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President Obama, My Response To Your Fourth of July Letter
Yesterday morning I received the following letter from President Barack Obama:
"Linda --
This weekend, our family will join millions of others in celebrating America. We will enjoy the glow of fireworks, the taste of barbeque, and the company of good friends. As we all celebrate this weekend, let's also remember the remarkable story that led to this day.
Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, our nation was born when a courageous group of patriots pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the proposition that all of us were created equal.
Our country began as a unique experiment in liberty -- a bold, evolving quest to achieve a more perfect union. And in every generation, another courageous group of patriots has taken us one step closer to fully realizing the dream our founders enshrined on that great day.
Today, all Americans have a hard-fought birthright to a freedom which enables each of us, no matter our views or background, to help set our nation's course. America's greatness has always depended on her citizens embracing that freedom -- and fulfilling the duty that comes with it.
As free people, we must each take the challenges and opportunities that face this nation as our own. As long as some Americans still must struggle, none of us can be fully content. And as America comes ever closer to achieving the perfect Union our founders dreamed, that triumph -- that pride -- belongs to all of us.
So today is a day to reflect on our independence, and the sacrifice of our troops standing in harm's way to preserve and protect it. It is a day to celebrate all that America is. And today is a time to aspire toward all we can still become.
With very best wishes,
President Barack Obama
July 4th, 2009
P.S. -- Our nation's birthday is also an ideal time to consider serving in your local community. You can find many great ideas for service opportunities near you at http://www.serve.gov."
One part in particular screamed out at me:
"As free people, we must each take the challenges and opportunities that face this nation as our own. As long as some Americans still must struggle, none of us can be fully content."
As an active participant in our democracy who works to lessen the burdens of the oppressed, I take the President's challenge seriously - and personally. I view it as his encouragement of my activism. In return, I request that the President provide we who participate in our democracy every protection granted by our Constitution to challenge those policies with which we disagree.
I also ask the President to stand with us to end our government's collusion with war profiteers who create weapons of destruction and fill their coffers with our money. I ask the President to replace the obscenity of war with the audacity of peace. I ask the President to stand with us to put public interest above corporate greed, and to put our health above all else.
Mr. President, on this Fourth of July when you write to Americans and ask us to "take the challenges and opportunities that face this nation as our own," I remind you of a quote by Thomas Jefferson:
"Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society."
Mr. President, without health, Americans can't enjoy their liberty. Without health, our teachers can't teach and our learners can't learn. Without health, our parents can't parent. Without health, our builders can't build. Without health, our health practitioners can't practice. Without health, our society can't thrive.
Mr. President, since your primary responsibility is to protect the American people, as President you must be aware that private insurers place money values above human values. Our government has long sanctioned this practice, which Mr. President, should not be the American way. Private insurers and self-interested pharmaceutical companies are more a danger to Americans than the foreign governments and individuals our military engage. Americans who can't seek medical treatment because of lack of insurance battle the war of untended illness. Many die. This, Sir, should not be the American way.
Thomas Jefferson also said:
"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories."
I accept your challenge, Mr. President, to participate in my democracy and to be as Mr. Jefferson said, a "safe depository" for our democracy. I will work hard to bring about much needed change and I expect the same of you.
If you stand with me, Mr. President, I will gladly stand with you. If you stand with our corporate oppressors -- then, Sir, you must be challenged.
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35 Comments so far
Show All"So today is a day to reflect on our independence, and the sacrifice of our troops standing in harm's way to preserve and protect it."
-in what way is our colonial adventure in Iraq and Afghanistan protecting our independence?
Sounds like something Bush would say. Behind the pretense designed for sap consumption is an agenda that includes OIL and total dominance of an area of geopolitical importance.
How does Obama's philosophy that creating and sanctioning corporations that are too big to fail fit into this message ? Teddy Roosevelt must be turning over in his grave.
How do Obama's NO BANKER LEFT BEHIND and NO INSURANCE COMPANY LEFT BEHIND programs that take money from the working class and give it to the wealthy fit in to this message? Franklin Roosevelt must be turning over in his grave.
While I agree with the author's sentiments, she is wrong to repeat this lie: "Mr. President, since your primary responsibility is to protect the American people,..."
The President's primary responsibility is to uphold and defend The Constitution. Which Obama doesn't feel like doing.
Linda,
How beautifully and honestly written!! You are sooo right to challenge Obama to stand up for us....we the people....as the role of the government is supposed to do. It was not written "We the corporate executives" (but it might as well have been since it has been the monied politicians who get to run and WIN office...because without, in some cases, millions of dollars..you can't win).
