President Obama,

I want to express my sincere congratulations for your recent election as the President of this United States of America. Regardless of the differences in our political and social views, you are going to be my President and I will support you in that capacity. A wise patriot once said,

“...my she always be in the right, but right or wrong, our country.”

While I profess my support for you, as my President, I do have some concerns and questions that will be answered only by your actions as the leader of the free world. However, I do wish to clarify my perception of your ambitions and policies you wish to instill upon us.

You have ask us to “come together to remake this great nation” under your guiding hand and philosophy of “change”, and a majority of the electorate has decided that we will do just that. I do not profess to be one of her brightest sons, but my memory pushes me to recall being taught about a moment in our history, July 4^th 1776, when the corner stone of this country was set, by our founding fathers, through a Declaration of Independence from the British crown. I will begrudgingly admit that we, as a nation, are not perfect. You yourself eloquently pointed this out to citizens of Germany in your speech to the global community - Ironically, on the very soil the sons and daughters of this country fought and died to emancipate. However, I must confess that I still harbor deep emotional and spiritual beliefs that, while not perfect, our country is the greatest union of people and ideals in all of history. I am not convinced that we need to “remake” our nation into something different than what it stands for today. I was not aware that, in the course of today’s events, it has become necessary for us to dissolve the political bands that have connected us for centuries and that the ideal of unalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness needs to be remade.

According to the educated academic elite, you are the vessel for this change. Only you, President Obama, can clarify your vision of “change” through your actions.

Your administration has asked us to view your tax plan not as a socialistic scheme, but rather as a “patriotic” duty offering hope to everyone. You have personally told the American people that any resistance to giving the government more of our income for redistribution is nothing short of “making a virtue out of selfishness”. I must admit that various times in my life I have chosen to lavish gifts and material goods upon myself or my family when I was fortunate enough to have an excess of income. While these occasions do not happen too often, I am guilty as charged. Maybe this is a rift within the moral cloth that covers my life. Maybe I am selfish. On other occasions, however, I have given freely of my time, attention, and income to causes that I see as being worthwhile and more deserving than my own personal wants and desires. I am happy to do this when I am able and hope that a day will come when I can freely give much more without substantial impact to my family. Our willingness, as a nation, to freely share our toys and the contents of our lunch bag (as your example used) is well documented and does not reflect socialist or communist views - quite to the contrary. It reflects the Christian values our nation was built upon. The difference, President Obama, is that these acts are selfless and voluntary. However, the moment that the government mandates a “redistribution” or “equalization” of wealth through taxation, it is no longer voluntary and thus becomes socialistic in nature.

According to a majority of the journalists of television and print media, your plan is fair and equitable. Only you, President Obama, can clarify your meaning of “hope” through your actions.

Political pundants have made reference to the immensely negative world view of our United States. It seems we are perceived as being the bully of world politics, despite the fact that we, as a nation, contribute more to the United Nations than any other country in the world, offer aid to anyone willing to accept it, have fought to preserve freedom on almost every continent, and actively promote tolerance, democracy, and peace throughout the world. You, President Obama, have stated that we simply need to open a direct dialog between the White House and our enemies that want to destroy us. How, sir, can we communicate and bargain with people whose initial offer on the table is the destruction of our democracy and death to our citizens? Shall we offer them part of our freedoms and only the elderly or young as a sacrifice? How can they be trusted regardless of their promises? I assume that the decision to negotiate with these enemies must come from our trust in your ability to make a personal judgment upon their character. After all, we have entrusted you with the safety and security of our nation. My only concern is that your judgment does not have a very impressive track record. Your dealings with William Ayres, however innocent they were, seem to be based on the assumption that you had no idea that he was an unrepentant domestic terrorist. It seems your personal intuition lead you astray on that one. Another interesting figure in your history is your “mentor”, “father figure”, and pastor at your wedding, Reverend Wright. Beside the fact that you attended his church for 20 years, you never knew he held the belief that God should not bless America but rather he should damn America. You also never knew that he openly professed that we actually deserved to be attacked on 9-11, that America is the “number one killer in the world”, and finally, that no black man would ever be President of our country because “racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run.”  I hope that you would agree that he was wrong on all counts.

 According to the Democratic Party, you are the “change we can believe in”. Only you, President Obama, can prove that we should believe in you through your actions.

So, President Obama, our academic community, our media, the Democratic Party, and slightly over half of the population of this great nation is solidly behind you and your message. You have a mandate and a solidly Democratic Legislative branch to back you up. Will you destroy the best healthcare system in the world by forcing government intervention, or will you preserve our medical community? Will you stand behind our right and freedom of speech, or will you institute laws that restrict and silence it? Will you reduce the strain on our social and economic foundation by stopping the flow of illegal immigrants across our sovereign borders, or will you pander to the radical fringe and ignore our laws you have sworn to uphold? Will you protect our 2^nd Amendment rights or will you actively work to suppress our right to bear arms?

How will the historians reflect on the first black man to become President of these United States of America? Will they view you as one that held firm to the beliefs recorded within our Constitution, or will they see you as the President that destroyed the very foundation of the greatest country the world has ever known?

Only your actions, Mr. President, will reflect your true intentions. Everything else is “just words” and “just speeches” that mean absolutely nothing.

JP