Monday , March 18 2024

An Open Letter to President Obama: It’s Time to Lead

Mr. President—

You may never read this. I’d be willing to bet that you’ll never see any of this letter, isolated as you are in the gilded cage that is the Oval Office. But perhaps, just perhaps, you might, and on the off-chance you do I cannot be more blunt that this:

The time has come for you to lead your nation.

As a candidate, you promised Americans hope and change. Now, almost eight years later, there is little hope, and the change has been for the worse. While you have issued statements from the glass walls of the White House, our country has devolved into a morass of fear, suspicion, and disunity.

In four months’ time, the American people will be presented with a choice between the nominees of the two majorobama2 political parties, who are perhaps the most hated presidential candidates in history. The election of either will ignite a firestorm in this nation we are ill-prepared to weather. So instead of campaigning for one of those candidates, take a moment and consider.

In the past few years, we have suffered staggering losses – attacks from within, orchestrated by our own citizens, who gun down the innocent for the purpose of widening the growing chasm in our society. There have been 10 mass shootings this year alone. Hate crimes are on the rise. Citizens are turning against the policemen who defend them because of other policemen killing unarmed men. Racial divides that should be behind us are being resurrected. Gender equality, LGBTQ civil rights, religious discrimination – civil discord involving all these issues has been on the rise during your administration. And when a tragedy strikes, you give a statement – and do nothing.

Mr. President, you are the first African-American commander-in-chief. You are in the last six months of your administration, a time usually referred to as the lame-duck period of any president’s term. Your focus needs to shift now to healing your nation. Fourteen times, you have issued statements after mass shootings. Fourteen times, you have done nothing. Fourteen times, the seeds have been laid for the next massacre, the next horror, the next rampage. And now, that number has risen again—to 15. Each time you talk about gun control, but each time you do nothing.

Surely you are aware that gun violence is a symptom, not the disease. The disease is societal, fueled by the enmity created when a two-party political system governs a nation of moderates but represents the interests only of the far left and the far right. This disease’s reach is insidious, affecting all Americans in different ways but leading to the same ultimate conclusion: Civil unrest.

President Jimmy Carter faced the same disease, and in the last year of his administration said the following:

I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy. I do not mean our political and civil liberties. They will endure. And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might. The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.

Mr. President, as a citizen I have a few questions.

Where have you been? Why have we not seen you in Orlando? In Dallas? Why weren’t you in Ferguson or Baltimore? Why haven’t we seen you with the American people, aiding and counseling them? Why haven’t you been at any of these Ground Zeroes?

Where has the President of the United States been when his people needed him?

Not where he needed to be. Beyond platitudes and statements and repetitive calls for action that have never been followed up on, the President of the United States has been invisible and silent.

Mr. President, you must address this crisis. You must leave the golden bubble that is the White House and go among your people. Not after your term is done, but now – as the President of the United States, you must return to the people who elected you. You must lead our citizens out of the darkness, out of the rage and the fear and the suspicion that has divided our society. You must realize that every political fundraiser you attend only separates you further from your constituents, and nullifies the influence you could wield. Stop thinking about the political future and do something about the societal now.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said:

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others.

Mr. President, it is time for you to stand. The challenge and controversy we face now is unparalleled in this country in the past 50 years. The American people are in crisis. The worst thing that could possibly happen is for you to leave a divided and angry United States in the hands of a successor the majority of the American people will neither trust nor respect.

If you continue to ignore the horror that has descended upon America, if you turn this divided country over to a successor who will be handicapped from the day he or she takes office, you are condemning our nation to a disastrous course that will only worsen during the next administration under a chief executive patently incapable of resolving any of these issues. You can do nothing about the terrible choice Americans have to make in November. But you can do something about the bitterness and hatred infecting our people.

It’s time. Time to get out of that chair and get into the American public.

Time to stop campaigning for Clinton and start campaigning for America.

Time to stop making statements and start taking action.

Time to stop doing nothing.

I heard a speech once that really resonated with me. The part that stuck in my head read:

When we don’t pay close attention to the decisions made by our leaders, when we fail to educate ourselves about the major issues of the day, when we choose not to make our voices and opinions heard, that’s when democracy breaks down. That’s when power is abused. That’s when the most extreme voices in our society fill the void that we leave.

Those words are yours, Mr. President. You delivered this speech at the University of Michigan Commencement in 2010.

Democracy is breaking down, and you have chosen the path of silence and inaction. As a result, the void you have left is being filled with the extremism you warned about. You have a chance, Mr. President, to throw a lifeline to your people – all your people – by simply fulfilling your own words.

You need to roll up your sleeves and organize your community – your American community. If you don’t, your legacy will be the continued splintering of the people you swore an oath to serve. Don’t think. Don’t grieve. Don’t talk. Don’t give us platitudes. Don’t blame the symptoms for the disease.

It’s your last chance to give the American people something they desperately need.

Just lead.

About Celina Summers

Celina Summers is a speculative fiction author who mashes all kinds of genres into one giant fantasy amalgamation. Her first fantasy series, The Asphodel Cycle, was honored with multiple awards--including top ten finishes for all four books in the P&E Readers' Poll, multiple review site awards, as well as a prestigious Golden Rose nomination. Celina also writes contemporary literary fantasy under the pseudonym CA Chevault. Celina has worked as an editor for over a decade, including managing editor at two publishing houses. Celina blogs about publishing, sports, and politics regularly. A well-known caller on the Paul Finebaum Show and passionate football fan, when Celina takes times off it's usually on Saturdays in the fall. You can read her personal blog at www.kaantira.blogspot.com and her website is at www.cachevault.org

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12 comments

  1. It’s been 7.5 yrs… I didn’t vote for Obama. But I thought at a MINIMUM he might help the racial divide. Just the opposite.