Obama said when he took office something like "As FDR said to the people....you will have to make me do the right thing..." and now (on the health care issue) he is telling the "liberal" organizations to BACK OFF! on Single-Payer UHC plan. So....Mr. Obama what is it??? Make me do the right thing or SHUT THE FUCK UP! He is such a coward and a liar and anyone who believes in the "great HOPE" that they elected to the White House..... TOLD YOU SO! I voted for Nader....he has NEVER LIED AND DONE MORE AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN THAN ANY KNUCKLEHEAD CONGRESSPERSON IN OR OUT OF OFFICE IN HIS LIFETIME! I AM NO FOOL!
freethinker-- Here's an exchange from elsewhere that speaks directly to your point:
_________________________________
vdb July 4th, 2009 7:43 pm
you just didn't get it, did you?
when 0 said "make me" it was just the schoolyard bully's taunt.
now get back in line!
there's a new Decider in town.
_________________________________
Obedient Servant July 5th, 2009 2:04 pm
Well, I'm gratified to find that I'm not the only person who detects a darker significance to Obama's "Make me!"
And even giving the "make me" position its most positive interpretation, it still leads to an unsavory cat-and-mouse game. As we've seen in this very health-care debacle, citizens have been trying every which way to "make" our government respond to the demand for single-payer.
But the activists may just as well be a vast ball of yarn, batted and tangled between a cat's paws. Far from "allowing" himself to be "made", Obama repudiates the very activism and push-back he purports to encourage. Reducing the wishes of We the People to a ball of yarn is not enough; Obama even prefers that the yarn go away-- perhaps to turn itself into mittens for his kittens.
_________________________________
PS: I hesitated slightly before deleting the Obama e-mail from my In-Box, unread. Now I know I made the right choice. Thanks, Linda!
· Yr Obd't Servant
Thanks Obedient Servent....I love the "mittens for the kittens" scenerio. : )
We are a sad lot......those of us, Americans, who were propagandized from birth to the day we received some piece of truth...for me it was a series of lines in a speech by Chomsky in the audio lecture "Propaganda & Control of the Public Mind" which I encourage EVERYONE to purchase/rent/borrow and listen to (at least 5 times to let it soak into your brain so you can repeat it when debating some University of Chicago WONK...think "Good Will Hunting" and the scene in the Harvard bar)....anyway, the lines Chomsky spoke were about the creation of the Trilateral Commission (David Rockefeller founder) in 1973. The year was 1975 and the topic was "The Crisis of Democracy". The crisis wasn't that there was too little....but rather TOO MUCH...and what needs to happen to reduce the public's interest in participating (a couple things....return respect to authority and the church and reducing the quality of education....this is not how the document was written but you deduce this from the discussion).
When Chomsky said that our govt. was about the business of destroying democracy I thought Chomsky was a liar. I then bought a copy of the document from the TC and read for myself! It was all there....in black and white! He was telling the truth. It was a very upsetting revelation for me....but the truth did SET ME FREE. And now I can stop wasting time questioning why things are the way they are and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT....if only just to change my own life....that is enough sometimes!!!!
PEACE
freethinker68 July 5th, 2009 3:16 ...Just sent for the CD...you can get it off Amazon for as low as $.01.
I like Chomsky's mind...just wish he would open up about 9/11. Truthers could use the boost.
Cynical... GREAT !!! You are going to really appreciate it I think. As for 9/11...I think it is wise to avoid a situation that can't be TAKEN BACK or ADMITTED TO by both the govt. and the citizens (I know plenty of citizens who absolutely refuse to believe with ALL the evidence pointing to the govt. because they are propagandized to LOVING THEIR COUNTRY RIGHT OR WRONG....like the PRO-LIFE people who are clearly NOT pro-life for every human being). I think it is best to take on THINGS THAT ARE CHANGABLE RIGHT NOW....health care, banking system, FEC, FCC, food policy, education.... that kinda stuff. When you can get the official story of the assination of JFK to change from the "lone gunman" theory then we can work on 9/11. Poor Oswald.....such a dupe.
