I wrote letters to the editor today. Starting with the New York Times. If we really want to change the topic and challenge the conversation that the media is trying to have about petty, small, and distracting things then we must take action. Do more than sit around and gripe, wring our hands and backseat drive.
Write a letter to the editor or to the television networks that are pushing this current "catnip" of distraction so intently. Here is my letter to the New York Times this morning. It will be a template for my letter to my own local paper as well.
BarackObama.com has a great tool that can help you write to the Editors of papers in your community and across the country. So lets get it started.
Dear Editor
I saw today that the McCain campaign has decided to once again make this Big election about small things. Pettiness and personal distractions to keep from talking the huge failures of the Republican party and it's leadership of this country for the past 8 years.
Well I don't blame them, because they have nothing to talk about! They have gotten us into two unresolved wars, allowed our economy to be gutted by their buddies from Enron to Bear Sterns. Watched as their cronies let New Orleans drown all the while playing politics and exploiting our tragedies. They used 911 to scare Americans into letting them take our country in the wrong direction time after time, and that is only barely scratching the surface. From the dismantling of the Dept of Justice to the suspension of habeas corpus to lack of oversight for multiple agencies...the list is too long for this one letter.
But of course now they want to talk about lipstick. Barack Obama said about John McCain "The other side, suddenly, they're saying 'we're for change too'. He then lists how John McCain is for all the failed Bush policies then he says "You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig.
HOW IS THAT ABOUT SARAH PALIN? Because it was something said about lipstick?
I heard John McCain say something similar about Hillary Clintons Healthcare plan in Oct of 2007 "I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig" Ooooo, was he saying that about Hillary?
Really, is our country in such great shape that we are only going to talk about lipstick? Small things? Petty distractions? Apparently the media has decided that McCain Campaign Manager Rick Davis is right and that "This election is not about issues, this election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."
In other words lipstick.
Be sure to include your name address daytime phone number and email address so that they can contact you and confirm that you are the writer. They will often ask if you have sent this to multiple papers so it is best to take the same letter and edit it so that you can send it more than once rather than send the same one to several papers.