Day 173- Abuses of power

Dear Mr. President,

I started my new job today. It's much more responsibility than my last job, and requires me to make quick decisions, often based on little information, my own instincts and my own experience. If I screw up, things could get stolen, crimes could go unnoticed, or some one could get hurt. Still, I could go completely rogue, I could overlook laws and safety regulations and do everything in my power to cause as much harm as possible and, still, I could not destroy the Gulf of Mexico. While I'm sure that the people who's jobs depend up on the oil industry were relieved to hear the court's decision to overturn your moratorium on new deep-water drilling projects, I can't imagine that 63 days have been enough for the industry to have adopted practices or contingency plans to avoid, or more quickly react to, another disaster. Yes, every one deserves to make a living; but the dangers posed by this industry's reckless pursuit of efficiency at the expense of safety are too great to blindly continue to drill as we did before. Because of the industry's ties to the agencies that regulated them, they have operated on what could generously be called an honor system; BP has demonstrated that none of the deepwater drilling projects are prepared to effectively deal with the kind of disaster we're now two months into dealing with. Most likely, it won't happen again; if it does, the consequences would be unimaginably devastating. is that a risk that this judge feels willing to take? Further regulation, further oversight is needed, and until that happens, allowing new projects to go forward is irresponsible.

I can't regulate the safety practices of the oil industry. I don't have the education or the skills. I put faith in my government to do this for me, and it has failed us all. The judge overturning your moratorium is now a part of this failure. We cannot place the value of a person's livelihood above the value of the lives it may destroy. I find myself increasingly disturbed by the world we live in; a world where the President may order covert assassination of American citizens, may rendition and torture and twist a person's status to deny them legal rights, but where he may not threaten the profit margins of the oil industry. When did corporate interests become more powerful than the legal rights enshrined in our constitution? The executive may ignore Habeas Corpus, or due process or the first amendment, but to try to protect the American public and the environment from the reckless behavior of an entire industry is beyond his ability? I'm really not trying to make you feel worse about the court's decision, but it seems like the power of the executive really ought to be wielded to protect the individuals who are not powerful enough to defend themselves, not those organizations who exploit them.

Respectfully yours,

Kelsey

Day 168- Michele Bachman, Hugo Chavez and Joe Barton

Q Michele Bachmann called the fund a redistribution of wealth fund. On FOX they’re calling it “Chavez-like” as in Venezuela Chavez. Can you speak --

MR. GIBBS: Not the boxer?

Q Not the boxer. (Laughter.) Can you speak to the larger theme here of Republican and conservative opposition to this as yet another Obama socialistic, big-government initiative?

MR. GIBBS: I mean, I don’t -- it’s hard to tell what planet these people live on. It’s hard to understand -- it’s hard to understand their viewpoint, but it may explain their votes on financial regulation; it explains how they view whether or not the banks ought to be able to write their own rules and play the game the way they played it in -- several years ago that caused our economy to crash. It’s understanding how we got an MMS that was handing out drugs in favor of drilling permits.


White House Press briefing 6/17/2010

Dear Mr. President,

I'm not often surprised by the Republicans. Normally, comparing your policies to Hugo Chavez's socialism, or kissing up to BP executives, seems like par for their particular course. But this is a national tragedy. I thought that the party of "America First" would be able to put aside their allegiance to their big donors for five minutes and recognize that an egregious crime has been committed against America and the American people and the company responsible needs to pay for the cost of cleaning it up and the livelihoods its negligence has ruined.

I suppose you have to admire their commitment to the "disagree with anything a Democrat says" strateg; such fidelity isn't often found in career politicians. Though I suppose, at this point in her career, Michele Bachmann is safe in the knowledge that her supporters don't expect a great deal of rational, or even logical thought. Still, this seems like a risky political move for any one trying to appoint themselves or their party as the standard bearer for the populist anger in this country. I'm dumbfounded. Maybe the rest of the country isn't as angry as I and most of the people I've encountered are; maybe the citizens of Texas and Minnesota who vote for Bachmann and Barton are huge supporters of BP and think that they shouldn't have to pay for this disaster. I've met my share of Minnesotans and more than a few Texans, however, and they don't seem like stupid people.

