Dear President Obama,
I am a restless American. There is a calamity in America today. Although nature always provides laws for the “survival of the fittest”, you and I know that “survival mode is not apple pie al a mode”. We are no longer as American as apple pie, are we?
If we can judge a book by its cover, does that mean we can judge our nation, and her people, by the way we treat the young and the elderly? America needs a new master artist; Norman Rockwell no longer captivates the sentiments of our American family scene. A “Kodak moment” in America’s homes today, would reflect individuals that have become more consumed with “their image” than their “personal responsibility” to their children and their elderly parents.
America was not founded on an “image”; it was founded on a “vision”. Our American history was built by our ancestor’s tremendous sacrifices to build a nation for future generations, you and me. Today, it is clear that we need to rebuild our nation and rebuild our world. The world has become smaller, and we have become larger than life.
Family life is being severed by the same greed that is currently slaughtering mainstream America. In my neighborhood, Orange County, California, three out of four marriages result in divorce. In my state, a child can be born with birth records that indicate the child “does not have a father”. In my state, a father can collect an inheritance of a million dollars, and have no financial obligations to his children of divorce, because inheritance is separate property. In my state, an individual can make a “new” family while destroying their “former” family. Lawlessness is the new equation for personal success. Lawlessness leads to immorality and desperate times. We desperately need to reclaim law and order in our country.
As long as child support is based on a parent’s income, we will have a nation of “abandoned” children. We have made it legal to abandon our children. We have stirred America’s “melting pot” and created America’s “smelting pot”; we are more interested in separating our families than uniting our families. With one swift blow to our children and our elderly parents, we can be home free of debt. Is this a fact or an opinion? What do you think? What should we think? Let history reveal the facts, “Tell the truth, nothing but the truth, so help us God.”
We are a nation that has promoted excellence by promoting higher education; yet approximately one-third of our nation is not graduating from high school, and the poverty level is yielding the same statistic. You are fashioning your White House after our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was an independent thinker, and history taught us that “he was self-taught”. Is it possible that life experiences could teach us better life lessons than a $160,000.00 private college education? Is it possible that we have taught our children to think that higher education is a higher road than personal responsibility, and self motivation? What do we value most, our "credentials" or our "principles"?
They say that “experience is the best teacher”. The past fifteen years of my life have taught me valuable lessons about “courage”, “compassion”, and “commitment”. I will not relay my story, because the moral of my story is woven into the fabric of today’s America. More and more Americans are seeing the “writing on the wall”. As we become enlightened, we do what history has taught us to do, persevere and take one step at a time; “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
We need to ask the important questions before we start the quest. We need to know where we have been, before we can ever know where we are going. We need a campaign to get, "We the people", united in an American vision for 2009. It is the season to plant a new America. The harvest will come, God willing.
If we could get every American walking and talking for unity in purpose, we will be living the vision. As a school teacher, I understand how important it is to use as many of our five senses as possible in learning. We need to see, hear, taste, touch, and smell America working together. Your leadership will turn this ship around, and we will see a “new land” and proclaim, “America”. God bless America. We were created in His image, and we are His vision.
One American voice for change,
Ms. Kathy Paysen ©2008
kpaysen@sbcglobal.net
