This is my first Diary.
I'm composing a letter to my Grandparents. My family is very conservative. We're a mixture of New England Protestant, Mid-Western, Texan & Military. Somehow, my brother and I grew up in Southern California. Everything we learned from our family and our California public schooling has made us both very liberal.
As protestants, there are no major family problems. We just don't speak of them. I'm the gay grandkid from California who went to art school. Most of the family doesn't know I'm gay, even though the folks don't have big problem with it. They definitely don't know I got married to my partner of nine years on the first day it was legal in California.
I'm inspired by Sarah Silverman's "The Great Schlep" to send a little note to my grandparents. These are smart people. That being said, they have no idea what's going on. They are in their 80's and they still think its the 60's.
I know that they think Obama is a muslim, etc. I would appreciate feedback on the letter and I hope that other might be inspired to ruffle the feathers of their grandparents, and parents, too.
Dear Grandma and Grandpa,
I love you both very much and I’m writing to you to let you know that I am strongly supporting Barack Obama for president and I think that you should too.
John McCain and Sarah Palin are dangerously unprepared to deal with the full reality of our situation. Their ideology will take our country even further backwards than the Bush administration has. We need to really be worried about Social Security and healthcare and the economy. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are serious men who are prepared to deal with the serious problems our country and our world face.
I can understand why you may not be prone to support a black man with a foreign name but I trust that you can over come those superficial barriers and join me in my support for the only serious candidate running for president. This election should have nothing to do with race or gender. It should have to do with the issues. John Mc Cain and Sarah Palin are dishonest, pandering, fear-mongers. The same could be said about Hillary Clinton and that is why she is no longer a candidate and never had my support.
For 8 years George Bush and Dick Cheney have done nothing but damage this country and our Constitution. I’m sure you can see that McCain and Palin are interested only keeping the status quo.
I hope that you will recognize the difficulty I encounter expressing this to you. I think it’s important enough to ask you to consider supporting Obama with me. The lessons I learned from you and my parents have made me the person I am today and I thank you for that.
I love you both very much and I know that you will think about this letter.
Your Grandson,
Jon Brooks Thomas