www.change.gov - The Obama Biden Transition Team

I wrote a letter to President-elect Obama. They want to hear from us, and have a website set up. I knew he'd be different! Well, it seemed to me that Obama is hearing from everyone right now, so he might as well hear from me. I thought I would share with you what I wrote: (Maybe you might email President-elect Obama too, let me know if you do, even those of you that never comment!!)

Dear President-elect Obama,

I am writing to offer you my sincere congratulations on your election to be President of our amazing country. I‘m glad my vote counted! I teach my students that no matter who we are or where we come from the most important thing we all have are our voices. When we join our voices with other likeminded voice, we are heard and we make a difference. I thought I needed to add my voice to the chorus.

I am writing to urge you to address our environmental concerns first. If we do not have a world that will sustain us, than what is the point of everything else? For instance, why is the government going to bale out the auto industry? These same people have been ripping us off with their gas guzzling cars for years. These are the same people who built an electric car that the drivers loved, but only leased them instead of selling them, and then took them all back and crushed them whereby setting back our freedom from dependence on foreign oil at least two decades. All of that to make the auto dealers and oil companies rich. Why not let them fail and make room for entrepreneurs and new companies to provide us with new technologies for our transportation that are green and do not rely on petroleum based products. I understand people will need to change jobs, but just like the blacksmiths found new careers when they built cars, so too will the auto industry employees. Clean energy pursuits can create millions of new jobs.

It seems change is only scary until it is done; things seem impossible to do until you finally just do them. This is our time to stop doing what we have always done - taking care of the consequences later. It is later, and we have to deal with the consequences if we are to survive as a race. Not to be selfish, but I am a teacher who is trying to raise a child on a teaching salary alone with no help, I have $40,000 in student loans, I knew I couldn’t afford a house so I didn’t (but it is our dream), where is my bailout? My retired father had to supplement his retirement by working at a retail store which just closed, where’s his bailout? The earth is being destroyed by human activities and carbon dioxide emissions, where is its bailout? We need to think about sustainable energy, we need to think about new initiatives to help us move forward, we need new ways to join the myriads of research and new ideas together to help develop environmentally renewable resources, and we need to think globally. We are hardworking Americans, we will get by, but our world may not without our help.

Now while you are getting us straightened out, could you help the mothers who can’t even go out of their refugee camps to collect firewood to cook for their families without getting shot or raped in Darfur? Please.

Thank you for listening,