Here is the letter I have just sent to Barack Omaba, which I want to share with you.

Dear Mr. Obama,

It is wonderful that you have achieved your candidacy.

Now I implore you to think about the following:

We have been fed a diet of lies for so long that we no longer can believe anything said by any Administration.

Can you undertake not to lie to us? Can you say that while there are always certain things that a President must keep to himself, you will at least say so, and not present us with manipulative fictions? Can you take the flak from the self-styled pundits and their ignorant judgments? Can you hold on against the pressure from your “spin doctors” and stick to your principles?

Can you state your principles?  Can you speak of the Ten Commandments and the U.S. Constitution as your guidelines, and persuade us that these commitments are not riddled with exceptions?

Tell us what you would die for, if anything.

Mr. Obama, speak to our hearts and our minds and our lost hopes.

Tell us that we are facing very serious problems in the country and the world. We will have to, like it or not, reduce our demands on our planet.  To confront the problems of food supply and energy and injustice, we must act together to solve them. One of our outstanding characteristics has been that we see problems as something to solve, not conditions we must endure.

Once more we need to ask ourselves what we can do for our country.

Once America was an example of optimism and opportunity. We were leaders, committed to  ideals -remember “liberty and justice for all”? While we couldn’t always live up to it, most of us tried, and we were admired for it.   Now we seem to be leading the world into the dark side of greed, lies and violence. We seem to have lost our ability to tell right from wrong, We know very well that torture and the murder of children is wrong; we know that imprisonment without trial is wrong; we even know very well that an army of greedy hired mercenaries – contractors – is a sign of  public revulsion from a putative “patriotic” war which is nothing of the sort. You have shown, I hope, that you know that selling the public soul to corporate contributors is wrong.

We can still recover if we are realistic and committed.  But without principles, without commitment, unless we each become part of the solution and finding energy savings – small things like cold water washing, long life bulbs, solar panels, and bigger things like windmills and new forms of vehicles, and do it now, it will be too late for all of us.

It is to be hoped that a new President will not meet attacks from our enemies with panic, but with reasoned action based on factual information, a knowledge of history and geography, and moral sense. Ignorance and stupidity are bad enough, but the violation of the national soul as stated in our Constitution can only lead to defeat, not victory. .

 Iraq: Please consider this. If we could only admit that Iraq was our mistake, a decision made in ignorance, fear and anger (and the results were predictable; ignorance, fear and anger breed like roaches) ask the rest of the world to sort it out now, and allow us to help where we can, What a comedown!  Or, what a heroic gesture! we might retrieve something from the wreckage. It takes a big soul to admit error. We would have to let go of our self-righteous authority and turn it over to other fallible human beings -- who might also screw up. Iraq is a country of three major nations with immense history; it was never a simple homogeneous State. But it was not up to us reform it to our liking; it’s a long-term challenge much too complicated for us alone. Please do not let us down by backing away from right action. If the American voters choose that other Party, they will deserve it. And we will have truly lost our way.

I am trying to live in Europe on a Social Security retirement income, which has lost 45% of its value in the past few years due to the falling dollar. But I was happy to send you $100, because now is surely the time for all good folks to come to the aid of our Party, a Party committed to leading us back into the light.

I pray that you will be its leader. You’ve come so far, don’t give in.

Sincrely

Judith Blish