A Letter to Obama - November 2008

Dear Barack and Michele Obama,

It is election day in the U.S. and we, like literally billions of other folks, await today’s results with a mixture of excitement and dread.  The thought of you being elected is exciting, given what you have said and written, and contemplating a McCain/Palin administration is a frightening prospect, indeed.

We are a small group of U.S. citizens residing in Tübingen, a university town in southwest Germany, and we are politically active, despite the geographical distance to the U.S.    We’ve observed your campaign for the presidency with excitement and, sad to say, with a healthy dose of skepticism given a good deal of the Democrats’ behavior in the past.  To clarify, although in comparison with the Republicans the Democrats presently appear somewhat angelic; we believe the Democratic party also bears much responsibility for the failure to resolve what has fundamentally troubled the country for, literally, hundreds of years.

Having said that, however, Democrats are our natural working partners, and it would bring great joy if we could bridge the gap, with willing Republicans and people of every stripe, and bring about something new and enduring in the U.S., and the world.

Here are some issues of great interest and concern to us:

The unhealed racial divide in the U.S., some 500 years later!   There is some way to cure this ill.  A truth and reconciliation commission?    Please take up this issue.  People on all sides suffer, to this day.

• Health Care for all, period.
• Higher education for all who are so motivated, period.
• The maximization of clean, alternative energy sources.
• The environmental degradation of our very home, and planet.  This is so basic, and urgent that it requires no further elaboration.  Our future obviously rests on this issue.

Six weeks paid vacation for employees, in addition to paid public holidays, as is the situation here in Germany.  Do people in the U.S. actually believe that this is only possible here in Western Europe, and not in the States?  In the so-called “richest” nation in the world?   If so, they have been lied to.  Please disabuse them of the notion.  It is not only possible, it is necessary.  The stress that folks in the U.S. live with, year in and year out, throughout our lifetimes, literally contributes to disease, aggression at home and abroad(Iraq), anxiety on a daily basis, an inability to really relax and deeply enjoy our lives, and a host of other problematic symptoms.  It will be supremely helpful, and enjoyble to boot, when people in the U.S. overcome whatever stigma the concept or word “socialism”conjures up, and realize that generous vacation time, health care, free college education, etc. are the very things necessary to reduce our stress while simultaneously improving the quality of our lives tenfold.  Imagine the difference this will make nationwide?

The same Social Security system for Congress, and everyone in government, as for the rest of us.  It is dangerous, unfair, and clearly not in the interests of the people when Congress’ financial well-being is not also at stake when decisions are being made in this arena.

Continually reducing the country’s, and the world’s, nuclear stockpile to the maximum extent possible.

Cease bankrupting the country vis a vis “defense” spending and the expansion throughout the world of our armed forces.  800 military bases or more on foreign soil alone?  Why is this necessary?   Create a Department of Peace, and invest resources and thought in order to bring about lasting peace in the world.  There is nothing we cannot accomplish when we collaborate creatively.

Utterly remove the profit from the manufacture and distribution of weapons, and delete ‘Arms Purveyor Number 1’ from the U.S.’ resume.  Imagine to what extent we are blocking our own, along with the worlds’, real prospects for peace for the sake of “profit” and “jobs”.

Make a real attempt to count the Iraqi dead and wounded.  Intentionally avoiding this as the Bush/Cheney administration has, incredibly, gotten away with literally gives Iraqis, and the world, the message that Iraqis “don’t count”.  Make amends in constructive ways to the Iraqis, and others we have wounded over the years.  Sadly, it is a long list, but once we take steps in this direction a shift will begin to occur in the world, and people can begin to let go of their understandable resentment and hatred of us.  We have, unfortunately, done much to earn it.

Determine precisely what returning U.S. troops need in order to heal from their own trauma(emotional, physical, and psychic), and provide it for them, unconditionally, without further ado.  Make no mistake, our troops have been traumatized by the hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it goes on daily.   There has been much talk during this war, and past ones, of our “heroes”, but when it came to caring for them upon their return they have been left, tragically, and with disastrous consequences for themselves and society, in the lurch.  The suicide, violence, divorce, and addiction rates are acute, as ever following war.  Soldiers are killing themselves, in part because they have no profeesionals to turn to about their horrific, life-altering experiences in Iraq.   Coming to terms with the violence they have carried out, witnessed, and received in the course of their “tours” in Iraq and Afghanistan requires care and thoughtfulness on the part of us at home.  They require assistance and resources in order to successfully reintegrate into U.S. society, and avoid becoming the largest fraction of the homeless population in the U.S., as is the case with the Viet Nam veterans.  They deserve all of the help needed to find their way.  They are also victims of this tragic war.  Many of these soldiers went into the service in the first place not for reasons of duty, but rather because of the dim prospects facing them as adults in the U.S.  This reality needs to be addressed as well.