Anyway, Mr. President, I hope the next time a column is published about your lack of aggression or emotion, your inability to effectively "declare war" on BP, we all take a deep breath and remember that the legislative branch is still the most powerful, it's still run by people like Michele Bachmann and Joe Barton, still funded by BP and other corporate interests and we still have no one to blame for that but ourselves.

Respectfully yours,

Kelsey

Day 167-Earth Day Monday

Dear Mr. President,

I, and many others, have been calling on you to take the opportunity, now that the graphic images demonstrating the toll of our oil addiction are still shocking Americans into questioning their behavior, to call on all Americans to change our habits in order to avoid another incident like this one. Today I read an article that convinced me we've been wrong to do so. Americans have outgrown the spirit of sacrifice and community that got us through WWII; when President Bush asked only that we keep shopping, we were only too happy to comply. I want you to ask us to change, to give up some of the luxuries we're used to for the greater good of sustaining our planet for generations to come. I want you to do this, but I know that, even if you did, it might only mean the end of your Presidency, and have little effect on our actual habits.

So today's letter, Mr. President, isn't for you. It's for all the people who read my blog. It isn't many, mostly friends and family, but I'm hoping it will be enough. This is as big a soap box as I will ever have. So, dear readers, I ask you to take a look at your own lives, your own habits. How can you use less oil? How can you make transportation and food and lifestyle choices that will help you consume less? Can you encourage others in your life to do the same? Even small changes will add up if enough of us commit to them. I'm making a commitment to all of you, and to our President, to make the small changes necessary in my own life, to give up the things that I can live without, if it means a better world for my nephew. Many of us have a holy day, a day set aside for the sacred; I'm proposing that we, no matter what our faith, chose one day a week to devote to the planet as well. We should give up a day to the reverence of the earth, to tend our gardens or clean up parks or, at the very least, to give up consuming fast food, especially beef, and unnecessary driving. We need an Earth Day every single week. What greater display of faith could their be, than to put aside our instant gratification, for the betterment of future generations?

My Earth Day is going to be every Monday. I'm going to do more research about reducing my oil consumption and overall carbon footprint, and post a more detailed plan here. I hope that every one who reads this can find a small sacrifice to make in their own lives. Because, be it today or tomorrow, things have to change.

Respectfully yours,

Kelsey

Day 166- All the ways we say goodbye

Dear Mr. President,

I saw your speech about the oil spill, and I do know that it is important and I do want to comment on it. But tonight I can't seem to get past the overwhelming sadness of my friend's impeding departure to think about anything else. I know that I'll be fine, and that she'll be fine, and that the work she'll do with the Peace Corps will be exciting and fulfilling. I know these things, intellectually, but emotionally all I know is that my best friend is leaving and I'm going to be left behind while she moves on to a new part of her life. Foolish, right? I can't explain or excuse it. I've been watching our other friends, taking cues from the ways they express their own sadness, and coming to a much clearer understanding that we all manage these types of challenges differently. So, forgive me for taking it personally, but reading yet another op-ed from Maureen Dowd about their being a "right" way to respond to the Oil spill and you not finding it was a bit exasperating.

I think i would not be so irritated by this, if Dowd were the only one saying it. Instead, it seems like every talking head in the media, save those on the White House payroll, are leaping at the chance to suggest that you say or feel or pretend some emotion that they feel is the "right" response. The truth is, nothing is going to make us feel better, short of the spill stopping and the gulf being cleaned up and us all getting to live the way we've always lived. But that isn't going to happen. Nothing is going to make us feel better, so I hope that the White House isn't wasting too much time trying to pin down the perfect tone. Maybe every one in the media could stop worrying about how you sound and go back to writing about actual news. Every one responds differently to tragedy, and any one who thinks you're not serious about handling this because your response doesn't have the allegedly correct tone is simply not going to be convinced by anything.

The Republican response to this, which seems to be, "Don't use this massive and obvious lesson about the dangers of our consumption habits to try and change our consumption habits," is equally infuriating. I would rather have a tragedy be exploited, if it led to honestly corrective measures that would prevent it from happening again. I think that learning from our mistakes ought to be one of those things that transcends party or ideology, and if the Republicans have an honest disagreement over the cause of this spill or the best course of preventative action, they should feel free to propose it. Simply disagreeing with any proposed action because it is based on a tragically hard lesson is not leadership.

