John Whitehead's Commentary
An Open Letter to the President: It's Time to Focus on America
Dear Mr. President,
After living through eleven presidents, I have seen my share of good and bad times as the Great American Experiment in freedom has unfolded.
I've seen the great strides Americans have made in technology, crossing boundaries of space and sound; I've seen dictators come to power and governments fold, with and without our assistance; I've seen legends in music and art rise to stardom and fall from grace; I've seen our young men and women scarred by wars that demoralized our nation, as well as killed in wars that served a just cause; and I've seen political leaders rewarded for their failings and assassinated for their visions.
Yet never has the state of our world seemed as desperate as it does right now. We are a nation in need of hope, wisdom and leadership. Mr. President, what is happening to our country and our world?
In every state in this land, families and children are starving. Millions of disillusioned Americans have separated themselves from the country and aligned with militias. As such, domestic terrorism has become a real threat to our citizens. The stock market is going up and down like a pogo stick. People are losing their jobs, and businesses are going under. Some parts of the country are experiencing the worst drought since the 1930s. Energy crises continue to plague other segments of the country.
Snipers are running loose, terrorizing communities and claiming innocent lives. Young girls are being snatched from their beds, only to be raped, murdered and then discarded like pieces of trash. Business executives are looting their companies and stealing from their investors. The homeless and the poor, even little children, continue to increase in number at an unprecedented rate. School children are turning to violence and killing as outlets for their angst--or simply dropping out of a system that breeds apathy.
Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg. We are merely seeing the outward signs of an inner problem, a festering sore. There are deeper concerns that need to be attended to for the sake of the future of this country. If not, we're going to implode. Our politicians sing "God Bless America," yet our courts strip "One Nation Under God" from schoolhouses and government buildings. Our medical doctors kill unborn babies while our scientists try to recreate life in a test tube.
We are a country that has lost its faith, and, as a result, we are losing our way. Waging wars against minor tyrants is not going to save us. It's time to focus on the things that matter. We need to focus on what is gnawing at the core of our being.
Every president has had to face some sort of challenge that defined his presidency. Yet even when things seemed darkest for our nation, there has always been a sense of hope, a sense that every American has some control over his or her life--and a voice in the future of our country. Right now, the message from the White House seems to be that one person alone, the President of the United States, is steering this ship--and he seems to know better than the Senate, better than the House of Representatives, better than the military experts paid to advise him, better than our allies abroad, even better than the American people. Indeed, weeks before our Congress even voted on the proposed war with Iraq, it was murmured that some American soldiers had already received marching orders for Iraq.
Our government officers need to be reminded from time to time that we are a representative democracy--and they were elected to listen to and represent the views of the American people. This includes you, Mr. President.
The Constitution begins with the words, "We the People." Our Founding Fathers were sending a clear message to future generations of Americans and the world that it's "we the people" who should be running the show. "Trust me" government was never part of the package, as Ronald Reagan pointed out in 1980 when he accepted his party's nomination for president:
"Trust me" government asks that we concentrate our hopes and dreams on one man; that we trust him to do what's best for us. My view of government places trust not in one person or one party, but in those values that transcend persons and parties. The trust is where it belongs--in the people. The responsibility to live up to that trust is where it belongs, in their elected leaders. That kind of relationship, between the people and their elected leaders, is a special kind of compact.
Mr. President, you were called upon to comfort our nation in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and you did so ably. Yet that should not be your legacy. While the attacks that traumatized our nation might seem to have been the greatest challenge of your presidency thus far, I believe your greatest challenge still lies ahead.
It is time for our government officials to turn their energies to rebuilding this nation from the ground up and prepare to answer some hard questions. So perhaps it's time to back off for a while on plans for war abroad and focus on what's going on in this country for a change. What sense is there in fixing what's wrong with a country like Iraq if we can't even begin to address what's horribly wrong here at home?
Mr. President, America needs your help--and she needs your attention. Before another person goes hungry, before another family loses its livelihood, before another unborn child is killed and yet another innocent child is abused, won't you reconsider your priorities and put America back at the top of the list where she belongs?
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org.
