The President of the United States, Our President, My President answered a question which I posted on my BLOG on Saturday. I wondered how I would be able to explain to my friends from other countries what, in the light of the massacre in Tucson, America is and what America stands for in these days of disunity and disfunction. President Obama spoke to the families directly affected by the tragedy; he spoke to the citizens of Tucson; He spoke to Americans; He spoke to the world. With wisdom and dignity he spoke to our hearts and minds. Without laying blame and scolding, as many politicians often do under such circumstances, he assured us that we can be better than we have been. He urged us to talk with each other in a way that heals rather than in a way that wounds.

He said, “We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but the way we treat each other... That’s up to us.” I share below a digital letter I sent today to one of my nephews in response to months of hateful propaganda which he has passed on to me... a steady barrage of absurdities sent to him by Tea Party folks vilifying the President of the United States.

The photograph for today of a snail foraging in one of my backyard succulents reminds me of an individual who gets caught up in a confusion of ideas. Getting by in the world can be complicated and confusing. A couple of hours after I snapped the photographs, I checked and found that the snail had made it all the way back to the ground from three feet up in the thicket where I first saw him.
Dear Nephew,
After the shooting in Tucson, I am hoping the heated rhetoric streaming from politicians and other citizens will cool. This morning I looked at your "How Did This Happen" e-mail and felt tremendous sadness at knowing one of my nephews is so obviously disgusted with the President. As you might guess, I like Barack Obama very much. I think he is a man of integrity. His personal life isn't, pardon the expression, "fucked up." He thinks clearly. He obviously isn't paranoid, and he clearly does not suffer from any other delusional mental condition. Having been born in Hawaii in 1961 to an American mother, he is an American citizen by birth. In addition to his many other admirable personal qualities, he is brighter than any of the people I know who hate him. He proved his intelligence by graduating with honors from Columbia University (B.A. in 1983) and Harvard Law School where he was president of the Harvard Law Review (J.D. in 1991). Neither his birth certificate, his diplomas, nor his election to the office of President are spurious or held in doubt by reasonable, intelligent people. He could have chosen some other way to make living, but he didn't. He knowingly gave up any real hope for privacy for the rest of his life in order to serve US as President. His address last night in Tucson was seen by those who are blinded by hate as purely political. Hate has a way of distorting reality like those crazy mirrors in a carnival funhouse. The actions of the pathetic young man who shot all those people in Tucson demonstrates what can happen when a person’s reality becomes distorted. He became the monster that no mother wants to see her son become. I feel tremendous sadness for his victims and for his parents; and I prefer to believe President Obama’s speech is a heart-felt, intelligent expression from a good person who genuinely feels sadness over the Tucson shooting.

Best wishes, Nephew. The e-mails you send won't move me to dislike our President; so you may as well take me off your list.
Uncle Jerral