November 27, 2008
Dear President-elect Barack Obama,
I am the grandmother of a 7 year old little girl who I do not get to see very often since I moved to Washington, D.C. in March 2007. But in August of that year, I brought her here to spend a week with me. During her short stay, I took her to the White House and we talked about the current president who hurt innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not more than a minute had passed that while she posed for pictures for me, she turned to a tourist standing nearby and said to her, "That's where the BAD president lives."
So, I write to you today, Barack, because my granddaughter deserves a GOOD president and a GOOD government and a GOOD world in which to live. She deserves a country that cares about its citizens, a country that provides her excellent healthcare, a superb free college education, and a future full of promise.
She deserves to grow up in a country that she is proud of, so as she recites the Pledge of Allegiance every day in school she'll know that "..liberty and justice for all.." is the hallmark of our country's domestic AND foreign policy, that we seek dialogue, diplomacy and respect for human rights of ALL people not just American people.
She deserves never not ever to experience the likes of the injustices of Katrina and the Jena 6, the wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the horrors of Abu Ghraib, Mahmoudiya and Guantanamo. She deserves a Commander-in-Peace who will bring her stepdaddy and all his buddies home and never start another war.
So, Barack, when I bring my granddaughter back to the White House in a not too distant future, I hope she and all the other tourists from home and abroad will be able to say, “That's where the GREAT President Barack Obama lives.”
Dylan and her daddy Adam my son, and me
Desiree Fairooz
CODEPINK:Women for Peace
Washington, D.C.
7 comments:
Whether or not we have a great president, we have a GREAT house momma, and that sweet pink girl has a GREAT and beautiful grandmother.
The people can make peace!!
jim
Dear Desiree
thank you for all you engagement and positive peace power!
I hope it is ok with u that I (non-proffessionally)tanslated your letter into German and bloggt it
here at duckhome
You and your progessive companions give us hope that real Change is at least a possibility!
My very best wishes to all of you
Sincerely,
Annette
Germany
What you might have wanted to point out to your granddaughter is that women have been abused, oppresssed and raped longer then any other sector of our population in history. As a woman, mother and grandmother the strongest message you can give your granddaughter is that women need to come together to protect each other and change the world. We have seen how men have messed things up for thousands of years. To just concentrate on one small time in history without educating your granddaughter to the larger picture is doing her an injustice as a female. History has repeated and repeated itself over and over and I doubt if any man will suddenly change it.
I read this and was stunned..."So, I write to you today, Barack, because my granddaughter deserves a GOOD president and a GOOD government and a GOOD world in which to live. She deserves a country that cares about its citizens, a country that provides her excellent healthcare, a superb free college education, and a future full of promise."
It is always diappointing to hear parents tell their children that all good things in life should be free. Compound that error with the personal derision of our President to a mind that has not yet learned to think in the abstract and I am left to wonder what this little girl will be able to contribute to the future generation? I for one have never burdened my children with comments like “the BAD President”. This would of course be short sighted and absurd.
Then in the comments section I was even more disturbed to see a bizarre form of anti male sentiment by Caran Ragan. I feel sad that someone abused her in the past but her life is not my daughters and her projection of her own anger was tasteless. I hope you ignore her advice as it seems that your granddaughter is already burdened with your imposed realities of what is “bad” and what is “good”.
I can only say in closing that I am preparing my children to compete with the emerging Asians it what will surely promise to be a tough fight for our economic future. I sure hope you aren’t waiting for “free education” let alone “superb free education” before you make your granddaughter aware that her global competition could care less if you feel that your ideals for “justice for all” haven’t been met while your table has food and you have a warm place to sleep each night.
Ugh, this is ridiculous. "Innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan"? These are people whose women are lower than men, that cut off the heads of our soldiers and anyone else who doesn't agree with them, and celebrate practices like Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice) where they drag panicked beasts into the middle of shouting crowds and slit their throats. Innocent?
I can truthfully say that I knew Charles Graner (the ringleader of Abu Ghraib) and Lynndie England. Believe me, the man was a psychotic sadist long before he went to Iraq, but was coy enough that anyone who didn't know him personally wouldn't even have guessed it. It is not the president's, nor the military's, fault that he tortured those civilians. The crime has been committed and he has been sentenced to ten years in jail.
"Never start another war"? We, the American people, did not start it. The monsters that flew planes into the WTC and the Pentagon on 9/11.
Global warming? Funny how between 1940 and 1975, we wanted to melt the icebergs because we feared "global cooling". During those times, we had no Green Party to control the considerable amount of fossil fuels burned. Solar cycles, not mankind, control the warming and cooling of the planet. Heck, the Medieval Warm Period was hotter and lasted from 1000 AD to somewhere between 1300 and 1400, yet the peasants weren't exactly driving SUVs.
Free college education? Please, explain to me how that would work, excluding more burdens on tax payers and bankrupting our government.
But hey, what should I expect? Our country just voted a Socialist with ties to Acorn/Project Vote and spiritual beliefs nurtured by an oh-so-tolerant reverend into power. History doesn't repeat itself, but stupidity marches on.
--Squito
I was quite amused. Can I have some of what you're on?
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