Thank you Mr. President

President Obama,

I’m writing to thank you for all that you have done for me. As recently as two years ago I had only a rudimentary knowledge of the US Constitution and the other documents that were instrumental in the formation of our country, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. When you started making speeches on the campaign trail some the things both you and your opponent, Senator McCain, were saying just were not ringing true to me. At that point I started to educate myself on the documents that formed our country and our government. I don’t have a degree in Constitutional Law much less any type of law so I have to take the words as they are written, not to interpret them as I saw fit or as some Professor saw fit. I also had to do my own research into what the framers of the documents intended for the words to mean. Thank you for teaching me to think for myself.

You have also taught me more about politicians and politics then I ever cared to know. As part of my upbringing I was taught to say what I mean and mean what I say, I was also taught that it’s easier to tell the truth then to lie; you don’t have to remember as much. As I have become more interested in politics, politicians and the direction our country is headed I have come to realize that politics does not adhere to any of those things. Politicians will say whatever they want in order to gain power and contributions from the powerful elite. It’s been a real education on how politics works when listening to all the various polls stating what the American people want and then seeing what our Government is doing, I guess in the Governments opinion we are not educated enough to think for ourselves and know what we really want.

You have also taught me that what the officers I served with in the Navy, to lead by example, was all wrong. I read the legislation that is being written in Congress and listen to the powerful people that are pushing for the legislation telling me it’s the right thing to do for the people of America or for the planet but I don’t see them leading by example. If going green and reducing green house gases was such an important issue wouldn’t you expect to see the lawmakers and lobbyists pushing for it going green themselves? I don’t mean buying credits allowing them to clear their conscious while continuing to emit green house gases, I mean selling the SUV’s and Limos, selling the mansions, stop traveling by private jets and start using go to meeting. I’m also curious as to how good the proposed health care plans are for the American people when they have to make special deals, bribe and threaten in order to get the votes to pass the bills, guess I just don’t understand politics, but I’m sure if I keep watching you and your administration I will learn.

You have also taught me how to influence people. During the campaign you and your staff convinced people that a Governor for one of our largest states had no experience in politics all while you had little to no experience yourself, yet no one questioned that. I have never seen someone as skilled as you at influencing people. Since becoming President you have convinced people that everything you are doing is the greatest thing they will ever see when in truth what you are doing will go down as one the greatest atrocities to the United States and her citizens that will ever be recorded in history. Of course history will remember only that you were one hell of a salesman from that country that used to be known as the United States of America. To go with this you have also taught me have to shirk responsibility. When I accepted a new assignment in the Navy I accepted all the problems that went with the job. I did not matter whether my predecessor created them or not. My seniors would not accept me passing the blame off on someone else; all they accepted was what I was doing about them and why they weren’t fixed.

You have also taught me about the diversity within our country. I don’t mean the diversity of race, creed, color and culture, I mean in ideologies. I used to believe there were only two major political parties and they were firm in their values, now I know different. The two major political parties are so intermingled and splintered at the same time that it keeps the American public confused about what they are getting when they vote. Then there are all the different groups throughout America that want to tear the country apart for one reason or another. They use the very foundation of this country to protect them and to allow them to protest against this country. In truth if they were to try and exercise the same rights in the countries they want us to emulate they would be persecuted and prosecuted.

You have also taught me to look back in history which has caused me to realize that what I thought I knew about past Presidents is not necessarily true. I now realize that there have been quite a few Presidents that have tried to create the country you are well on the way to create. In you defense I have to thank you for being so straight forward about it. You have plainly stated that you were going to fundamentally change America. To me that means you want to change the very fundamental that created America and that is exactly what you are trying to do. You have come right out and stated that you want to redistribute wealth within America. I also thought that in America we were free to be the best we could be and to be free of persecution just because we were hard working and successful. You have also come right out and stated that you are a Progressive, something that many of your predecessors have been but were not brave enough to come right out and state it. I didn’t know what a Progressive was at first, it sounded good but now I know exactly what it is.

You have also taught me that I know nothing about how to handle a budget or how to get through tough times. I’ve never owned my own business but I have been in positions that required to work within budget constraints and to look for ways to reduce the budget to ensure the success of the company. I now know that I was going about it all wrong, I should have been requesting larger budgets with large deficits that would just add to the debt of the company without any possibility of paying it off. Instead of looking at areas where spending could be cut I should have been looking at creating more departments that would add to the debt and deficit instead of reducing them. It’s been a great lesson in economics.

Lastly I want to thank you for showing me that I had the wrong idea about what the American Dream was. I always thought the American Dream was the same dream that the original founders had, the dream that the soldiers of the revolution had, the dream that all the early immigrants had when they came here. The dream that they could come here and try to make a life for themselves based on their skills and desires. The dream that they could be free from a tyrannical Government. The dream that they could build businesses and farms and not have all their hard earned money taken by the Government like the serfs from the “Old Country”. You have shown me that I was wrong once again. You have shown me that the American Dream is really just that, only a dream. We can only dream about the choices we thought we were free to make for ourselves and our families. According to you we are not smart enough to make our own decisions so you and the Government will make all the decisions for us.

There is one lesson that you haven’t taught me that I wish you would. I wish you would teach me what a President and the elected officials of our Government are suppose to do. I wish you would teach me how Washington is suppose to “Support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic”, the oath that all elected officials are required to take when they are sworn in, the same oath the every man and woman that serves in the military takes. Teach me what that oath really means, not how it’s interpreted by the extreme left or right. If you could teach me and the American people that lesson then maybe we could revive the American Dream and get it back on the right track.

Respectfully,

Steven K. Avery

MMC(SS/SW) USN Retired