WA-4 Draft 1

Dear Mr. Obama,

I write this on the eve of your inauguration, with high hopes for the future. I do not wish to rag on President Bush, but he has not seemed to be overly preoccupied with the problems of the American people, as of late. I hope that your administration will raise our country’s global status to the level that it held before the previous servant of the state took office.

I have two main issues I would like to discuss. The first, and probably more important at this point, is the economical situation. I know that billion dollar bail out plans have already been tried to kick start the economy, but I really don’t think that it’s going to work. The banks, being the greedy little enterprises they are, will always try to better themselves first, before they use the money they were given to help their customers. I really am at a loss as to why we are in an economic decline. People have not changed their spending habits at all. I go to the local mall and see the parking lot bursting with cars. I can’t imagine that all those people are out window shopping, can you? People still buy ipods, and computers, and other unnecessary items. Maybe, if we leave well enough alone, we’ll come out of the depression on our own because of all the stuff we’re buying. Nothing is more simple than having the victims do the rescuing. But the problem is that unlike the Great Depression, we do not have the option of war to get us out.

I think that your second priority (but not by much) is to get our soldiers out of Iraq. I enjoyed your speeches about the evacuation plan. I think that you set reachable goals, but that it may take a bit of doing to complete them. Trying to salvage a nation’s reputation, economy, and people at one time can hardly be a small job. But Iraq should be on the top of your list because we had no business in there in the first place. Yes we need oil, but not that way. The soldiers in there I think have lost all sense of what they are fighting for; because there was no reason to go into Iraq. They are fighting in a civil war that needs to be decided by the natives. That is what a civil war is. We have the people that attacked us, now we need to stop the killing. Let what happens, happen. This is how history is made. We have set up a semi-stable government, let it try to do what it can. If it does not work, then we will worry about that later, when more urgent problems arise, and we are better supported by the U.N..

Mr. Obama, as I sit here today, I know that a better future awaits. I know that you will do all you can to get us back on track. And I know that no one can stop a man from Chicago, with dreams of a better world!


Sincerely,




Ben Mattern