Dear Mr. President:

I'm glad you're in there.

I'm so glad you came along when you did.

You've done a lot of great things for the United States, starting with that loan to General Motors and Chrysler. (Sorry, Republicans; it wasn't a bailout. It was a loan...and while GM's still paying off its debt, Chrysler already has paid its loan back.)

America's had 31 straight months of job growth, and now, according to information I got from reading www.factcheck.org, the nation's had a net of 325,000 gigs since you took the oath of office on 1-20-2009.

Helping out this country's auto industry WAS a bold, bold move...as was pushing for the Affordable Care Act of 2010. (I'd been saying all along: "With America's knowhow, why should this country be the only major nation still without a universal or equivalent type of health-care insurance plan for all its citizens?")

ACA really does save lives.

Then you've got DADT, the Dream Act, the Lilly Ledbetter Act, and...Osama bin Laden and Muammar al-Qaddafi aren't here anymore and can't check out what happens in next month's US presidential election.  

To top it all off, the stock market has skyrocketed on your watch (something the Republicans absolutely refuse to admit)...and, contrary to what the so-called GOP teaches, you've shown that you're NOT going to take people's guns away.

You really DO care about the country's low-income and middle-income households...and you really DO want all of us (including America's 300,000 wealthiest citizens) to pay our fair share to help keep these 50 states on the map. 

Mr. Obama, I voted for you on 11-4-2008...and I'm going to do this again on 11-6-2012.

I know you and the other Democrats (as well as independents and other non-Republicans) have a whole lot of things you'd like to do to help get America back on its feet.

And I support what you're doing. Big time. 

Now if you can really take it to Willard M. Romney next time you and he debate (and expose him for the out-and-out liar he strikes me and millions of other Americans as)...

GO GET 'EM!!

Sincerely, Jim Boston

I Still Have Trouble with It

Last Friday, as I was heading home from Film Streams, I saw a cement mixer that had, attached to the back end, one of the most memorable bumper stickers of all time:  

"America: Love It or Leave It."

I've always had a problem with that message...even going back to when the sticker first hit vehicles in the early 1970s.  

To me, the message implies that if you don't like anything about the United States (and would like to remedy those things you don't like), well...that's just too darned bad. You're told you've got to live with America's warts. 

Now, if you were around during the 1970s (especially if you grew up during that decade), you might remember what America was going through...starting with the Vietnam War and working through the nation's struggles with inflation, the energy crisis, the Watergate scandal and the resulting fallout, the nation's Establishment wrestling with explanations about new attitudes (especially about civil rights and feminism) here in these fifty states, ecology becoming a mainstream issue, and...and...and...

Back then, I was more attracted to another bumper-sticker message: "America: Change It or Lose It."  

I mean, what good does it do to abandon a nation when it's got problems? 

You parents out there: Would you be willing to abandon your children whenever they've exhibited problems in their lives?

Think about the problems this country's facing at the present time (some of them holdovers from the 1970s, for crying out loud!). If you and I really care about America, wouldn't we fight to do whatever it takes to keep it on the map? Wouldn't we fight to take care of the issues that threaten to implode this land of ours? 

With a Congress that's less effective than a day-care center; states whose Republican-led legislatures are out to destroy (okay, at least hamper) the right to vote; bluebloods like Sheldon Adelson and Charles and David Koch trying to buy this year's presidential election instead of letting We the People make our choices; education no longer a real priority here in the US; and inflation, unemployment, and energy still issues out there (to say nothing of feminism and civil rights), really...is this a good time to leave America's warts intact?

Doggone it, let's GET RID OF these warts!!