Hey...why not buy up the used Chomsky CD's and give them away to people who might enjoy learning some impt. stuff? Just a thought!!!
peace
freethinker68 July 5th, 2009 5:00 pm....Great idea...and I already hand out free DVDs all over the place...mainly regarding the truth of 9/11...I use a duplicator. The truth of 9/11 is coming. Please support NYC CAN and the referendum regarding re-opening the investigation of 9/11 in NYC in November. Most of the mystery of the assassination of JFK is out there and fairly well resolved for those who care to do the research. Most do not. We CANNOT let this deter any new, independent investigation of 9/11. Therein lies the answer to many of our problems. I would also recommend going to israelshamir.net and scrolling down to the "collateral damage articles..Part I and II....mind blowers.
That's funny.....I thought Zbigniew Brzezinski was one of the founders of the Tri Lateral Commssion........You can not tell what organizations the, Rockefellers, Kissingers, and Brzezinskis have helped form and direct.......God, are those guys "Evil".....They and their policies are responsible for millions of unarmed citizens being killed.......Don't forget The Council on Foreign Relations, a great Right Wing Think Tank now advising B. Obama........
Isn't it a crime to help murderers escape from criminal prosecution, maybe "Accessory After The Fact". But, there was never an "Independent Investigation" of the murders of almost 3,000 people on September 11, 2001. And, we all know that World Trade Center #7 was brought down with explosives, so that makes all involved, in the cover up guilty of "Obstruction of Justice" and that would include two U.S. Presidents.
Sorry Linda.......Mr.Obama is first a lawyer, second a capitalist, and third a puppet doing what he is told to do.
Mr.Obama is first a lawyer, second a capitalist, and third a puppet doing what he is told to do.
-Perhaps Obama isn't always told what to do. Obama may be able to anticipate the wishes of his masters such that no direct communication needs to occur. He knew what his job entailed when he applied for it. Sort of like a trained guide dog for the blind that effortlessly anticipates the desires of his master before a command is given.
ditto on liking Obedient Servants' "mittens for kittens" ... our servant creates many pictures via words ... thanks Obedient Servant, for all the zingers.
Democracynow.org's Friday 7/3/09 show is a Chomsky hour, and it ends on the TC lecture theme: that the biggest risk to democracy is diminished participation in it. I am completely cynical. I have seen administration after administration do the bidding of the same financial players (look up Matt Taibbi and the great american bubble machine - Rolling Stone). We get a vote every 2 years but we never get an individual say in anything else. But change does happen when enough people will not shut up. I don't need to know what O really meant by 'make me'. I knew on Inauguration day that he and all reps need to be hounded, relentlessly, starting the next day. I respond to those O emails at whitehouse.gov, and THEN delete them. No more money given, but lots of time reading, phoning, demanding. We won't get much because D and R feed at the same trough. But we cannot shut up or go away. RFK Jr. had a letter to the pres on this site last week (re mountaintop removal). The letters are great and have to continue.
Some of Mr. Chomsky's 'Propaganda & Control of Public Mind' is free online. He is the best.
freethinker68 July 5th, 2009 2:00 pm ......... Bravo! to that.....and how many countless lives has he saved with seat belts? He'll be pretty old to run in 2012, but he would still get my vote unless DK tried again...NOW, there's a ticket DK and Nader!
Yesterday morning I received the following letter from President Barack Obama: "Esteemed Sucker - People like you, and all those who voted for me in 2008, used to be born every minute. Now legions of you are born every second. I am sitting here in the Oval Office, counting my vast piles of money, drinking from a golden goblet containing pinot grigio from a bottle that costs $2500 and was given to me by Lloyd Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. And happy Fourth of July.
I remain, most sincerely yours,
Barack Obama, President of the United States
Priceless, Mr Shiblikov.
It is entertaining to see the horror dawn on the morons who pinned their idiotic faith in The New Black(ish).
Nobody gets to be president without having been vetted as a 'safe pair of hands' - honest men are like good priests: they never become Pope.
And anybody stupid enough not to know that, should just be put into a shipping container and taken out into the Afghan desert - there to perish like some poor goatherd who was swept up in the net cast by the Cheney/Kissinger death machine.
To paraphrase Diderot: Man will be free when the last politician is bludgeoned to death with the severed arm of the last police sniper.
Cheerio
GT
Yes, Linda. I received that letter in my e-mail mailbox too.
I deleted it. Tired of the jars of salve that should be labelled OBAMA'S BULLSHIT SALVE [FOR THE MASSES WHO BELIEVED AND VOTED FOR ME].
According to Mr. Obama's book: DREAMS FROM MY FATHER, his Indonesian step-father found it smarter to stop his activism and go with the corporate program if he wanted to continue to earn a living. STAY WITH THE POWER, his step-father advised the young Barrack Obama.
