OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA

(Note: The following letter was sent to then Pres. Elect Obama in November, 2008. I never received a reply. I thought you might find it interesting,)

I’m a 71 year old, white male, in the final stages of therapy and surgery for colorectal cancer, a 5 month widower, and a senior living on a fixed income. My wife of 47 years, Barbara passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on the morning of Father’s Day. Now the economy and a good portion of my savings have taken a steep dive. It’s been one heckuva year! That pretty much tells you who and what I am except that I, like millions of other Americans, have watched helplessly as my “nest egg” shrinks.

With all that in mind, I feel I have the right to speak my piece.

First, let me admit that I did not vote for you. It’s not because you’re black and I’m white and I am not a racist. In fact, if Condaleezza Rice or Colin Powell were the candidate, I would have voted for them. I am a true independent.

Obviously, you will have what may be a long and difficult struggle before you. There’s the state of the economy, terrorism, illegal immigration, the Iraq war, the situation in Afghanistan, unemployment, and….well, I think you get the point. It’s not going to be easy.

In addition, there are several problems which may seem insignificant in light of the above, but which, I believe, have an impact on our country’s security.

One thing that concerns me is what I see as a major homeland devisiveness, an internal conflict that may be as troubling as any of the above, and yet, no one seems to be doing anything about it. I think that you may be the perfect man to evaluate these issues and start to do something to control them.

From my point of view, I see a new and distinct devisive change occurring in the U.S. Back when I was a young, growing up in a major NJ city, there was definitely a social division around me. Back then, it was a black/white demarcation. There were very few Hispanics.  Since then, in spite of what many activists on both sides preach, it would seem that things were getter better, at least for a while.

Now however, it would appear that we are tacitly approving this new activity, the hyphenization of the U.S. That’s how I refer to it. Some where along the line, the use of hyphens in describing the ethnicity or geographical background of people by referring to them using hyphenated titles such as African-American , or Hispanic-American, or Asian- American. Strangely, you rarely if ever hear references to a Euro-American.

I have written about this a number of times before. Men much smarter and more influential than I have raised this issue as well. It also occurs to me that you may be the ideal man to curb this behavior before it gets out of control. With all due respect to the ACLU, the ultra-liberals, and other radical behaviorists, this devisive activity must be controlled, if not curtailed before it is too late.

The first item is the use of hyphenated-descriptions. I don’t know why the hyphenated descriptors are necessary in most cases. Many times they aren’t totally accurate. Take your own case for example. You are being hailed as the first African-American, or black American to be elected president of this great country. But you are not a true African American. You are bi-racial. You are half white. In addition, you were born in Hawaii. But it would be ludicrous to say that a half African-half white-Hawaiian-American was elected. Why not just an American? It’s not far fetched to think that many white Americans may be a bit slighted at this seeming denial of your white heritage. Isn’t that devisive?

Personally, I feel that this hyphenating practice is counter productive. It hints at a split loyalty to America and the other homelands. I am an American of Slovak descent, not a Slovak-American. Like many of the others, I have never been to the country of my ancestors, although I would like to visit there one day. My allegiance is totally to the U.S., not split between two countries. One can only wonder about some of the African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian-Americans that demonstrate so vocally against our country.

I have been appalled in recent times when I see Hispanics flying the flags of their native countries top most on the mast, while flying our flag upside down. Where do you think their loyalties lie? And no matter how you feel about Rev. White, Bill Ayers, and others with their mentality, they are being devisive as well.

In short, it seems to me that something must be done to put the brakes on the use of hyphenated names. It isn’t inconceivable that the United States will become the Divided States with the country being split into 5 or 6 factions; African-America, Hispanic-America, Asian-America, Euro-America, Native-America, and others.

I don’t know about you but this is a real concern to me!

Illegal immigration is a major social and economic problem for the country. Judging by the numbers of aliens, legal and illegal, standing on street corners in virtually every town and city in the country, there is not enough work to go around. We do not “need” these laborers to do jobs citizens won’t or can’t do. Those days are long gone. Based on the recent terrible downturn in the economy, I think there will be many more Americans, not only willing to do these jobs, but required to because of the job losses, savings depletions, etc. I believe that as President you have a duty to slow down and stop the influx of illegals. It doesn’t matter how you do it, border fence, deportations, etc, it must be done. If we don’t control illegal immigration, how do we know who is entering the country and why? It’s safe to say that most of the South and Central American countries welcome the opportunity to let their troublemakers and criminals slip out of their countries. But we welcome them with open arms.

Secondly, language is the tie that binds any successful nation. Countries or groups of countries that speak many languages cannot have the same unity and patriotism as those that speak one language. Consider the demise of the old USSR. Part of the reason for the breakup of the union is that there was no single language that bound the various segments of the Soviet Union together. Each was loyal primarily to their own homeland. Perhaps the breakup was inevitable.

Consider Europe as an entity. Each country speaks its own language. True! Many Europeans speak several languages but each is totally loyal to his or her homeland. Many of these countries have been able to settle on a unified monetary system the Euro, but language is still a dividing issue.

