An Open Letter to Barack Obama

[Alyrium Denryle]

I will be sending this in, hopefully via a friend in his campaign that can get it to him (by in campaign, I mean youth vote coordinator for one of the swing states) as soon as I can get the stamps to send a hard copy... I have to figure out where to get stamps around here.


Dear Senator Obama

My name is Benjamin Allen, I am an Alaska native, Arizona resident, and a graduate student in Biology at the University of Texas, Arlington. I am also gay, and an ardent secularist.

These past eight years, myself and other GLBT people, as well as secularists and those who value the bill of rights, have come under attack by the republican party and the religious right in particular. This year, I must once again vote on my own constitutionally guaranteed equal protection under the law, after republicans in the Arizona state senate illegally recognized a republican after deliberately cutting off the microphone held by a senate democrat, in order to bypass a filibuster on an anti-gay marriage. This is after the 2006 election where our own lobby groups got the same bill voted down by cynically playing down that it directly targeted gay people, and playing up the fact that a provision in it would harm the civil union and domestic partnership benefits of heterosexual couples. That provision has been stricken from this bill.

I started out at the age of fourteen a starry-eyed idealist. I was hopeful for the future, I had hope that things would be better than they were, that I could be out of the closet without risking being fired or denied housing, that I could one day hold my boyfriend’s hand in public without being beaten or murdered.

Since that fateful day on January 20th, 2001 (A day that will live in infamy) when George W. Bush was first sworn into office, I have watched my hope collapse. I have watched our civil liberties, the cornerstone of freedom in America erode. I have watched our economy collapse under its own deregulated weight, and our public infrastructure crumble. I have watched friends fight and die in a pointless war, and seen troops come home bereft of medical or psychological care to languish with untreated PTSD and depression, or in under-funded hospitals where sanitation is like Santa Clause, a myth. I have watched the legal rape of women’s rights, and have watched as state after state expresses in the pooling booths exactly how they feel about gay people such as myself. We are apparently inhuman monsters. I have watched our environment despoiled, and our educational system (and New Orleans) sink to new lows while poverty, teen pregnancy, and STD infection rates climb to new heights. I have watched nearly a decade of Republican misrule, as they systematically prove that government does not work by running it into the ground. I have even watched the sciences, the love of my life and the one incorruptible thing I have been able to find, attacked, edited, and misrepresented by this tyrannical administration.

I am tired Senator. I am only twenty-two years old, and I am already tired and world-weary. I should not have to be this tired. The administration ignores the law, has practically rewritten the dictionary such that liberal is a curse word, and what is worse, the democrats in the congress have been too spineless to put a stop to it. I must confess senator, that I consider your vote on telecomm immunity a betrayal, only mitigated by the fact that it was disgustingly necessary. But after all of that, McCain is not dead in the polls. He even named Gov Palin as his running mate, and his numbers have climbed. When I close my eyes, the faces of Jerry Falwell, Dick Cheney, and Dr. Blight (a villain from the 1980s cartoon Captain Planet that I watched growing up) merge into her face. Her record on church/state separation, gay rights, women’s rights, corruption, and her environmental record are so abysmal that she is essentially a cartoon villain made flesh. And yet, if this trend continues, McCain has a shot at winning the general election, which will shatter any faith in the American people I might have left. Because if that happens, it will cease to matter what republicans do, they cant be beaten. Fighting them is like fighting the Borg, it doesn’t matter what we do, we are forced to retreat, they start wars, and we fall back, they gut education, healthcare, social safety nets, civil liberties and the environment and we fall back. No more. The line must be drawn here, or we are lost as a nation. If we cannot win this election, then there is no more hope to be had. The well will be dry.

So I am going to do something have not been able to do for years. I am going to trust you Senator Obama. Against my better judgment, I am going to put what little faith I have left to give in you. I am going to trust that you will win, and that you will deliver on your promise to bring sanity back to this country. I am going to trust that you will restore our shattered bill of rights, that you will restore science to its position of unbiased advisor, and that you will help me and the people of this country restore their dignity and faith in government. Finally, I am going to trust that you will restore diplomacy and coalition building as our primary foreign policy rather than war and unilateralism.