  2. I knew (was hoping that) he would fail on some promises. However, I had hope for promise of transparency. Not even close.

  3. On Friday, Atlanta Mayor walked into sea of very frustated protesters to free a trapped semi truck. Took questions. Gave answers. Calmed folks. #leadership

  4. I was blessed/cursed politically at a very young age when President Reagan came to my hometown for the memorial service for the US soldiers killed in the Gander crash. At that memorial, he spoke with every single family member individually. He hugged them. He cried with them. He told the Secret Service to back off and to hell with his schedule. That man literally grieved with his citizens. And while George Bush wasn’t an exemplary President by any means, when HE showed up at Ground Zero he created an unprecedented moment of national unity–one the people needed. Putting flowers down and making a prepared speech isn’t enough–especially when the issues are the ones we face now. This President was a community organizer. He knows the value of being on the ground when a crisis occurs. So far, he has not done that.

    • Wow, that is a powerful story about Reagan and I agree on Bush. Obama has an extraordinary gift with people, if he only applied it. Damn, I remember he did it once in New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy. He and Gov Christie (clearly, not an Obama fan) hugged I believe. If he simply postponed SOME of his reality shows and vacationing until after presidency, he would surely be able to improve the environment. My heart was broken three times this week. Once in Louisiana, once in Minnesota, once (well, more than once) in Dallas…

      And yeah, now he’s jumped from reality show/vacationing to campaigning…

      Side note: I’ll never forget the 15-year-old son of Alton Sterling weeping uncontrollably and crying “Daddy!” during the press conference. And God knows I can’t get the poor families of the cops that were killed out of my head…

      Yeah, a plea to Obama and the next president: Just lead….

      • https://youtu.be/y9QPo5_us98 This is the moment Obama should have created when his people were in crisis–and didn’t. Reagan’s speech was incredible; but his actions afterward denote true leadership and inspiration.

        • ALL leaders can learn from this… No politics… No race… No manipulation… Just some love…

  5. Okay, let’s see a lesson in hypocrisy here.
    • What was the stock market at when Obama took office?… it’s tripled in value now making a lot of GOP business men who don’t pay taxes even more rich than they already are, but no… you blamed Obama when it went down, but not when it recovered.
    • What was unemployment when Obama took office? It doesn’t matter because you blamed him when it went up, but now that it’s more than halved you come up with lame excuses to not credit Obama
    • Where were the three auto makers when he took office? Oh that doesn’t matter either because you blamed him when they were failing, but now that they’ve paid back the loans that Bush started doling out before he left office.
    .
    • What was deficit spending before Obama took office? A heck of a lot more since the GOP congress decided to wait to put 6 years of Bush’s war into the deficit until after GW left office so Obama would get the blame for it

  6. Simple explanation:
    GOP memo after Obama was elected the first time, “It now becomes the sworn duty of every loyal republican to see to it that this president achieves little or nothing, no matter how noble, during his tenure in the White House.

    • Agreed, a lot of obstruction was promised and delivered by the GOP, even
      before Obama took office. There was a line of sight to let things devolve or even sheperd such so that they could ride in later as the rescuing heroes and to make a point. And social media has been utilized to higher
      degrees against the current administration than prior, adding the specter
      of anonymous “masses” souring conversation and compromise, lumped in with
      said obstruction. As a branch of government, the President doesn’t do
      it all, and Congress shows the low marks as well for their lack of popularity. There might be a shadow of outside influences shaping government outside of government, outside of this country, as well as internal (like media
      left and right, just like a political or religious party) that people
      don’t or won’t see because it’s hard for them to to walk in other shoes.

  7. Lets see you lead under these circumstances.
    • If the president sponsored a bill to help beleaguered hotel/casinos in Atlantic City, Donald Trump would immediately denounce it.
    • If Obama backed a bill outlawing abortion, the Tea Party would automatically oppose it.
    • If Obama proposed carving the 10 commandments into the top steps leading to the Capital building, the GOP’s “christian” right wing would oppose it.
    • If Obama were to sponsor a bill giving Congress a raise, Republicans would oppose it.
    • If Obama proposed giving the richest 1% a 20% tax break, the Wall Street Journal would run an editorial opposing it.
    • If The President suddenly endorsed wholeheartedly the XL pipeline GOP Oil stock holders would oppose it.
    • If Obama said Ronald Reagan was the greatest president who ever lived, outraged Fox News would call him an idiot and call his statement treason.

    • All valid opinions on your part, but doesn’t address the issues I raised in my blog post. The President, in my opinion, needs to step up and take an active role in healing the divisions in our country instead of leaving them unresolved for his successor. Neither big party candidate has the ability to lead this country. So if the President doesn’t actively move to solve the issues of gun violence, racial tensions, and stresses between our communities and law enforcement, those issues will not be resolved during the next POTUS’s administration. I’m more than happy to discuss the President’s legislative successes and failures and the evils of the two-party system, but that’s not what this op ed is about. Thanks for the read!