dear president bush:
i cried myself to sleep last night. i need you to help me. i can't do this every night. i need you to understand that you are my president, too. that you represent me, too. and the entire population. not just the half that voted for you. it's called public service for a reason. i pray that you will consider that you now (this term) serve more than you have heretofore [that means before now].
please try to understand that there are many of us (not an insignificant number - in spite of how you may qualitatively deem us insignificant) who do not feel safer, better off, or optimistic about the future. please, please, please look deep inside yourself and try to see how you just may have contributed to our deep dissatisfaction and fear. please, please, please try to find a way to take advantage of this gift of 4 more years to do some real good. to acknowledge and serve at least more of us. not just rich, white christians.
understand who i am. i am a 50 year-old white woman, raised as a christian (i do admit to being a non-believer, according to your criteria), married to a (mostly) succesful lawyer for over 30 years. if i feel disenfranchised [that means powerless], how are we (me AND you) to have any hope at all that the future holds anything better for ANYBODY except for the very, very small (let's be honest for once here) group of people for whom you really do work.
you were elected because you have tapped into a very fragile and flawed character aspect of our american psyche. we americans feel that it's our right to feel that our agenda and actions are completely pure and benign. it's a much more difficult and painful task to seriously look at and actually admit what your character flaws and misguided behaviours may have been. [see how delicately i put that?] get serious about working these steps again.
AA Step 8: We made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
AA Step 9: We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
AA Step 10: We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
i promise that if you try, i will. cuz i can't cry myself to sleep every night. i just can't.
Posted by Stacey at November 3, 2004 12:02 PMI cried too over the multitude of sad things I read in the paper this morning. Somehow I feel better knowing I'm not alone. I am very worried. I need a hug. *sigh*
Posted by: moonandsun at November 3, 2004 01:38 PMMust. bite. tongue. Must. bite. tongue.
Must. resume. shopping. ;-)
Posted by: lucy at November 3, 2004 03:11 PMBeautifully said. I wish we could all get together and talk about this.
Posted by: Jen at November 3, 2004 03:48 PMThank you, Stacey, for those thoughts. If only he could understand how so many of us think and feel.
Posted by: Philip at November 4, 2004 09:40 AMI, too, shed many tears yesterday. This was a very sweet, heart-felt post.
BTW, LOVE this line. It made me laugh :) "heretofore [that means before now]."
Thanks for visiting my site!
OMG. You are eversomuch more articulate about this than I could ever be. Thank you for expressing in words what I have only thus far been able to express with tears and frustration and fists to my desk and anguished cries of "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!".
There outta be a gathering place for us all to come together and grieve for a bit. I feel a need to grieve anyway. I am grieving. Is ourbucks open for grieving? *sigh* wish it was closer. :(
Posted by: Keri at November 4, 2004 01:59 PMAnother wonderfully written piece on this topic:
>Tequilla Mockingbird</
Posted by: Keri at November 4, 2004 04:48 PMAnother wonderfully written piece on this topic:
http://tequilamockingbird.blogspot.com/2004_11_01_tequilamockingbird_archive.html#109953917484163376
(rats - hit post before preview - sorry...) so here is the address.
Posted by: Keri at November 4, 2004 04:50 PM