I realize I am only one person, a geek who studies frogs in northern Texas, of all places, but I like to think that others are in the same position, and that in some abstract sense I speak for them as well (disclaiming the hubris of that statement of course)

Don’t disappoint us.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Thomas Allen

[Alyrium Denryle]

Borg reference may be cut from the final draft... I am not sure I can count on a senator having bothered to watch First Contact

[General Zod]

Borg reference may be cut from the final draft... I am not sure I can count on a senator having bothered to watch First Contact

I'd suggest cutting out all the pop culture references. For something that's supposed to be political and genuine, it makes it come off as less serious and more over the top. Just to be safe I'd nix the bit about all of those people merging into her face too (Captain Planet reference? wtf?).

[Stark]

Wow, that's actually a kinda creepy letter. Is this how Americans address their representatives?

[Alyrium Denryle]

Wow, that's actually a kinda creepy letter. Is this how Americans address their representatives?

Typically they write to complain.

However I am somewhat disconcerted that my efforts at eloquence are creepy... I may have to re-evaluate.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Borg reference may be cut from the final draft... I am not sure I can count on a senator having bothered to watch First Contact

I'd suggest cutting out all the pop culture references. For something that's supposed to be political and genuine, it makes it come off as less serious and more over the top. Just to be safe I'd nix the bit about all of those people merging into her face too (Captain Planet reference? wtf?).

Fair enough. What sounds good rhetorically to me, often does not resound well with others. Hence the posting.

[Stark]

Typically they write to complain.

However I am somewhat disconcerted that my efforts at eloquence are creepy... I may have to re-evaluate.

Well I'm not sure what's expected in America, but the tone of the letter is a strange mix of 'addressing King Solomon' deference and deeply personaly, emotive clingy language. I'd feel very uncomfortable having such a letter addressed to me from a complete stranger.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Typically they write to complain.

However I am somewhat disconcerted that my efforts at eloquence are creepy... I may have to re-evaluate.

Well I'm not sure what's expected in America, but the tone of the letter is a strange mix of 'addressing King Solomon' deference and deeply personaly, emotive clingy language. I'd feel very uncomfortable having such a letter addressed to me from a complete stranger.

Oh, if it came off that way, yeah, it is expected in the US. Though I will clean up the language. This is a rough draft. More eyes are better than just mine (especially because without my glasses I am not allowed anywhere near machinery)

It is a bit odd, we are expected to hold our politicians up on a pedestal, but also loathe them.

[Darth Wong]

I'm not sure what you're hoping to accomplish with this letter.

[Alyrium Denryle]

I'm not sure what you're hoping to accomplish with this letter.

I am not necessarily sure myself, other than expression of what I have invested in this election, and a plea to not fuck it up like kerry did. Frankly I doubt it would reach his desk even if I do forward it through one of my fraternity brothers. But it is the thought that counts I imagine...

[Sikon]

I'd feel very uncomfortable having such a letter addressed to me from a complete stranger.

Nobody's likely to mind actually. The employee processing it will probably be used to reading thousands of letters of all sorts. With the 300-million U.S. population being about 1000 times greater than the total number of minutes a major public figure is awake in a year, let alone the lesser period of time available to spare, even the minority sending letters is numerous enough to guarantee that few if any letters would be read personally. Even spending a couple minutes personally reading each of the average messages from someone would tend to be quite impractical for a presidential candidate given the numbers involved if so many as just 1 in 10000 people sent messages.

What politicians do is have staffers process letters, potentially replying too. Then possibly a selected handful of the total may be read by their boss, presumably under special circumstances depending on public relations significance, like ones from a media figure or celebrity perhaps. Possibly the staffers may keep track of statistics like the number of letters received supporting X or opposing Y.

[Justforfun000]

Actually I found it quite heartfelt and moving even though some of the pop culture references as others have mentioned might be a little stretchy...but he'd probably get it anyway.

Obama is not a dumb kitten. The basic thrust is quite understandable and while it's questionable he'd necessarily receive it and be able to read it among the thousands of other correspondence he has...you never know, eh? I've heard speeches where people pulled out the "A young girl in wichita wrote me and asked if I'd outlaw Santa because he was too Christian..."..You know? It's hard to say, but shit, I always think it's better to do something then nothing. Kudos Aly. Express yourself and see where it might lead, even if it's only for personal catharsis.