Obviously, our young, personable President took that lesson to heart, and despite the polished words in speeches or e-mails, we have in the White House, the new Corporate puppet, hand-picked by the Powers That Really Run Things, and one of a series of Presidents who either learn to do what is expected of them or else are broken in some way until they come around or cease to be welcome at the Table.
Read your history from the end of Watergate on, and you'll know who is who in terms of praised [still at the table] or ostracized [no longer invited: short list of 1] presidents.
The waters wear down the rocks by going around them. The people are the waters; the government/corporate institutions are the rocks.
/cm
Hear, hear!!!!!!!!
ditto.
I may have received the same letter.
But here I can read Glen Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman, Jeremy Scahill, Robert Fisk, and many other fairly informed people who seem inclined to write me the truth insofar as they might see it in such form as they might manage it at some moment.
I will keep scanning those Moving-On emails for the odd thing I might sign, but Obama's in the bin with the male enhancement stuff and that Ethiopian dignitary who keeps writing about my inheritance.
YOUR inheritance! I thought it was MY inheritance! ;)
PS: Humble thanks for the inspiring compliments tendered on this thread.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Thank you Mr. Obama....but bad idea after bad idea, one flawed policy followed closely by another, your penchant for following the advice of folks that can't find the door has made me rethink my position on supporting you. I don't.
Hey how about a poll to see who still believes in BHO at this stage of the game--for one-I don't--I try to determine from peoples's actions--who they are and what they belive--not their words.
""This weekend, our family will join millions of others in celebrating America. We will enjoy the glow of fireworks, the taste of barbeque, and the company of good friends. As we all celebrate this weekend, let's also remember the remarkable story that led to this day.
Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, our nation was born when a courageous group of patriots pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the proposition that all of us were created equal.""
************************************************************
Guess I was passed over on this letter, but I would have been angered as much as the next person who has commented here.
Quoting on just the opening to this letter, from reading OUR Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence just makes me think what this clown obama is thinking since most of those protections of oversight, regulation, tranparency and supervision to maintain an integrity of systems to benefit all americans, have been hollowed out for the benefit of those that just step in and do as they please to the detriment of US the taxpayers and that covers not just obama's part but also congress, and celebrating something not there or not working and which can and needs to be put back since it has been taken away or ignored, makes for nothing for me to want to celebrate about.
I just scanned the letter and deleted it. Pretty soon I'll unsubscribe until Obama starts doing something that will benefit everyone else.
Back a year ago when I read Brzezinski was on his team I knew it would be unwise to sit next to Oh Bama on the bus . . .
The whole independence day flag-waving, BBQ thing with firecrackers to remind you of bombs bursting in air never did feel quite right to me... even as a kid it sort of rang false, or at least pretty dang schitzophrenic. This winter I had the opportunity to see the singer, Rene Marie, at a local church for a dialogue on race relations. She spoke about her experiences around deciding to put the words of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" to the tune of the "Star Spangled Banner" for a very public event. I'd been away from city and media when it happened, but there was quite alot stirred up by that song all over the nation. It had clearly been quite a process for her both before and after the actual event. Several people, black and white, in the audience stood up and spoke about how hearing the national anthem sung in such a way was the first time in their lives they felt at all connected with the song in a heartful way. I know she'd received lots of hate mail and that there were those who felt 'betrayed' or shocked that she would treat what to many is a treasured, practically sacred artifact of our culture in such a manner. But when she sang the song.... when I got to hear it for myself, I was dumbfounded. Part of me wanted to weep and part of me wanted to shout for joy. I didn't go up to the mike to say so, as some did, but I wished Obama had something of that that she had... the fire-in-the-belly guts to sing that song out in the open and not just in her private heart. Part of me wants to berate Obama on this thread right now.... but who knows if he's bothered or agonized or complacent that he's just a figurehead really... ARE you okay with that, Mr. President? How does ANY president sleep at night sans pharmaceutical assistance or the ability to block out huge chunks of reality? The 'powers that be' have taken on a life of their own and despite so much talk of 'transparency' remain as hidden as they must remain to keep getting away with cannibalizing the commons to feed a voracious, anonymous, corporate 'personhood' appetite. But those powers aren't the be-all, end-all End-Of-History they'd like to think they are. I think all these beltway folks need a very long, very challenging camping trip with lots of adventures supplied by mother nature... or SOMEthing that helps them to finally get it... get our inTERdependence as a part of this web of life on this fragile, fierce planet. Barring that, we're on our own out here. Dumpster diving, trying to get around absurd laws about water catchment, seed patents and such crap... hoping some kind of sanity tipping point gets reached before the insanity tipping point for humanity.
