Dear President Obama;
I am a Canadian citizen, and have been watching things from the sidelines for the past four years. To begin, I’d first like to say congratulations on your second term as President of the United States. As a Canadian, I’m glad that you were re-elected to office. This means a lot of great things are going to happen for your country and for those living within its borders.
It’s already been shown that marriage equality has been supported in States such as Maine, and the voting public said no to changing the Constitution. It also means that the United States is a step closer to fully accepting marriage equality across the board. It’s something we’ve had in Canada for a while, and after a short time you might find that it’s just called marriage. Not gay marriage, just marriage.
Health Care will be supported, as your plan for coverage will continue. However, as former Saskatchewan Premier Alan Blakney said, it was a very small step. You’ve still got a long way to go, and you’ll find that after a while, it’s an ever evolving process.
You now can ensure that landmarks such as Roe vs. Wade are upheld, and that women and the choices they make with their health care will be defended. This is important, because had you lost, the alternative (and possibly much more) would have erased women’s personal choices.
There is still more to do, however. But not just in your own country. Yes, you need to take steps to ensure that transgender individuals are protected, and that the crimes reported against such individuals are investigated and taken to trial quickly. You, as President, have the ability to convince cities like New York, with their stop and search laws, to reconsider such laws. It’s more than evident that these laws are merely racial profiling in disguise.
This is also big news internationally.
But still, like in your own country, there’s a lot of work to do.
Yes, the promise to bring the soldiers home from Afghanistan will go through. You did it in Iraq, and I believe you can do the same in Afghanistan. But let’s stay in that region for a while longer, shall we? You have to come out and help stop violence that continues to plague that region. I say you can, because most of that violence is coming from the United States.
First, drone strikes in Pakistan. The number of drone strikes in the regions of Pakistan that border Afghanistan have actually increased since you took office in 2008. You have to work to end these, and end these soon. There’s a reason why when polled, Pakistan said they’d rather have Romney and Ryan. You and your administration are not looked upon favourably there.
Also, Palestine. Yes, I know, you probably really don’t want to talk about that, considering Israel is a close ally of the United States. But please, you can’t be so blind as to see what the Israeli government is doing to the Palestinian people. Being pushed off their land, without warning, as Jewish settlements begin to squeeze the life out of any Palestinian communities that remain. This is a living people that are being killed off and deserve the right to live.
There is a lot of work ahead of you. I do congratulate you on a second term, and I look for many more progressive pieces of legislation to be announced. But let’s keep some promises that were made in 2008. Close Guantanamo, for instance. There’s so much more that a letter like this could touch on, including issues like climate change, which we’ve seen prime examples of with storms like Hurricane Sandy.
Your second term as President is good for the American people. Let’s just make sure that it’s just as good for people living in Palistine and Pakistan.
Yours sincerely,
Tim Holtorf
A Canadian citizen with strong concerns about the future.
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