[Covenant]

You can actually just write to the campaign afterall. You'll probably get a response as labelled from the person you wrote to, and generally addressing some element of what you were talking about, or pointing you to something. It's actually a somewhat interesting experiment to see what you can elict from the response machine in terms of a reply. But if you've got strong feelings, wording them strongly at the top of a letter and mailing it in is better than a normal "poll" for getting your word across. It's next to nothing, but it's still better than just an open letter, which is directed at discussion and not a politician.

You also shouldn't bother with the high-language much. That's great for evoking stuff in political terms, but it's not how he actually talks, and I've seen the guy speak way back during his State Senate and Senate runs.

The reason that some letters get read is because they connect on a basic level. Speechwriters aren't the ones reading it, so if you've got a real good visceral comment you might want to just use a tone that gets your idea across. Plus, it would strip out the hang-wringing, because that's going to be the red flag that gets processed anyway. If someone says "win or I'm gonna jump ship" they're going to focus on talking you off the ledge, not on winning. Stay optimistic, don't let some dumb polling data and the addition of a breast-equipped Rich Old White Man turn you into jello.

Barack is used to Chicago politics anyway, and we don't bullshit our politicians, so you're certainly not going to offend any softer sensibilities by just laying it out there.

[Terralthra]

Dear Senator Obama:

My name is Benjamin Allen. I am an Alaska native, Arizona resident, and a graduate student in Biology at the University of Texas, Arlington. I am also gay and an ardent secularist.

These past eight years, myself and other GLBT people, as well as secularists and those who value the bill of rights, have come under attack by the Republican party and the religious right in particular. This year, I must once again vote on my own constitutionally-guaranteed equal protection under the law. Republicans in the Arizona state Senate illegally recognized a Republican after deliberately cutting off the microphone held by a Senate Democrat in order to bypass a filibuster on an anti-gay marriage bill. This is after the 2006 election where our own lobby groups got the same bill voted down by cynically playing down that it directly targeted gay people, and playing up the fact that a provision in it would harm the civil union and domestic partnership benefits of heterosexual couples. That provision has been stricken from this bill.

I started out at the age of fourteen as a starry-eyed idealist. I was hopeful for the future, I had hope that things would be better than they were, that I could be out of the closet without risking being fired or denied housing, that I could one day hold my boyfriend’s hand in public without being beaten or murdered.

Since that fateful day on January 20th, 2001 (A day that will live in infamy) I'd snip the parenthetical when George W. Bush was first sworn into office, I have watched my hope collapse. I have watched our civil liberties, the cornerstone of freedom in America, erode. I have watched our economy collapse under its own deregulated weight and our public infrastructure crumble. I have watched friends fight and die in a pointless war and seen troops come home bereft of medical or psychological care to languish with untreated PTSD and depression, or sit in under-funded hospitals where sanitation is a myth. I have watched the legal rape of women’s rights and have watched as state after state expresses in the polling booths exactly how they feel about gay people such as myself. We are apparently inhuman monsters. I have watched our environment despoiled and our educational system (and New Orleans) sink to new lows while poverty, teen pregnancy, and STD infection rates climb to new heights. I have watched nearly a decade of Republican misrule, as they systematically prove that government does not work by running it into the ground. I have even watched the sciences, the love of my life, and the one incorruptible thing I have been able to find, attacked, edited, and misrepresented by this tyrannical administration.

I am tired, Senator. I am only twenty-two years old, and I am already tired and world-weary. I should not have to be this tired. The administration ignores the law and has practically rewritten the dictionary such that liberal is a curse word, and even worse, the Democrats in Congress have been too spineless to put a stop to it. I must confess, Senator, that I consider your vote on telecom immunity a betrayal only mitigated by the fact that it was disgustingly necessary. But after all of that, McCain is not dead in the polls. He even named Gov. Palin as his running mate, and his numbers climbed. When I close my eyes, the faces of Jerry Falwell, Dick Cheney, and Dr. Blight (a villain from the 1980s cartoon Captain Planet that I watched growing up) merge into her face. I would cut this entirely. Her record on church/state separation, gay rights, women’s rights, corruption, and her environmental record are so abysmal that she is essentially a cartoon villain made flesh. And yet, if this trend continues, McCain has a shot at winning the general election If he did, it would shatter any faith I have left in the American people. Because if that happens, it will cease to matter what Republicans do, they can't be beat. Fighting them is like fighting the Borg, it doesn’t matter what we do, we are forced to retreat, they start wars, and we fall back, they gut education, healthcare, social safety nets, civil liberties and the environment and we fall back. No more. The line must be drawn here, or we are lost as a nation. I'd rewrite this part to do without the ST reference If we cannot win this election, then there is no more hope to be had. The well will be dry.