I'm so sad, in such a selfish way, tonight, that I suppose my opinion can't matter much on this subject. The only thing I know for sure is that there is no correct way to feel about this, and there is no way for the President to feel that will solve this problem. I wish Maureen Dowd would find something else to write about, and I hope that people wake up and realize how much we're all to blame for this tragedy. For now, I'm just going to say that I think you're doing the best you can, and, even if it's a long way from good enough, I'm grateful that some one is taking care of the hard things, while I am wrapped up in my own, considerably smaller, world.

Respectfully yours,

Kelsey

Day 149- No drama

Dear Mr. President,

"President Spock," "No Drama Obama," the list of ways the media has found to call you calm, as either an insult or a compliment, seems to get more creative all the timeMaureen Dowd writes today about the paternal aspect of the presidency, something she feels you are failing at. A President, apparently, must demonstrate the emotional state of the nation to show that he understands how people feel. I don't often find myself in such strong disagreement with Ms. Dowd. I don't need you to show me your emotional response to the oil spill in order to feel better about my own; I believe that you have emotions, just like me, and that, just like me, you decide who sees how you feel and who sees how you think. I don't believe that the citizens of this country are entitled to see every aspect of your personality; we ought to hold you accountable for how well you do your job, not how well you demonstrate that you feel the "right" way about every issue. I don't need to see you react the same way I do.

I think this urge we have, to feel that we know our leaders on a personal level, manifested in votes based on who we'd rather have a beer with, or in a need to see ourselves and our lifestyles reflected in those of our elected officials, is not always the surest compass to find the best qualified leaders. I'm an emotional person. I feel things violently, obsessively, consumingly. I do not appreciate this about myself, and think that, especially in matters of leadership and crisis management, it can be considered more a weakness than a strength. I look for a leader who can calmly, thoughtfully, rationally make decisions based on information and guided by a sense of what the best choices will be. I didn't vote for you because I thought you'd cry at things that make me cry or scream at things that make me want to scream; I voted for you because I hoped that you would, in the face of these things, have more productive solutions than my tears.

This is not to imply, as Ms. Dowd does, that you lack emotional depth. I think that your emotional reactions are kept private, as most of us prefer ours to be. I am often moved by displays of emotion by politicians; that does not mean I have to see such displays to know they exist. Asking for such demonstrations from our elected officials is only asking to be lied to. Our need to feel better, to be comforted by the parroting of our responses by others, does not help us overcome the challenges of our times. As much as I might like to know you as a person, to feel that we are friends and that you are just like me, it would do me no practical good. I don't believe that any one who hears the news from the gulf, or who has seen the terrible images, especially some one who must take responsibility for fixing it, can be unaffected. But your feelings are your own, Mr. President, and, while I clearly do not speak for Ms. Dowd and may not speak for the majority of American voters, I, personally, do not need you to share them in order to satisfy my own desire to see my own personality reflected in my President's.

Respectfully yours,

Kelsey

Day 147

Dear Mr. President,

I'm not sure what you could have done to please the people who are still complaining about your lack of involvement in the oil spill. Maybe you could have put on scuba gear and patched the leak manually? Anyway, I think that the horror of the situation is not that more could have been done, but that no one knows, exactly, what to do now.

My own world has been very small these last few days. My brother-in-law's father passed away, and so my sister has left her 2-year old son with his aunts and grandmother these last few days. Right now he's not too pleased to be with his aunty and not his mom, but we watched Star Wars together, so I think, on the whole, he's going to be OK with it. I love spending time with my nephew, but I couldn't take this on as a full-time job. This is why I'm so constantly amazed at his Dad, who is not his biological father, but who still has committed himself to raising my nephew as his own. I didn't know his father, who just passed away, but he must have been a good dad himself, to raise such a remarkable son. The kinds of patience and selflessness required to parent a young child are not often seen in my age group, (I certainly don't possess them,) and so I'm always surprised to encounter these qualities in people my own age.

Looking at the world from the perspective of my nephew, who won't even be old enough to vote until 2026, I realize how angry I'd be, if I were him. The world we're leaving his generation is in pretty bad shape, and, as appalling as our mistakes and failures may have been, sometimes its the answers we don't even know we need to look for that scare me the most. One of our uncles in Florida called last week to apologize to my aunt for not taking her diving in the Florida keys last time she visited. He knows now, because of the spill, it's unlikely that they'll be able to do so again in their lifetimes. I've never been to the Florida keys at all, nor have I been to Louisiana, but at least I got a chance to swim in the Gulf of Mexico once, several years ago. I still hold out hope that Asher will have that chance, too.

