Dear Mr. President

I am writing to you, Mr. President, as I cannot have the luxury of meeting with you in person.

Thank you for choosing to serve America as the highest leader of the land. It is an honor you have worked hard to achieve. I remember at your first inauguration you addressed the voters who did not cast their vote for you and I am one of them. You promised that you would be my president, too.

On that promise I have a specific request. There is a very active dialogue and decision making process going on between the three branches of government regarding tax cuts, tax reform, government spending and various aspects of the 'fiscal cliff'. I cannot begin to imagine the complexity and magnitude of the office you hold. I only ask that as you govern, you consider the diversity and intensity of feeling in the matters which threaten to divide the fabric of our country. When I hear statements that lead me to believe that your mind is made up beforehand, I wonder why? I ask you to please engage in meaningful dialogue and active listening to all parties involved in the discussion. Some of those who have opposing views to your own are people I and a majority of the country have voted for to represent us. I am not so naive or close-minded as to believe that either party always has a corner on the best ideas for the bettering of America. That is the very reason that all three branches exist. All are needed to create the perfect Union we have been striving to achieve for well over 200 years.

I happen to align myself more closely with the Republican party, but my brother, an assistant chaplain for the United States Army who usually votes as a Democrat, often challenges my thinking to the point where I must concede that it is all too easy to only listen to the people who say the things you want them to say. And so it is that my own family is a representative of the partisan-like situation that I see in the government. I don't always agree with his conclusions, but still, I love my brother and consider him one of the most caring and sincere people I know. It would never be appropriate or wise for me to dig in to my own opinion and refuse to hear what he has to say. All I ask is that you do the same.

Thank you for being my president!

Sincerely,

Amy L Maris

Divided We Fall (Keep Mucking On)

Two major parties vie for a position of power in America this election year. You'd be hard pressed to find a bigger polarization of politics in recent years, although my mother remembers President Truman's surprise win over Dewey in'48. But that seems a world ago, just after the dust of WW II was beginning to settle.

I'd be telling tales if I didn't agree that both sides have produced some compelling speeches, while systematically deconstructing the platforms of each other. If rhetoric alone wins races, it will be razor close.

Perhaps more unsettling is the division in the Democratic Party. The vote to include references to the Deity  in whose name the country was founded, and the recognition of Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel, an enormous collective dissent could be heard at last night's meeting when those present were given a chance to vote by voice.  In a country where votes are counted by elaborate machinery and voting is scrupulously regulated, it seemed a shotgun approach to an intricately complicated issue. It's not really complicated for me, but I do understand it may be for my fellow atheist Americans, or our fellow Arab Americans with relatives in Palestine.

The system of government we set up over 236 years ago held the freedom of religion as its centerpiece, the very reason for its existence. Doubtless, the founders never imagined an America where the freedom to oppose religion could hold its own as a political force. Closely aligned with the Judeo-Christian view is an "Israel in the side-pocket" policy stemming from the many admonitions in the scriptures such as the Psalmist words  "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem" and the Genesis promise of Jehovah to Abraham, "I will bless those that bless you". Without a belief in the Almighty, none of it makes any sense at all. I get that.

But apparently, the Democrats don't. I'd be curious to hear the same vote put to a Republican gathering. And if that sounds far-off to you, just a few short years ago no one would have believed such a vote would even be thinkable.

We have changed, and we don't know who we are yet. Thanks to the Democratic Party for pointing this out. It explains a whole lot.