So, I am going to do something have not been able to do for years. I am going to trust you Senator Obama. Against my better judgment, I am going to give to you what little faith I have left. I am going to trust that you will win, and that you will deliver on your promise to bring sanity back to this country. I am going to trust that you will restore our shattered bill of rights, that you will restore science to its position of unbiased advisor, and that you will help me and the people of this country restore their dignity and faith in government. Finally, I am going to trust that you will restore diplomacy and coalition building as our primary foreign policy rather than war and unilateralism.

I realize I am only one person, a geek who studies frogs in northern Texas, of all places, but I like to think that others are in the same position, and that in some abstract sense I speak for them as well (disclaiming the hubris of that statement of course):

Don’t disappoint us.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Thomas Allen

Some minor edits for style and grammar. I can give more rhetorical feedback if you would like.

[Sikon]

they gut education

Most U.S. educational spending is by local and state governments, but an exponential increase in federal spending on education resulted in 2008 spending being 175% of 2000 spending.

After adjustment for inflation, that's a 40% increase in 8 years, not a cut.

they gut education, healthcare

Not including spending of state governments, federal health and medicare spending went from $352 billion in 2000 to about $672 billion in 2008. After adjusting for inflation, that is again a large increase, with funds allocated rising by 55% over 8 years.

Etc.

[Sriad]

These past eight years, myself and other GLBT people, as well as secularists and those who value the bill of rights, have come under attack by the republican party and the religious right in particular. This year, I must once again vote on my own constitutionally guaranteed equal protection under the law, after republicans in the Arizona state senate illegally recognized a republican after deliberately cutting off the microphone held by a senate democrat, in order to bypass a filibuster on an anti-gay marriage. This is after the 2006 election where our own lobby groups got the same bill voted down by cynically playing down that it directly targeted gay people, and playing up the fact that a provision in it would harm the civil union and domestic partnership benefits of heterosexual couples. That provision has been stricken from this bill.

Check composition rules: I think you're missing capitalizations on "Senate", "Democrat", and "Republican". Also, I'd cite the bill number, Senate session where the filibuster denial happened, and other fiddly legalistic details of specific events. Obama taught Constitutional Law; Law people love citations.

I started out at the age of fourteen a starry-eyed idealist. I was hopeful for the future, I had hope that things would be better than they were, that I could be out of the closet without risking being fired or denied housing, that I could one day hold my boyfriend’s hand in public without [fear of] being beaten or murdered.

Sexuality based hate crimes are too high in America, but they're not so high that you literally walk in mortal peril when you walk with your boyfriend except in exceptional shitholes. You may well live in or near such a shithole, but phrasing it as "A will cause B" comes off as too hyperbolic for a formal letter.

Since that fateful day on January 20th, 2001 (A day that will live in infamy) when George W. Bush was first sworn into office, I have watched my hope collapse. I have watched our civil liberties, the cornerstone of freedom in America erode. I have watched our economy collapse under its own deregulated weight, and our public infrastructure crumble. I have watched friends fight and die in a pointless war, and seen troops come home bereft of medical or psychological care to languish with untreated PTSD and depression, or in under-funded hospitals where sanitation is like Santa Clause, a myth. I have watched the legal rape of women’s rights, and have watched as state after state expresses in the pooling booths exactly how they feel about gay people such as myself. We are apparently inhuman monsters. I have watched our environment despoiled, and our educational system (and New Orleans) sink to new lows while poverty, teen pregnancy, and STD infection rates climb to new heights. I have watched nearly a decade of Republican misrule, as they systematically prove that government does not work by running it into the ground. I have even watched the sciences, the love of my life and the one incorruptible thing I have been able to find, attacked, edited, and misrepresented by this tyrannical administration.

"Rape" is too heavily charged a word to lob it around unless you're talking about literal rape. Almost any word that describes terrible violence and/or violation would be preferable.

