creeping into our communities. Keep your campaign promise of holding the nuclear industry accountable, keep your promise of making nuclear energy safe, vital and secure, as right now it is NONE OF THE ABOVE.
A man is only as good as his word, his word his bond...show me President Obama, show the world that you are a man of his world, rather than a typical politician giving voices to empty campaign rhetoric and worn out social promises that you never intended on keeping. I've spoken Mr. Obama and now ask you to show you have listened by giving me the basic human decency of an HONEST reply.
