Letter to President Obama, October 19, 2013
October 19, 2013
Christian Science Park
Boston, Massachusetts
Dear President Obama,
This begins my seventh letter to you, fifth since you’ve been the sitting American president. I write to you annually, & also publish the letter in my literary journal, The Cenacle.
I am writing this letter about eleven months after the American electorate fairly soundly chose to keep you in office for a second term. Since the Second World War, & the imposition of two-term limits on your office, it has proven fairly difficult to unseat a sitting president in his re-election bid. There is what I’d call a very working class sentiment that a man in office usually deserves to finish the job, or try to. And, in the case of your opponent Mitt Romney, the clown makeup was too glaring to miss.
So here you are, sir, with a second & final term as American president. No more elections of your own to run or to be beholden to. Now it’s not the need for money or votes but a clear focus upon the time remaining in office & what should be done with it.
There’s recently ended yet another battle in Washington over whether or not the government is a valid thing. Whether it can do good in people’s lives, protect & even improve their chances to get the basic needs of life met—food, housing, good health, meaningful work—& possibly think & feel & experience further into each’s brilliant, blessed mortal time on earth as men & women.
Yes, it can. Of course, yes it can. But that was never really the point of the question, was it? It was simply to sow dissension, stir prejudice, harden despair. Those who led the recent government shutdown want the American populace to give up, little by little, on the ideals of American governance—of, by, & for the people—even as these self-serving & pernicious motherfuckers invoke the Constitution.
Their battle line drawn? Your modest healthcare reforms, already passed into law, already vetted by the Supreme Court. Done deal. Done & done & done.
And they lost. Oh, but wait. Several months of your presidency was spent fighting this battle again. Time ticked off the clock, won’t come again. No refunds.
So, what now? Immigration reform. Talks with Iran. Those lead my mind, but many others closely follow.
I believe by now you are hardened to the job. You know the bloody money mechanisms of DC well enough to work them. You know the powers of your office exquisitely & I don’t doubt you have your plans ready for executing. Some will succeed, some fail, many won’t finish by when you shake your successor’s hand in January 2017.
What I wish to say to you, in practical terms, is this: stay angry. Stay hopeful. But this too: get more creative. This country is more than guns & money & resources & numbers. It is over 300 million minds to be summoned better, to be inspired to think new, & to push for & then past the impossible.
Sir, my question for you is this: how can you finally bypass all of the rusted mechanisms of American politics to collaborate directly with your fellow citizens? How?
I don’t know the answers to this question, or how it jibes with your existing plans, or what real world situations will affect the remaining years of your presidency.
I don’t know & yet I appeal to you, sir, Mister President, Barack, to realize finally that your hopes of doing good for the millions of common men & women you preside over lies in appealing to them directly. Angrily, hopefully, creatively, collaboratively. Every day, above & below & through the impediments you face.
And I’ll say more. We are one race, one human race, segmented artificially by countries & languages & religions & ideologies, but we still each & all die in the end. We each & all still dream every night. My beat & breath & brain are each’s & all’s. We each & all belong to this world.
As you move beyond the day’s latest manufactured crisis, my friend, know that you are in a sense not just working with & for Americans. The hope you preached of back in 2008 is still yearned around the globe by millions in worse circumstance than the most suffering Americans.
I urge you think in these terms hereon. Globally. What can you do with your remaining time for all men & women, <i>for all life on earth</i>?
That may sound crazy or too much by far. And yet, think of it: think of the few men & women we revere from the ages. They did not speak for a portion of the populace. They spoke to all of it. <i>All of us.</i> That’s why their words still inspire, still matter.
Think globally, Barack, in the days, weeks, & months ahead. Beyond the petty bullshit of your opponents, think globally. And angrily. And hopefully. And creatively. And collaboratively. Peace to you, my friend.
Respectfully,
Raymond Soulard, Jr.
Scriptor Press New England
http://www.scriptorpress.com