Here in the U.S., we are catering to the language spoken primarily in Central and South America, the very areas that send us the majority of illegal aliens. This has never been done in the past history of our country. Except for local areas and neighborhoods, English has always been the primary language of the land. Except for recent years! It’s not that we do not want a multilingual nation. Simply put, it is divisive to become a bilingual nation with Spanish becoming as prevalent and important as English. That is wrong. It’s time to make English our official national language.

Finally, and still related to the immigration problem, is the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution. The following is taken from www.americanresistance.com a web site that is no longer active. I have no idea about who or what this group is and I don’t endorse them in any way but these comments fairly accurately outline the intent of the 14^th Amendment.

“The 14^th Amendment was ratified in 1868 to protect the rights of native-born Black Americans, whose rights were being denied as recently-freed slaves. In 1866, Senator Jacob Howard clearly spelled out the intent of the 14^th Amendment by writing:

"Every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons. It settles the great question of citizenship and removes all doubt as to what persons are or are not citizens of the United States. This has long been a great desideratum in the jurisprudence and legislation of this country."

The original intent of the 14^th Amendment was clearly not to facilitate illegal aliens defying U.S. law at taxpayer expense. Current estimates indicate there may be over 300,000 anchor babies born each year in the U.S., thus causing illegal alien mothers to add more to the U.S. population each year than immigration from all sources in an average year before 1965.

The correct interpretation of the 14^th Amendment is that an illegal alien mother is subject to the jurisdiction of her native country, as is her baby.”

I for one wonder about the wisdom of allowing these alien babies full citizenship simply because they are born on USA soil. It seems to me that some may be bred and reared by parents with anti American feelings and some may even grow to adulthood while being trained as part of sleeper cells, Even if there is only one in a thousand births that end up that way, isn’t that one too many. Look what just happened in Mumbai with only ten known terrorists! I personally cannot understand the logic of allowing the “anchor baby” loophole to exist.

As I said earlier, Pres. Elect Obama. I know you are faced with challenges that are unprecedented in American history, except perhaps in the days and months preceding the Revolution, but the problems I’ve tried to relate to you are very real to many Americans, of all colors, races, religions, and financial status. We are concerned because we see our countries unity and security being undermined and compromised. It’s time to forget political loyalties, and forget potential future votes. Look what is happening today. The last time I visited Chicago, your own home turf only a year or so ago, I was passed on a busy avenue by a mini convoy of cars, playing Latino music much too loud and flying the Mexican flags from their vehicles. It was some sort of demonstration. Not an American flag was in sight. I propose to you that I would be issued a summons if I did that in my town. 

In short, please take this correspondence seriously. I am a truly concerned, and very independent, American citizen. I doubt that it will reach your desk but if it does, please understand that many Americans are concerned about this issue as much as the others on your upcoming agenda.

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 ONLY $19 A MONTH

Did you ever notice the TV ads that are trying to raise money for various charities?

Especially around this time of year, the holidays, there is a push on to raise money for many different charities. In the last week alone, I’ve seen spots that were stressing starving, abused animals, disabled, wounded warriors, poor starving children in third world countries, poor people in Israel, and  several other worthy causes.

The ads really tug at your heart strings. They show the seriously wounded veterans with missing limbs.  They depict starving families in Israel and third world countries. They show starving, emaciated, and mutilated cats and dogs. It truly is sad.    .

I don’t question the need for charity. That’s not the crux of this article.

What gets my attention is the fact that almost every one of these spots asks for only $19 a month, 63 cents a day.

I really wonder how they arrived at those figures. After all, it would take thousands, even millions of donors, to make a real difference.

I recently saw a SNL skit lampooning these ads. The narrator was speaking in a somber and serious voice, as he walked through what seemed to be a very poor village somewhere in Africa. There were a few natives doing some menial tasks. The narrator stressed the 63 cents a day, $19 a month, several times. All of a sudden the natives started telling him to ask for more. They were asking him what you could get for 63 cents a day. Anyway, I found the skit funny.

Oh, I know they not relying on one donor. They want millions. But I still have to wonder, how did they arrive at those numbers?

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AS SEEN ON TV

I’m sure that you have all seen the TV commercial for those products that “are only sold on TV.” Well we all know that’s not true since many stores, including the drug chains, now have aisles with that heading. They all seem to follow the same script. Somewhere they will say “But wait! If you call right now, etc.”

I have seen these ads for everything from garden hoses, to caulking compounds, to pillows, to sunglasses, to pillows, etc, etc. It really makes one wonder! If you can make all these deals, what kind of quality do these products have?

The thing that gets me is that the announcers are always loud, and they always end up saying “But wait!. If you order right now and use promo code XYZ, we’ll send you 2. That’s like getting one free. All you have to do is pay separate shipping and handling.”

I must admit, I have never, ever ordered something off a TV commercial. But I do wonder about the 2 for 1 offer.

It seems to me that the only way that makes fiscal sense is if the cost of the first unit is high enough to cover the second, which means that it is overpriced, or that they are over stocked due to lack of sales, or that the cost of shipping and handling actually covers the cost of the second unit, or a combination of the three.

I must admit, it’s a great marketing gimmick but I’m not sold.

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