Thank you Linda for this fabulous response to the bull shit corporate puppet. You nailed it. I congratulate you on your clear thinking and excellent written response.
"If you stand with me, Mr. President, I will gladly stand with you. If you stand with our corporate oppressors -- then, Sir, you must be challenged."
No better words could describe the betrayal that many many feel by this corporate whore that would use this celebration of our freedoms to wrap himself in our flag.His letter degrades our flag and soils it.
More eloquent his words than Bush but just as empty. His hollow words of troops protecting our freedoms while he sells out our basic rights and freedoms churns the stomach and forms a vomitous degradation of the values that bind our nation.
Thank you Linda for reminding us of the words of Jefferson that shines the light on the mockery that occupies our White House.
Obama's letter is just a generic baloney letter which any pol could have written with the help of its overpaid staff. Unfortunately, there are far too many Obamabot dupes who'll buy into it. Linda, Obama only cares about the money like he's done all of his life. Even his community service came under questioning during last year's campaign. Why would a man who went to an elitist school and later surrounded himself with elitists and political goons care to listen to what you or I would have to say? There's nothing left to celebrate of this country anyway as we've lost of independence and allowed Washington to burn the Constitution.
jenniferbedingfield
republican plant
trying to get everyone to hate obama
obamabot.........so clever you are
so disrespectful also
tell me what did you ever do except whine complain and denigrate????
Linda, you've already been labeled a low-level terrorist for writing this letter in defiance of the President as defined by the DoD Training Manual.
"Protesters are low-level terrorists"
http://open.salon.com/blog/dennis_loo/2009/06/
14/dod_training_manual_protests_are_low-level_terrorism
You'd be wise to assume that as a result of this piece the FBI is using National Security Letters under the Patriot Act to open up all your private records.
Also assume that the NSA is now monitoring all your phone calls and mail without a judge approved warrant based on probable cause!
If the government should decide that today is the day they bring marshall law down on us, just assume Linda, that you are now one of the people who'll be named an enemy combatant, by Mr. Obama, and locked up and denied Habeas Corpus.
Enjoy your freedoms, Linda!
ok, cygnus...er, thanks for sharing, and just what do YOU propose to do yourself in your stated scenario?
Damn good letter Linda!
I hope the President will heed your advice, but I doubt it.
It would have been nice if Obama would have proclaimed that our news and media would be free of censorship by the Great Uncle Sam and the various lobbying groups for Israel. Not since June 17 has any sort of media in the US, INCLUDING COMMON DREAMS, dared print the stories from Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, "Mossad:Iran Will Have Nuclear Weapon by 2014" and "Israel Can't Make up it's mind About Iran Nuclear Timetable". Those two stories show how the intelligence has been falsified for years by the neo-cons and Zionists of Israel and the US to manipulate and sway public opinion for their own political gain. It's quite disillusioning to hear Obama parrot the AIPAC line that Iran is building nuclear weapons when our own CIA, the Russians, our DOD Secretary and the new IAEA head say it isn't so. These conflicting statements are very dangerous. If Obama is really sincere, he'll do a broad purge of the sleeper agents left behind in the DOD and State Departments. That means firing every Zionist that rears their ugly damnable head. I don't want them precipitating another war on behalf of Israel. Remember, the last defense of a Zionist is to screech Anti-Semitic. That pig won't fly anymore!
Why do Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Richard Holbrooke have to wait as long as Robert MacNamara did, in the case of Vietnam, to conclude that their war in Afghanistan was a mistake?
Then and now--words to ponder...
"For we as a people -- we as a people are strong enough; we are brave enough to be told the truth of where we stand. We -- And this country needs honesty and candor in its political life and from the President of the United States. But I don't want to run for the presidency -- I don't want America to make the critical choice of direction and leadership this year without confronting that truth. I don't want to win support of votes by hiding the American condition in false hopes or illusions. I want us to find out the promise of the future, what we can accomplish here in the United States, what this country does stand for and what is expected of us in the years ahead. And I also want us to know and examine where we've gone wrong. And I want all of us, young and old, to have a chance to build a better country and change the direction of the United States of America."
from the Address on "America's Moral Vision",
Robert F Kennedy, University of Kansas, March 18,1968
Poet