As in, a Christmas card this time of year, delivered by good old-fashioned U.S. Postal Mail. :)
What if we each sent him and his family a personal, authentic Christmas or holiday card? One that wouldn't get deleted in the Spam folder of the White House Web form or get tossed by a bored fax jockey or ignored by a bored Comment Line operator? One that told him respectfully, yet honestly, how we feel about what's going on in our country, and how he can yet rise to the chance of healing it?
Follow me at the jump--I'm just thinking aloud, here.
I realize there's been a lot of discontent among a lot of people on this site with regards to our President. Count me among those who are "conflicted holdouts" who still support Obama, but still get frustrated, confounded, disillusioned, and even angry at the way he has been either a) letting himself get beaten up by the Republicans and/or b) blowing us all off completely when we worked so hard at getting him elected.
Believe me, I get it. It saddens me that our President seems so tone-deaf when it comes to the very real needs of the "other 98%" who are collectively hurting more than ever before in perhaps our lifetimes. It saddens me even more when I learn of his Adminstration's actively willing to suppress torture investigations in other countries, but for my own sanity perhaps, I am doing my best to believe that this is for an at least logical and hopefully larger moral reason than we can fathom. I have to, perhaps for my own sanity in just making it through the day emotionally in America.
Yet, as cathartic as coming together on a blog to share our grievances and frustration may be for a little while, in the long run, it accomplishes very little. That's why I feel we each need to take positive action, in the vein of this:
I love, love, ♥ love ♥ this collective action on the part of MoveOn.org and the many Americans who submitted their own heartfelt pleas of encouragement for President Obama to get back on the horse. I fear, though, that Gibbs and whatever schmuck has replaced Rahm are whispering in Obama's ear right now about the nutty MoveOn people in the professional left, and yadda yadda yadda.
Maybe then he'll listen, if he hears from each of us as individuals rather than part of a collective--especially one that, unfairly, gets tarred by the "mainstream" media on a regular basis as being one of "those" liberal lefty organizations.
Maybe he'll read a Christmas card, asking him politely and respectfully to stand up and lead, to not get beaten down by the forces around him that want to destroy him. One that asks him to stand up for the good of the American people, rather than the artificial "good" of the Republicans and the corporations. Maybe he'll read just one.
And another one, sending a similar message. And another one. And another one. And so on.
Call me sick, but I actually bought a Christmas card today while out shopping, and I picked it carefully. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO A SPECIAL FAMILY, it reads on the front--and on the inside and back is a lot of white space for writing.
So I wrote on the right panel as a friendly introduction, and a general holiday greeting:
Dear President and Mrs. Obama, and Malia, Sasha and of course, Bo :)
Hope you all have a wonderful, peaceful, and stress-free Christmas and New Year. Thanks for all you do for our country. :)
(my family's names--and yes, even that of our Woozle)
But on the left-hand panel and continued on the back, I was able to write the following as a message, just to the President. I admit it's not artfully written, but that was not my intent. Despite my careful selection for white space, I still had a finite area to get it all out there, with little room for flourishy b.s.:
You are doing a good job of managing our country's problems--it can't be easy managing a country full of 300 million of us!--and 2 years after voting for you, I still believe you are the best person to be President.
I am worried, though, that you're letting some very selfish, careerist, and malicious-intended people (namely Republicans) beat you up too much. It hurts me as an American citizen to see you act in good faith, and like the adult in the room, and then get dissed so completely in return by people hell-bent on destroying you.
It is honorable that you are willing to find common ground with your opponents, but they are not returning you the same courtesy. Their attitude and behavior is solely, "My way or the highway." Meanwhile, they are holding up unemployment relief, job growth, tax breaks for the middle class, and the START treaty, all so they can make a quick buck for the billionaires. How is that right to you? How is that right for the American people?
I know you lost the House in November and must feel you owe them something. True, people elected Republicans to Congress, but we also elected you, so your word should hold rank as President. Don't let them bully you, disrespect you, and get you down. You're still our President, and we need you more than ever.
And we will fight with you, if you fight with us, too.
Merry Christmas,
(me)
We need to do something meaningful and concrete, if we're ever going to hope to make progress in this country. Even if it's an idea out of the box, even if it's a small step. As slinkerwink said in her great diary, you are NOT helpless, and you CAN do something. Let's do something positive, and ask Mr. President to get (in the words of the recent Alice in Wonderland movie) his "muchness" back for Christmas. :)