Dear Senator Obama

Dear Senator Obama:

I voted for you this morning. I did so in the hopes that you will live up to the promises you made regarding "Change."

I had no doubt about the choice I made this morning, as I waited in line at the Lindenhurst Snails Firehouse on Heling Boulevard, a quarter mile from my home. I was the 24th voter in my Election District (110th E.D.), which, I hope, is one of thousands cast in my town. Sadly, we are represented in Congress by Peter King (R-NY). I voted for his opponent, Graham Long, largely because of King's unwavering support for George Bush policies, and because you're going to need all the votes you can get in Congress to effectively fulfill your vision.

It pleases me that you have articulated a vision for our nation in print; that you have developed a lasting and enduring record to which we can refer should you waver from it. If you are sincere in this Senator, then I want what you want. These are my top five issues you promised to address, in no particular order:

• Tax cuts for the middle class
  
• Health care reform
• An end to the Iraqi occupation
• More government investment in infrastructure and education
• A more regulated financial market that keeps Corporate America from the rampant speculation that put us in the mess we're in now. And while you're at it, please find a way to restructure the disastrous bailout deal that provides zero accountability for those investment banks that are literally feeding at the U.S Treasury trough.
  

But please bear that I will not view your election to President as a coronation. Nor will I celebrate it with wild abandon as if to say "our problems have been solved." You know as well as I do Senator that your election would be but a baby step in the right direction and a tenuous one at best. I am taking a gamble with you, playing a hunch using the best information I have available to me at this moment. Please take this in the spirit it's intended Senator, but I intend to hold you accountable to both your promises and your actions.

Presently, I am not happy with your vote to provide retro-active immunity to telecommunications companies that spied on Americans at the behest of the President without a warrant. They knowingly violated a Constitutional right and you let them slide.

Not am I pleased with your vote for the Wall Street bailout. If Naomi Klein's recent article in Rolling Stone magazine doesn't convince you that Corporate America has no intention of making good on their promises in exchange for our help, then I will make a point of letting you know that this is the case. Sir, I am adamant on this point. Please close the trough.

Finally, I am also not enamored with you decision to continue President Bush's Faith-based initiative to provide needed public services. While I view the public assistance provided by the religious faithful as a good thing, then they should have no problem doing so under the aegis of a government program that prohibits religious proselytizing of any kind. Finding God should not be a pre-requisite to being helped.

Senator Obama, please know that with my vote you will have my support. Indeed, my support is conditional, but know, too, that you have it. I place my trust in you, not just for myself, but for my children. Unlike me, they have yet to realize the American dream as articulated in your plan and what's worse, they are captives to the votes I cast this day.

Please don't let us down.

Sincerely,

John Nieves
Lindenhurst, NY