A Letter To Another President Bush

To; President George Herbert Walker Bush

Dear Mr. President,
I am writing to you because our country needs your help, and you may be the only one who can resolve this particular issue.

I hope I am not being naïve, but I do believe that you have a basic decency and patriotism. You are part of the ‘Greatest Generation’ and served well and honorably in WWII. You still have enough spirit of adventure to try jumping out of planes in your twilight years. I admire that.
You have lent your name to good causes and stumped with former President Clinton to raise money for Tsunami and Katrina victims.

You know and understand Presidential power better than few on earth. I remember stating at the time you ran for President that there was no one more qualified to hold the office. You had run the CIA, been first Ambassador to China and knew the ins and outs of the political world and its inhabitants.

Our country has faced threats in the past. American lives have been in danger both at home and abroad. Yet somehow today the ‘protection’ of those lives is superseding all else. Laws have been changed, amended and broken to justify pursuit of anyone who might want to injure or harm Americans. To me that is more frightening than any inherent danger that we may face. If our leaders get in the habit of reinterpreting the Constitution to suit their own needs; or violating our rights in order to ‘protect us’ that habit will too easily become ingrained.

When are all Americans completely safe? Never. When are all Americans free from threat and danger? Never. So extraordinary acts of wiretapping, imprisoning, ignoring the Geneva Conventions, and even torturing might always be justified by those in power.
I would rather risk another terrorist attack than have our Constitution and Bill of Rights become meaningless.

Our Congress and Senate have not been doing their jobs. The Supreme Court can only take action if a suit is brought before them. In the meantime, the executive branch of government has gone amok.

From outing a CIA officer out of spite, manipulating intelligence data regarding Iraq, over-using 9/11 to justify and instill fear, Abu Ghraib scandals, Torture justifications, ignoring Geneva Conventions--to the current discovery that they wiretapped without using FISA—over and over again the current White House seems to have lost our country’s direction.

The President of the United States is your son. I do not know him as well as you. I have no idea if he is surrounded by bad advisors or has lost his way and is confused. I do know that someone needs to stop this course before our Democratic Republic is derailed.

Until now, any response to criticism of the executive branch has been met with vicious attack, turning the tables and blaming someone else, and eventual punishment or revenge. Politics is a dirty business, but it has become horrifyingly ugly.

I often wonder what a friend of mine, she died in 1999 would think of our country today. She would not recognize it. I barely do.

Please help our country and talk to your son. I know that once he said he only needed one father—God. I also believe it is easy to misunderstand and misinterpret what a person THINKS God is telling him or her to do. You are his earthly father. You may be the only power and authority left to bring him—and perhaps his people—back on the proper course.

As one American citizen to another, I am begging you to try.

Thank you. Pamela Lach