Anyway, Mr. President, I share your frustration at the lack of progress, and I believe that finding a solution is, for now, more important than finding out who is to blame. I appreciate your continued emphasis on the role BP has in this, as well as you ability to take responsibility for the mistakes of your own administration, and I hope that we take all necessary steps to ensure that this never happens again. My heart is heavy for the people who live in the region, and also for children like my nephew, who will grow up never knowing how it was before this disaster.

Respectfully yours,

Kelsey

Day 142- Moonshine

Dear Mr. President,

The oil spill keeps coming up in odd conversations today. A coworker asked me if I'd written to you about it, after she'd learnt the extent of the damage. A customer, before driving off with his latte, asked if we'd heard about the 10-mile underwater plumes. My Aunt, visiting from California, brought up the ominous feelings she's been having about how much worse it could get. It's been on my mind all day, so perhaps it's understandable that when I saw the headline for Nicholas Kristof's op-ed, "Moonshine or the kids?" I thought it was a reference to the oil spill. The op-ed is actually about misplaced priorities amongst the poorest families in Africa who struggle with substance abuse problems. But it might as well be about the boomer generation.

It's not that I think they're bad parents. I think, for the most part, parents want to do the right thing for their children, to act in their best interest. But, be it cheap oil or lower taxes or wracking up credit card debit instead of saving for college, the generation that has steered our nation to its current state has been quick to trade long-term interest for immediate gratification. To keep drinking the moonshine.

The conversation with my coworker quickly devolved into a litany of things that are wrong with the world, things that scare us, if we think about them too much. The world is so messed up, I told her, and I just don't know how to fix it. Getting angry at those that brought us here, the generation that came before, won't help me fix it. I know this. I think you're a long-term thinker, Mr. President, and what many would call inaction is in fact a strategy that considers the next five generations and not just the next five years. I hope that this perception is an accurate one; if we do not change the way we think, start seeing our children's legacy as more valuable than our next fix, they will never forgive us.

Respectfully yours,

Kelsey

Day 140- Blame

Dear Mr. President,

The images coming out of Louisiana's wetlands are frightening. I can't imagine the environmental and economic repercussions that this disaster will have, long-term. BP must be held accountable, and it is good that you're demanding they pay for the mess they created. But you're forgetting to address the group of people who deserve most of the blame. The ones who, in their constant demand for more and cheaper oil, are truly the cause of this oil spill. The American people.

It's not popular to blame us for anything. It's easy to target those in power or those who make their money from this industry. But it's our fault. We use too much oil; we use it recklessly, we use it wastefully and we use it without any consideration for the consequences. Speaking hard truths to the people who put you in office is sort of your job, Mr. President, and the truth is that we're the ones to blame. We ought to pay, not for the clean-up, which should be the responsibility of the private companies who caused it, but for ensuring that something like this does not happen again. We need a higher gas tax; that money should go toward the research and development of alternative, sustainable energy sources, and it should start right away. We've all contributed to this national addiction, and we all must work together to break away from it. Paying more for gasoline is the only way we will ever use less of it.

It will not be popular. Republicans will go crazy. Proposing a new tax, especially one that would affect every single American, will never be a great way to get votes. But we have to look past the political expediency of the present and focus on the long-term needs of our society. Right now, while the whole country is still reeling from the magnitude of this spill, this moment may be the only one in which the country would accept it as their obligation, as the right thing to do. Don't speak to us like we are children who need to be protected from this; we caused this and we have to be part of the solution. This is what divides us from the generation of Americans we called the greatest; we do not participate in the work, the struggle or the sacrifice unless we are asked to. Ask us. Ask of us to pay more, to use less, to make conscious, daily efforts towards reducing our use of oil. Make sure we see the pictures of those wetlands, hear the stories of all the fisherman facing financial ruin, witness all the destruction wrought by our own willingness to take what is easy and cheap over what is better for us.

