Letter to President Obama

Typically, I only write or post items that are related to agriculture. However, after listening to and reading speeches delivered by President Obama, while driving tactor, truck, cleaning horse stalls, and working in the shop, I had to put my thoughts to paper (so to speak).


June 6, 2009

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington , DC 20500


Mr. President:

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a fifth generation, Christian, family farmer and rancher, married, with a 2 year old son. I own and operate my own business, and help manage my parents.

I have always had the utmost respect for the office of the President of the United States. I have always respected the individual that held the office of the President, regardless of their party affiliation, unless they acted in a way that tarnished that position or acted in a manner unbecoming of a person who represents all citizens of the United States of America. While I have not agreed with most of the changes that have taken place over the past several months, I accept that your policy positions are different than mine. However, some of your actions and actions that you have allowed your administration to pursue go beyond simple policy changes and threaten the very fabric which this great country was formed.

Most recently, your trip abroad has been disgraceful. Your responsibility lies with the people of the United States, not Saudi Arabia, Egypt, France, Germany, etc. Speeches you have delivered overseas have been heavily apologetic and appeasing. This is disgraceful. We in the United States have NOTHING to apologize for and should NOT be trying to appease countries that do not hold in high regard the same value for the human rights and freedoms that were so valiantly earned with the blood, sweat and tears of our forefathers and maintained and protected by those currently serving so honorably in our armed services.

What were you thinking when you told the Muslims that we are not a Christian country and further that we are “one of the largest Muslim countries.” You need to fire your speech writer for feeding you lies and/or you need to go back and re-read your American history so that you can recognize the errors and misstatements before you repeat them. Surely you cannot believe what you have said. The United States of America was founded on Judeo-Christian ethics, principles and values and believed so strongly that our forefathers included language stating our beliefs in both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of these United States.

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitles them . . .”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator (not Allah or Buddha) with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

- Declaration of Independence

“If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.”

- The Constitution of the United States of America, Article 1, Section 7

For your information, Christians account for 78% of the population of the United States, Muslims 0.6%, that is LESS than 1% of our population. That 0.6% equates to 2.3 million Muslims. Let us compare that to say India (156 million), or Pakistan (150 million). Using whose math is 2.3 million even close to 150 million?

Your speech in Cairo, Egypt, was also filled with inaccuracies, apparently an attempt to appease. For your information, the compass traces back to the Aztecs and Chinese, algebra was developed by an Babylonian, Rome was the home to architecture, and Johannes Gutenburg, a German, developed the movable type and please, to credit Islam with religious and racial tolerance. Have you not read the history of the Middle East?

Additionally, you fail to show deserved respect to one of our oldest allies, Great Britain, and yet, you bow to the king of Saudi Arabia, (thank you at least for not doing so during your last visit) and give kudos to the president of Venezuela. Further, you take the time to visit a mosque in Turkey, but fail to visit the graves of our departed veterans in Germany. Your actions are offensive, giving the Germans more respect than the Americans who fought and died to save the Germans from themselves. Where are your loyalties?

Your domestic actions are of great concern as well. Bank executives and company CEO’s are having limits set on their pay and bonuses. What about the blatantly corrupt government officials. Namely, Senator Dodd, Senator Frank Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelic and the bonuses that paid in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

GM has also now been taken over by the government. (I say government and not people because I truly feel the majority of elected and appointed officials in Washington D.C. no longer represent the PEOPLE.) We only need to look to Amtrak, which goes ~$400 in the red, per person traveling from the west coast to the east, to see how well the government manages companies. Data indicates that GM is losing $3,000 per vehicle and owes us, the PEOPLE, how many billions of dollars? How can you seriously believe that WE the PEOPLE will ever see a return on your so called “investment.” Add this buy out to the previous careless spending and we as Americans now each have an extra $55,000 per household to pay off in additional debt, added on to the existing $540,000 of debt, based on 2008 numbers.

By the way, how many of your advisors and appointees that are guiding your decisions have ever had a REAL job, managing a company or business in the private sector? Certainly you know the adage about the character and wisdom of an individual is reflected by those he surrounds himself with.

Returning to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as I understand it, their executives will be receiving $210 million in bonuses, and have already been given $51 million. Correct me if I am wrong, but I am not; were not Fannie and Freddie largely to blame for the current economic situation? Has not your administration heavily criticized other companies that are failing for paying their executives bonuses when they managed them into the dirt? It seems to me the pot is calling the kettle black.

Mr. President, with all due respect, LET CAPITALISM WORK! It is the responsibility of the government to ensure equal OPPORTUNITY for individuals to be successful, NOT make everyone equal. Innovation, invention and jobs are created by the PEOPLE, not the government. Will some businesses fail? Of course they will. Will it be painful? Certainly. But bad business must fail. Poor performance and decisions must endure the consequences. NO ONE is TOO BIG to fail! It is essential for balance to return NATURALLY, WITHOUT government interference, in order for our economy and country to heal itself.

In closing, Mr. President, it is high time for you to clean your house of the inept, inadequate, out-of-touch, inexperienced and history deficient advisors, speech writers and appointees. If you do not, rest assured, the PEOPLE of this great country WILL, in the next Presidential election.

Sincerely,


Jeffrey N. Fowle