Allow the people in the U.S. to see what destruction and bloodshed we’ve unleashed in Iraq, as well as our wounded and killed returning sons and daughters, funerals included.  We can take it, and we’ll be better off for it.  Stop preventing this, as the Bush/Cheney administration has done merely to prevent the people in the U.S. from bringing this war to an end, as we did during the Viet Nam debacle.  Observing the consequences to both the Iraqis and U.S. troops, along with the obvious effects on U.S. society will help us avoid similar catastrophes and crimes agains humanity the next time, and find constructive alternatives to invading other nations.

Change the way teachers are compensated and honored in our society.  Undervaluing and demeaning them, as we have, speaks volumes about our society’s priorities, and doesn’t bode well at all for the future.

Address and resolve the homeless “situation in our country.  We don see homeless here in Germany.  This issue is eminently solvable in the U.S.  We must simply invest some thought and resources.

Cease supporting fascist strongmen and sabotaging fledgling democracies worldwide for the sake of  “profit” and “strategic” reasons.  Our hypocrisy is rarely more apparent than when we, through the C.I.A. and clandestine means destroy peoples’ lives and dash their democratic hopes.  Bring the details of our past, in this regard, to the surface in society so that the vast majority of citizens, who seem either unaware or uninterested in knowing, can thus face what we’ve wrought in the world.  This can go a long way toward helping folks in the U.S. understand why we are resented, and even hated.

Bring an end to the currupt and currupting military/industrial/congressional complex.  Help ordinary citizens become aware of what is happening.  Surely there are whistle blowers in congress, in the military, and in industry, who need to be supported and protected in order that we may understand how this poisonous activity comes about, and how we can address it.  Until this problem is rooted out, and the system transformed, we have zero chance of achieving peace, and our government, industry, and the military will correctly be considered currupt and untrustworthy, both at home and abroad.

Make corruption in government a prime issue.  Few citizens really trust their elected reprentatives, and for good reason.  No one is more aware than politicians, people who work for congress, members of the judiciary, and the executive of the myriad subtle, and not so subtle, forms that corruption takes in the U.S. government.  This is holding us back as a society.  Find a creative way in which to bring all of this to the awareness of the people.  We can then design safeguards.  Our politicians deserve support in this regard, as well.  The temptations are just too great.    
   
We have directed this letter to Michele’s attention with the thought that, perhaps, her time is slightly less proscribed than your’s is, at present.    

As today is literally election day we don’t yet know what the people will decide.   Whatever the outcome, the yearning for positive change, however,  remains a constant in the human psyche, and we have much to do in this regard.  Come what may this evening, what you and Michele, along with the millions you’ve inspired, have accomplished is beyond impressive.  The items listed above, in addition to others unnamed,  apply to both presidents and senators.   Or perhaps it is more accurate to say, ‘for presidents, senators, and the rest of us as well’.  

We appreciate that you have called upon us, the people, to engage ourselves politically, and work with those in politics to bring about changes that so many long for.  You may take this letter as proof that we are listening, and wish to collaborate with as many as are willing.  

We hope this marks the beginning of a working relationship whereby we can make our common dreams manifest.  Please call on us, literally,and advise how we may assist.   

We wish you the best in your efforts to bring watershed change about in both U.S. society, and the world at large, and we are with you.  A final word of caution, and we mean this affectionately.  Please take some time to consider, if you have not already done so, what steps will be required to protect yourselves, and all that work alongside you, from the inevitable temptations that power brings.  History could hardly be more compelling in this regard.  Unless those in power take conscious steps, and receive regular feedback from objective and forthright third parties, it seems only a matter of time before the corrupting influence of power seeps through, despite the best intentions.  Have a care!

Your neighbors, physical distance notwithstanding, and fellow citizens,


Tübingen Progressive Americans,

P.S.  Here in Tübingen at the German American Institute there is an event tonight, ‘Sleepless in Tübingen, from 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m., with regard to the election in the States.  You are in our thoughts.  TPA