Even more than a gas tax, we need a national campaign that reframes this, not as an environmental issue, but as a question of our values. Do we value our way of life? Our industries, our communities, our wildlife and natural beauty? The world we will be leaving to our children? Is cheap oil worth that much? This is a moment when the best parts of the American people need to be called upon, when we can be rallied to do our part to make up for the mistakes we've made and the damages we've caused.

Please, Mr. President, don't spare us any of the blame we have coming.

Respectfully yours,

Kelsey

Day 122- Katrina

Dear Mr. President,

The media stories comparing your response to the oil spill in the Gulf to the Bush administration's response to Katrina are starting to get to me. For one thing, I still find the mistreatment and neglect of American citizens by our own government in the face of an environmental disaster to be offensive; belittling the magnitude of this failure by constantly comparing it to other disasters makes a poor substitute for actual journalism. This crisis is distinct in many ways and the administration's response to it needs to be whatever is most suited to the unique demands of this situation, and not based on some artificial scale set by the previous administrations failures.

If there is any lesson to be had from the Bush administration, and especially their handling of Katrina, it ought to be that the President should be able to admit to mistakes. President Bush could have turned his failures into something more useful, had he been able to own up to being wrong. Instead, caught up in a desperate attempt to sell his administration as being right all the time, confusing decisiveness with gravitas, attempting to doublespeak his way through contradiction and hypocrisy when confronted with it, he alienated people and made each mistake seem even worse through his obvious insensitivity to it. This isn't the type of President that you've proven yourself to be.

The oil spill in the gulf should cause us to seriously re-evaluate a number of aspects of domestic policy. I think the decision to halt any new offshore drilling projects was a good one; I hope that it lasts longer than the media storm. I'm also hoping that the projections for the size and scope of the spill are wrong; if it is smaller and easier to fix than we fear, that will be a blessing to all of the lives and livelihoods threatened, and if that makes it more difficult to make the case against drilling for more oil, that's certainly a price I'm willing, and even eager, to pay. But I hope that the hysterical, worst-case scenarios being discussed right now are taken seriously, even if we are fortunate enough that they do not come to pass; they should serve as a wake-up call to this country about the hidden cost of cheap oil and the dangers of our current lifestyles.

I think that so far your response to this crisis has been appropriate given the information available. More importantly, you've long since proven that you're an engaged and capable leader who is willing to work through the challenges facing this country even when it is not politically expedient. I hope that you can also admit when your best intentions fail, when you make the wrong decisions, or when there simply wasn't enough information to act appropriately. It brings people together and reminds us all that being willing to adapt and learn from mistakes is more important than blindly and desperately insisting you've been right all along.

Respectfully yours,

Kelsey

Day 119- Strung out

Dear Mr. President,

The oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico has prompted a number of questions about our off-shore drilling policy. I think it's tragic that it takes the loss of 11 lives, a looming environmental crisis and a direct threat to the economies of coastal states for people to begin to seriously question the system of consumption we've created. We're like addicts begging for one more fix; we've just got to finish this bottle or this carton or this last source of oil, and then we'll get clean, no, really, we'll stop using and develop alternative energy this time, we promise. We can't lie to ourselves anymore; we have a problem. It's a dangerous descending spiral, one which will leave us, at best, ill-equipped to compete in the global economy, and, at worst, unable to support basic agriculture, transportation and defense.

It is time for real solutions; clean energy is not an abstract issue, it is a national security issue, a prosperity issue, an environmental issue, and a values issue. We must fund research and development in this field, accordingly. If the government does not take an active role in this, it will not happen fast enough- we've seen, in this latest crisis, just how much obfuscation the oil companies are capable of if in the name of protecting their own interests. The only way to decrease the dangerous and damaging oil drilling operations around the world is to eliminate demand through alternative solutions; this will not happen overnight, either. We must start, today, with an increased effort that demands the contributions of all of us, be those in the form of higher taxes on energy consumption, more sacrifices of convenience for conservation, and the diverting of funds from other areas towards developing cleaner, more sustainable energy sources.

A mine collapse in West Virginia and an oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico should not be required to wake America up to the dangers of our short-sighted, arrogant lifestyles. We cannot continue living the way we always have, and we all must accept the responsibility for making the necessary changes in our energy policy. If we are very lucky, this, right now, is our rock bottom. Please, Mr. President, do not allow these tragedies to continue in vain. Circumstances are demanding change, and you have to lead us to it, before it is too late.

Respectfully yours,

Kelsey