Dear President Obama

Dear President Obama,

When I first realized you were a serious contender for president, I did not support you. I read about your political career and it seemed to me you were just too young and naive for the job. The things you stood for were righteous. You certainly seemed brilliant and honest. But to me, you did not seem to realize a few things about presiding over this not always quite great nation:

1) You were going to meet resistance like never before due to the fact you were black. 

2) There were some other things I meant to mention here, but all else pales in light of #1.

It seemed to me that you did not have the experience or wisdom that (hopefully) comes with age to deal with the kind of insolence and contempt that you would face in endeavoring to hold the helm.

I was right. And I was wrong.

You were young - and somewhat naive. But wow. You had a strength, a resolve, a presence that could not be denied. As Rudyard Kipling put it, you kept your head when all about you were  losing theirs and blaming it on you. 

Once you became our nominee, I got behind you 100%. I still did not realize just who you were, but I knew you were sincere and I knew we must all work together to move forward.
More and more, I have come to realize just how fortunate America is to have you for our leader. If you were young and naive 7 years ago, you are not now! Perhaps your youth was required, so that you could endure carrying us forward against opposition so reviling that it is hard to understand how the American people can abide it.

Yes, I underestimated you. I also underestimated the American people. The hatred, fueled by racism has been uglier and more all encompassing than I could have imagined, even tho part of my childhood was spent in Texas, seeing separate drinking fountains for blacks, set so low that a grown man had to go to his knees to get a sip of water. Witnessing this as a three year old, I shook my head in dismay. I have been shaking my head a lot these recent years, as I see the ugliness of racism swirl through our reality like a ruptured sewer line and soak our ideals and our dignity.

I am ashamed of the people of this country. We have allowed far too many innocents to die by allowing the "Kenyan, Muslim, coming for your guns" dialogue to usher in a new era of gun craze. We have elected people who despise government to seats in government. Far too many people repeat trumped up accusations against you, our president, unaware of and ungrateful for your accomplishments. We allowed those brave representatives who fought hard for us to be removed from office as a 'reward' for their service. We grouse and snark and seemingly believe that each of our high - and  often narrow - minded ideals are superior while we fail to vote in the mid-terms. 

I am also proud of us. We elected you twice, by huge margins. We once elected a Democratic congress to work with you. Barely.. but we did. We do want sane gun laws. We do want many great things, despite what Fox News tells us daily that we want and believe.

Words fail me. I set out to thank you for all you do, all you have done, for being who you are.
There are a few people one encounters in life who stand out. Whose very presence is a powerful force that can not be denied. In my life, I have only met a few. Ram Das is one of those. I have never met you, but clearly, you also are that. It is a great honor to have you as my president. And a great shame that my country has largely squandered such an opportunity to the extent that we have. Thank you for being awesome for us, with us, and despite us. 

Rita