Hello Barack,
I have a list of issues and actions that I believe are ethical and must be implemented if we are to be unified and successful as a nation under your Administration.
1. Health Care: At the US government level, a health care system cannot disrupt the free market. If a public option is included, it must be made clear to the American public that such a public option will NEVER be compulsory, will NEVER be used to make free market health care obsolete, and that people will still be able to choose the doctor of their choice. While many people distrust private health insurance companies, just as many people, if not more, distrust the government and do not want the government in control of their lives. You must also be very clear that there are no so-called "death panels". There are many people who have legitimate concerns about this.
2. Your Citizenship: There are groups out there right now, called "birthers" by the media, that do not believe that you are a United States citizen. While I personally believe that these claims are very unfounded, some have legitimate Constitutional concerns with this. To make it crystal clear for people, I believe you should personally address this. Whenever conspiracy theories arose about the last Administration, Bush/Cheney never addressed theories brought against them, and this fueled their theories even more. I believe you could show that you are the bigger man in this one by addressing the concerns and putting these false rumors to rest. It doesn't matter where you were born, your mother was a US citizen, therefore you are a US citizen. In my opinion, one is "natural born" regardless of where they were physically born. People forget that John McCain was born in Panama. I have a friend who was born in Canada to an unwed couple- his mom was a US citizen and his dad was a Canadian college student in New York. They happened to be visiting his family in Toronto when she went into labor, and he was born there. My friend is a US citizen, natural born or otherwise.
3. The Stimulus (ARRA): I believe you should condense the details about ARRA and explain in layman's terms about how your Administration will balance this deficit created by the plan. 9 trillion dollars is a lot of money over 10 years, and people are concerned that we won't be able to pay it back without it negatively affecting our nation and national sovereignty in the long-term. I'll be honest, I'm worried about it also. I haven't seen any job growth in my area yet, and my unemployment is about to run out. I believe you should extend unemployment benefits another few months for people like me who can't find a decent job.
4. Socialism/Communism/Fascism: I believe you should use your position to educate people about the true nature of these economic ideologies. If more people understood your position and your plans to rebuild the national infrastructure, they would stop saying that you subscribe to any of these terms. Socialism advocates the abolition of private property, which you do not advocate. Communism advocates violent overthrow of the upper class, and you are completely nonviolent. Fascism is completely unrelated to Socialism and Communism, and you are not fascist, because you do not advocate complete control of private industry by the central government. You need to explain this to the people because there is a concerted effort to label you right now. Throughout our national history, many Presidents, even the most "conservative" of Presidents such as Reagan, have implemented temporary measures that seemed "Socialist", but once recovery efforts were finished, we returned to a normal free-market environment. Please explain this to the people.
5. Swine Flu: You must explain to people that H1N1 is no different than many other communicable illnesses and end a lot of the panic and conspiracies out there. You should also make sure that vaccines are not mandatory and also ease some of the panic in the medical community about this virus- there are some clinics and doctors who are in a panic wanting to vaccinate people immediately, and we can't do this. The vaccine has only been in the works for a few months, which means it is highly untested on humans, and could present a higher threat than the virus itself. Please read about the mistakes that the US government made during the first Swine Flu scare in 1976. If this is found to have been a weaponized strain, be honest with the people and let's go after the perpetrators. If this was a natural occurrence, explain this as well. But, do not force this upon the people. I personally have issues with vaccines of many different kinds due to the additives in the vaccines that have been proven in some cases to cause neurological damage in some people.
6. City Year and Citizen Corps: Explain to people that you are doing exactly what President Eisenhower and others did, by helping to encourage community organization so that we are better prepared as a nation for local and national emergencies, and to help clean up ran-down communities. The Civil Defense programs of the 40's, 50's, and 60's were VERY beneficial to our national security. I believe we should be doing more of these things, such as building local shelters and providing equipment to protect against nuclear blast and fallout, biological and chemical agents, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, electromagnetic pulse attacks, and more.
7. General Motors: Explain to people that if the government did not step in and help to save GM, we would have slipped into a complete economic depression. Since the government owns the majority share of the company, begin to distribute company ownership certificates to United States citizens since we own the majority of the company with our tax dollars. Roll out cars that people can buy with their tax returns- cars that are quality made, fuel-efficient, AND financially cheap.
8. Bring Us the Head of Osama Bin Laden on a Platter: I want you and the United States Department of Defense to bust heads at the FBI and CIA, get the classified details on him, and capture and kill Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri once and for all. Thousands of our men and women, and many thousands more innocent people in Iraq (though it had nothing to do with 9/11) and Afghanistan are dead due to the initial 9/11 attack. If they are able to release tapes to Al-Jazeera, then we know they're able to be captured. We have the technology to find them. Do it. And nail anyone else involved, no matter if they were rich, poor, powerful, international, or American.
9. Holding Criminals Accountable: You must hold anyone accountable from any previous Administration or from your Administration who has violated any law or committed any act of treason against the United States. We need to reopen the 9/11 investigation, we need to reopen the Katrina investigation, and we need a full investigation of the build-up to the Iraq War. We need to get into classified details surrounding these cases and prosecute anyone who may have been negligent or intended and/or committed an act of criminal harm.
10. Last but not least- Reevaluate Financial Policy in the US: It's time for a full financial investigation into corporate and banking fraud, and a full investigation and audit of the Federal Reserve. Ron Paul, a libertarian Republican from Texas, has authored a bill that states his desire to audit the Fed. This is very important. We need to find out who the puppeteers are that created this economic mess we now find ourselves in. In past decades, we've went through the recovery but we never fully investigated who was responsible and sent them to prison. In a new era of accountability, we must do this.
Thank you for your time.
