Dear Mr. Obama,
I’ve never written a letter to a president, a president-elect, or even Santa Claus, for that matter.
But here in the Internet age, anything is possible. Perhaps a miracle will occur and you’ll even read this letter.
I live in Igo, a tiny Shasta County town in Northern California on the opposite coast from your home.
Shasta County is a naturally beautiful region, with stunning mountains, lakes and views.
Shasta County also has an 11.1 percent unemployment rate, a high number of citizens with guns and a low number of people with college degrees.
Overall, Shasta County is a conservative place. In fact, 62 percent of Shasta County voters chose John McCain for president instead of you.
I am among the 36 percent of Shasta County voters who selected you. And come Tuesday night, I’ll attend a party where many of us will celebrate your inauguration, thousands of miles from Washington, D.C.
Oh happy day!
I will celebrate a president who can correctly pronounce nuclear.
I will celebrate a president who might restore the United States’ positive reputation among our friends around the world (so young American travelers can stop pretending to be Canadian).
I will celebrate a president who will communicate regularly and honestly with us; who will lead with strength and assurance, even in – God help us, especially in – our darkest hours.
I will celebrate a president capable of thinking so far out of the solution box that you might even win over the majority of Shasta County voters.
In fact, I have such high hopes for what you can accomplish that I’ve made a pie-in-the-sky Obama wish-list:
•Bring the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. The sooner the better. And regarding those troops, once they do return home, get them whatever help they need mentally, physically, educationally and financially to get back on their feet. No hoops to jump. No red tape to untangle; just wide open doors and green lights all the way.
•Not another dime to bail out top-heavy corporations that can’t cut it, many of which closed American plants, sent jobs overseas and then padded their wallets with mind-blowingly high bonuses and paychecks.
•Build an American rail-way system to rival Europe’s. Car-manufacturing workers could transfer their skills and technical know-how to constructing sleek, high-speed railways. What we have now is not an American car-manufacturers’ crisis, but a perfect opportunity to finally build an efficient railway system, and at the same time break Americans’ automobile addiction, reduce fuel emissions and embrace public transportation.
• Return art, music and industrial arts to education.
• Provide free state college tuition to every eligible student.
• Provide health care for every citizen so I never write another story that begs for money to help a family cover medical costs because their child has cancer.
• Reduce the number of prison inmates by decriminalizing victimless drug use. (Enforce drug-related crimes as the courts would enforce alcohol-related crimes.)
•Enact 2-year, mandatory public service requirements for everyone 18 and older.
That’s all for now. You have plenty to do. And besides, others at aNewsCafe.com may want to add to the wish list.
Until then, I wish you and your family Godspeed.
Doni Greenberg is a journalist and co-publisher of aNewsCafe.com. in Northern California.
