An Open Letter To President Obama

Dear Mr. President,
As a first generation American, and a Veteran who served his country when the war was fought in rice paddies, I voted for you twice. In your tenure as President, I've watched you manage to accomplish many great things, even when confronted daily with unparalleled, partisan obstruction. Many of your policies were instrumental in bringing this country back from the precipice of the financial collapse of 2008. You managed to bring the perpetrators of the greatest attack on America since Pearl Harbor to justice. You managed to bring health care to millions of Americans, where it was unavailable or who before, were unable to afford it.

That being said, I'm reminded of the passage; "Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it". Yes, you saved America from financial collapse, yet none of those on Wall Street OR in Government agencies who shared responsibility for the collapse have had to pay for their crimes. In fact, since then, they've only become bigger and emboldened. Since then, legislation and regulations designed to prevent such things from happening again have been removed. Lobbyists for these institutions and subversives in Congress have allowed the dismantling of these crucial financial safeguards...and history again is repeating itself as I write this letter.

Now, you're pushing very hard for a very bad trade deal. A deal that's great for other countries, a deal that's great for corporations and the rich, but in all seriousness, a death sentence to hard working middle class Americans who can ill afford to suffer the low wages and job losses this TPP deal will bring. I've been around for 60+ years, and I've yet to witness ANY trade deal in place that has benefited America's working class. As I see it, NAFTA was the first nail in the middle class coffin...TPP will be the final nail. This isn't just opposition rhetoric...these are hard to swallow FACTS from the hard hit working class.

Yes Mr. President, It's good in most cases to look forward and not dwell on the past. But when the negatives of history are destructive, irrefutable and remain present...looking past them so nonchalantly is not a good idea. And while you're in your last years as President, I ask that you revisit your decisions to "not look back", and to correct the issues that remain as a cancer on this nation. Holding Wall Street responsible for their criminality, subversion of our system of Government by corporate lobbyists, and the perception that our Supreme Court has been bought by the oligarchy... and we the people are left hopelessly holding the bag.

Yours Truly,
A First Generation American and Veteran

America's Most Important Struggle Since Our Declaration of Independence From England

Whether you choose to believe it or not, in the year 2015, America faces it’s biggest challenge since gaining independence from England. The patriotic forefathers of this great nation came together at great peril to their very survival and forged a document based on the ideas of freedom, dignity, and self determination. For years they toiled under the brutality of the government of England. A government that imposed the unyielding will of the King on the colonies. These patriots knew that if they lost their struggle to rid themselves of this brutal tyranny, all would be lost.

Today America faces the same challenge. Not from a King, but rather from it’s own government. Today, our elected officials have willfully forgotten that they represent the people who elected them to office. Representatives, who line their own pockets with money from corporations and special interest groups that demand a quid pro quo return on their “investments”.

Everyday, the American middle class, the people who built this great nation with blood, sweat, and tears, struggle to survive the hardships and indignities brought upon them by their elected officials, whose only concern is to do the bidding of those able to pay a great deal of money for it, because their salaries and perks, that they voted for themselves, from tax payer monies, are apparently no longer sufficient.

Poverty, greed, a toxic environment, toxic food, racism, marginalization of immigrants, and a monetary system rife with unfairness and criminality. Things that should have disappeared from this country long ago, yet remain today. The problems America faces are ones faced by our forefathers over 200 years ago. For the most part, nothing has changed. The rich and privileged have the advantage, and the poor and working class constantly struggle to survive, while our elected representatives, who are charlatans at best, turn a deaf ear. Their political stature has blinded them and made them deaf to the will of everyday Americans.

We petition, we hold rallies and town meetings, we protest in the streets, and still nothing changes. At what point do we arrive at the realization that our government no longer cares what we want? At what cost, will the Will of the People finally be heard?

The forefathers of this great nations who fought for freedom and justice, and against tyranny by forces of the King were labeled traitors. If We the People attempt the same, if we the people yet again rise up to take a stand against the tyranny and the oligarchy, we too will be labeled traitors and subversives by our government. WE ARE NEITHER, but our government refuses to take us seriously, and will eventually force our hand to stand up, and die if we must, for our beliefs, and for the preservation of this great republic for which many have given their lives to preserve. Those elected officials who are deaf and blind to the will of the people, think they are safe in their congress of tyranny on the hill. THEY ARE NOT!

John F. Kennedy, perhaps one of our greatest presidents said: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.”

I am loath to say; “Should our pursuit of those ideals set forth in our Constitution yet again require a revolution to achieve them, the blood spilled by our patriots in our next war against tyranny, will not refresh the tree of liberty, it will drown it!