I am tired Senator. I am only twenty-two years old, and I am already tired and world-weary. I should not have to be this tired. The administration ignores the law, has practically rewritten the dictionary such that liberal is a curse word, and what is worse, the democrats in the congress have been too spineless to put a stop to it. I must confess senator, that I consider your vote on telecomm immunity a betrayal, only mitigated by the fact that it was disgustingly necessary. But after all of that, McCain is not dead in the polls. He even named Gov Palin as his running mate, and his numbers have climbed. When I close my eyes, the faces of Jerry Falwell, Dick Cheney, and Dr. Blight (a villain from the 1980s cartoon Captain Planet that I watched growing up) merge into her face. Her record on church/state separation, gay rights, women’s rights, corruption, and her environmental record are so abysmal that she is essentially a cartoon villain made flesh. And yet, if this trend continues, McCain has a shot at winning the general election, which will shatter any faith in the American people I might have left. Because if that happens, it will cease to matter what republicans do, they cant be beaten. Fighting them is like fighting the Borg, it doesn’t matter what we do, we are forced to retreat, they start wars, and we fall back, they gut education, healthcare, social safety nets, civil liberties and the environment and we fall back. No more. The line must be drawn here, or we are lost as a nation. If we cannot win this election, then there is no more hope to be had. The well will be dry.

I agree with the suggested edits of cutting the geek-culture references.

So I am going to do something have not been able to do for years. I am going to trust you Senator Obama. [I am not rich in faith, but I give you what little I have left]. I am going to trust that you will win, and that you will deliver on your promise to bring sanity back to this country. I am going to trust that you will restore our shattered bill of rights, that you will restore science to its position of unbiased advisor, and that you will help me and the people of this country restore their dignity and faith in government. Finally, I am going to trust that you will restore diplomacy and coalition building as our primary foreign policy rather than war and unilateralism.

Maybe that substitution is a little melodramatic, but it just called to me, so I'm suggesting it.

A line about restoring balance between the branches of government would be a worthwhile addition too, I feel, whether you care for my substitution or not.

I realize I am only one person, a geek who studies frogs in northern Texas, of all places, but I like to think that others are in the same position, and that in some abstract sense I speak for them as well (disclaiming the hubris of that statement of course)

Don’t disappoint us.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Thomas Allen

[Lagmonster]

What you ought to do is find a friend with a darling little fresh-faced curly-haired toddler girl, and get her to write a letter to Obama in crayon, stating: "Mr. Obama, please win. And then do a good job." Sure, it doesn't capture all of your personal sentiments, fears, and other stuff, but it's far more likely to get read on national television and basically expresses the underlying hope.

[Rye]

Typically they write to complain.

However I am somewhat disconcerted that my efforts at eloquence are creepy... I may have to re-evaluate.

Well I'm not sure what's expected in America, but the tone of the letter is a strange mix of 'addressing King Solomon' deference and deeply personaly, emotive clingy language. I'd feel very uncomfortable having such a letter addressed to me from a complete stranger.

It's a bit creepy to me, too. I suspect Alyrium's just aspiring to be like Dawkins or Hitchens or something and thus overdoing the prose a bit. Personally, when I wrote my MP asking about how the Religious Hatred bill going through the parliament at the time would affect death metal musicians, it was probably less than 10 sentences. My MP was feckless, however.

[Knife]

Honestly his 'to tired' bit sounds awful whiny and perhaps wishy-washy. So if he fucks up once, AD is off the bandwagon and not a supporter anymore. Not necessarily the best of messages to a politician.

I would have gone with something akin to; "I'm surprise that someone of my age is burdened with such thoughts but take solace that past generations of young people have indeed felt this and sought change."

Rather than, my youthful illusion of the world was shattered and now I'm tired and don't really want to build it up again.

[Tanasinn]

What you ought to do is find a friend with a darling little fresh-faced curly-haired toddler girl, and get her to write a letter to Obama in crayon, stating: "Mr. Obama, please win. And then do a good job." Sure, it doesn't capture all of your personal sentiments, fears, and other stuff, but it's far more likely to get read on national television and basically expresses the underlying hope.

No offense, but something like that is Putin-shooting-the-tiger obvious, as far as saccharine propaganda goes.

[LadyTevar]

[CaptainChewbacca]

Tevar wins the thread!