After living through eleven presidents, I have seen my share of good and bad times as the Great American Experiment in freedom has unfolded.
I've seen the great strides Americans have made in technology, crossing boundaries of space and sound; I've seen dictators come to power and governments fold, with and without our assistance; I've seen legends in music and art rise to stardom and fall from grace; I've seen our young men and women scarred by wars that demoralized our nation, as well as killed in wars that served a just cause; and I've seen political leaders rewarded for their failings and assassinated for their visions.
Yet never has the state of our world seemed as desperate as it does right now. We are a nation in need of hope, wisdom and leadership. Mr. President, what is happening to our country and our world?
In every state in this land, families and children are starving. Millions of disillusioned Americans have separated themselves from the country and aligned with militias. As such, domestic terrorism has become a real threat to our citizens. The stock market is going up and down like a pogo stick. People are losing their jobs, and businesses are going under. Some parts of the country are experiencing the worst drought since the 1930s. Energy crises continue to plague other segments of the country.
Snipers are running loose, terrorizing communities and claiming innocent lives. Young girls are being snatched from their beds, only to be raped, murdered and then discarded like pieces of trash. Business executives are looting their companies and stealing from their investors. The homeless and the poor, even little children, continue to increase in number at an unprecedented rate. School children are turning to violence and killing as outlets for their angst--or simply dropping out of a system that breeds apathy.
Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg. We are merely seeing the outward signs of an inner problem, a festering sore. There are deeper concerns that need to be attended to for the sake of the future of this country. If not, we're going to implode. Our politicians sing "God Bless America," yet our courts strip "One Nation Under God" from schoolhouses and government buildings. Our medical doctors kill unborn babies while our scientists try to recreate life in a test tube.
We are a country that has lost its faith, and, as a result, we are losing our way. Waging wars against minor tyrants is not going to save us. It's time to focus on the things that matter. We need to focus on what is gnawing at the core of our being.
Every president has had to face some sort of challenge that defined his presidency. Yet even when things seemed darkest for our nation, there has always been a sense of hope, a sense that every American has some control over his or her life--and a voice in the future of our country. Right now, the message from the White House seems to be that one person alone, the President of the United States, is steering this ship--and he seems to know better than the Senate, better than the House of Representatives, better than the military experts paid to advise him, better than our allies abroad, even better than the American people. Indeed, weeks before our Congress even voted on the proposed war with Iraq, it was murmured that some American soldiers had already received marching orders for Iraq.
Our government officers need to be reminded from time to time that we are a representative democracy--and they were elected to listen to and represent the views of the American people. This includes you, Mr. President.
The Constitution begins with the words, "We the People." Our Founding Fathers were sending a clear message to future generations of Americans and the world that it's "we the people" who should be running the show. "Trust me" government was never part of the package, as Ronald Reagan pointed out in 1980 when he accepted his party's nomination for president:
"Trust me" government asks that we concentrate our hopes and dreams on one man; that we trust him to do what's best for us. My view of government places trust not in one person or one party, but in those values that transcend persons and parties. The trust is where it belongs--in the people. The responsibility to live up to that trust is where it belongs, in their elected leaders. That kind of relationship, between the people and their elected leaders, is a special kind of compact.
Mr. President, you were called upon to comfort our nation in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and you did so ably. Yet that should not be your legacy. While the attacks that traumatized our nation might seem to have been the greatest challenge of your presidency thus far, I believe your greatest challenge still lies ahead.
It is time for our government officials to turn their energies to rebuilding this nation from the ground up and prepare to answer some hard questions. So perhaps it's time to back off for a while on plans for war abroad and focus on what's going on in this country for a change. What sense is there in fixing what's wrong with a country like Iraq if we can't even begin to address what's horribly wrong here at home?
Mr. President, America needs your help--and she needs your attention. Before another person goes hungry, before another family loses its livelihood, before another unborn child is killed and yet another innocent child is abused, won't you reconsider your priorities and put America back at the top of the list where she belongs?
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
Publication Guidelines / Reprint Permission
John W. Whitehead’s weekly commentaries are available for publication to newspapers and web publications at no charge. Please contact staff@rutherford.org to obtain reprint permission.
