Letter to the President

[thetatiana]

Dear President Obama,

First of all, thank you so much for your selfless service to our country. I'm 52 years old and never in my lifetime have we had such a good President of the United States. As idealistic and starry-eyed as I am, I didn't even believe it was possible in our political system to get someone so intelligent, so wise, and so good to serve in high office. Thank you for being willing. I think you are making a huge positive difference to the U.S. and to Planet Earth.

Every time I hear you speak, I'm reminded again of our country's highest ideals and virtues, and I'm stirred to their service. Again, thank you, for all your hard work and for your consistent call for us to rise above petty self-serving infighting and aspire to true excellence. I'm so glad you were elected and I'm proud to have voted for you.

You've achieved great things in the short time you've been in office, and restored my faith in the possibility of government for the people. Your courage in taking on entrenched power interests is impressive. I have two requests of you in broad terms. I leave it to you and your excellent administration to decide details of implementation, but there are two areas which I feel are crucial to be addressed by the only superpower in the world today, by a free country.

One, the proliferation of "secret police" in our country since 9/11 in particular, but more broadly starting in WW2. A dear friend, a veteran, who wrote to the FBI protesting unconstitutional actions they were taking, specifically a web site requesting citizens to report their neighbors who hold unpopular political opinions, and the arrests and harassment of the same people because of their unpopular opinions, had his concerns justified and greatly magnified recently when he was illegally arrested following his letter. When he asked the arresting officers to show him a warrant, he was tased three times, manhandled causing further injury, and then abducted by the FBI.

Free countries don't need secret police, and yet the actions of these FBI agents were what one would expect of the East German Stasi rather than any lawful representatives of a free democracy. So I ask you to look into the treatment of American citizens (and others) by the FBI and other shadowy arms of police-state-style power which are now extant in our country.

Why do we even have the FBI? In the 60s they investigated and harassed Dr. King and others in the civil rights movement, people whom we now hold up to our children as the highest examples of American ideals and the American system at work. If their complete files were made public, I have no doubt that the good they've done in apprehending homegrown terrorists and other threats to our country is far outweighed by the bad, since their mode of operations serves as a threat to the very freedoms our country embodies. Please do everything you can to disband all of these secret police units, and to bring the light of day to their actions. They're a serious threat to our country and our freedom.

Secondly, I direct your attention to the fact that worldwide, many children are dying each day for lack of clean water, adequate nutrition, medicine for treatable diseases, vaccines, etc. These children, those who survive the scourges of malnutrition and disease, then grow up without education, depriving the human community of their intellectual efforts, the innovations and that brilliance from which we all could benefit. The cost of providing these things is tiny compared to what we in the U.S. spend routinely on other government programs, however, securing clean water, adequate food, treatment for disease, and education for all newborns in the world would make our world a vastly safer place for all of us.

Just as a pure self-motivated defense spending, then, such monies would be more than justified. Add to that the dimension of human kinship, compassion, justice, and dignity, add the moral dimension, and it becomes truly impossible to underplay these very pressing world problems.

I know your mother was very much involved in microfinance, and I know your administration is supporting such ventures. That's a great thing. But I ask more of you. I ask that you support such efforts as Partners in Health in Haiti, Siberia, Malawi, Lesotho, Peru and elsewhere. Also that you watch some videos of Dr. Paul Farmer speaking, which you may find on YouTube. He's a brilliant man, has a powerful vision, and has worked diligently to implement it over the past 30 years. As you know, he's lately involved with the Clinton Foundation and is appointed to a UN role under Bill Clinton regarding Haiti. So I know you're aware of his work, but I ask that you listen carefully to his ideas, for they are most convincing.

Another organization doing great things for kids in the world is the Hole in the Wall group who provide computers with internet access in slums and villages across the world. Such access empowers kids to teach themselves and each other, allowing them the opportunity to transform their outlook from that of uneducated villagers to cosmopolitan full citizens of the world in one generation.

There are many other such projects which are leveraging small amounts of money into large positive returns in human terms. I'm thinking of things like Bread for the World, Engineers without Borders, Playpumps International, the group that builds wells with merry-go-rounds that pump clean water to a village storage tank, The Central Asia Institute (Greg Mortenson's group), International Development Enterprises, who start local industries like treadle-pump production for subsistence farmers to increase their yields, Matthieu Ricard's Karuna-Shechen group in the Himilayas, ITEC who develop technology for use by Ecuadoran native groups, Sunitha Krishnan and the marvelous work she's doing to fight human trafficking in India, Bead for Life, an organization helping women in Uganda, Hero Rat/Apopo who train rats to find land mines, kiva, microplace, and other microfinance platforms, HALO-Soma which teaches autistic kids, TED which sponsors talks by today's leading thinkers on problems we all face together, and many more organizations.

I'm doing my part to help all these organizations and to promote global peace and well-being. I support them, I organize my friends to support them, and I do my best to encourage and empower people around me to serve humankind. I started a wiki on the problem of Averting Human Extinction, and am nudging it along to try and furnish a central repository of all the strategies and information we'll need to do that. I try to support your organization, as well, and give a bit from time to time, as I'm able. I read your many emails, and applaud your efforts. So I have these two requests that I'd like to pass along to you in return. Please dismantle the secret police, and look after the world's children.

We need those kids, we need their input into our global conversation. Please don't forget them amid all the pressing considerations of your daily work.

Thank you