The Letter

Dear President Elect Obama...

At 5:00 CET, I cried with joy when CNN announced you had won. It was the first time since March 2003 that I have not been ashamed or frightened when I saw an American flag. In fact those behind you on the stage as you stood there with your family reminded me that I once was proud to be an American.

When I was a child, I used to write to Santa with my wish list. Here's my wish list for my country.

For our personal safety
1. Restore Habeas Corpus
2. Dismantle the batallion assigned to NorthCom and make sure that posse comitas means that U.S. troops will never be used against American citizens.
3. Stop people's homes from being stormed by police without warrants and then imprisoning the occupants without charge for several days as happened in St. Paul this summer.
4. Stop spying on our citizens without the legal procedures that worked prior to the Patriot Act.
5. The past few years have proven that self-regulation is an oxymoron. Regulate the financial industry, along with the food industry. No longer leave the foxes in charge. They only direct the chickens to their mouths.
6. Rework the FDA so it isn't the drug companies paying for the tests of our medicines.
7. Pass strict environmental laws.
8. Bring jobs back to the US.
9. Develop a new health care system. My preference is single payer. People if they want something more can always buy their own insurance. Most people have to supplement whatever their employees offer anyway.

For the world
1. Close Gitmo
2. Get us out of Iraq
3. Remember, never in the history of the world has any army defeated the Afghanis. Negotiate and develop.
4. Work with the UN. For over 30 years the US has vetoed over 130 resolutions that could have led to a more peaceful world. Usually we voted alone or with one or two countries. It can't be us against the world.
5. Make sure our own greed does not harm the world economy as we have witnessed in the last few weeks. We did to ourselves and the industrialized world, what Bin Laden couldn't accomplish with his bombs.

I am sure like Santa could not bring me everything on my list you cannot accomplish everything on my list. Likewise, unless our food, water, medicines and bodies are safe from ourselves, we will be in as much danger if not more than from any terrorist. Americans are not used to sacrificing, but I trust you can make them realise that our planet cannot support our consumption, the answer to all problems is NOT violence, and we should seek common ground instead of conflict.

And when you get that puppy for your daughters, I do recommend Japanese chins.

Wishing you all the luck possible.

Donna-Lane NELSON