Ginger Blymyer [12/14/2006]

To the editor:Dont wait another minute. If you have not read The Audacity of Hope by Barak Obama, get it right now. If you dont read, get someone to read to you. Go to the library. Buy the book and pass the book around. It will inspire you as nothing has for a long time. Obama is here in our state today as I write this. I am sure he will be back many more times. I cannot wait to meet him. In New Hampshire we have a good chance of meeting all the candidates. We are fortunate in this day and age to have this man in congress, who with his life experience has voiced his beliefs in the values most of us grew up with and who intelligently voices what must change for our world to be one we want our children and grandchildren to grow up in. His soul is clean and untainted yet clear and fully aware because of his experiences in life.With the Iraq Study Group which came out recently, and while reading this book, my faith has been restored and the belief that we are capable of becoming once again a sane nation. We have the capacity to be passionate and consistent about our responsibilities to each and every seeming other. When one suffers, we all suffer. When one rises, we all rise.As I finished The Audacity of Hope, tears came to my eyes. Tears of happiness, of recognition that there are people who are working for the benefit of our nation, our people, not just for one group, but for us all. I am sure there are others. Surely there must be spiritual leaders at work behind the scenes and I think our two new congress people in New Hampshire will be of the same cut. When I hear James Baker and the rest of the Iran Study Group speak I am so relieved to know there are wise men and women, who have experience and wisdom to look at the horrors and the insanity of man and who search for a possible solution in Iraq for us.I only hope that the tostosteronic brain of our president and his ego will allow him to hear, listen and implement the movement that can bring our boys home, and stop the killing in Iraq. An old-fashioned victory is not possible. To save one life is a victory. To have the courage to communicate with our enemy and open new ways and solutions is the only sane outcome. The United States has made many mistakes first by starting this war, by not being prepared, by causing all the bloodshed. Being right is no longer acceptable. I pray we can admit our mistakes and bring this horror to an end. We must all keep speaking, writing, phoning, e-mailing our representatives and senators and anyone we can to keep these recommendations alive, and not to let another spin put the these suggestions and ideas on the back burner. I am frightened when I see Bushs dull responses to the report. It is like a child that will not listen, but that child is the most powerful man on our earth. We must not let him destroy us all. Bush has two more years to ruin our country, but fortunately our congress will change in January. I cannot imagine that anyone can want this war to continue for any reason except greed. We must accept our mistakes, we must be big enough to bow our heads in shame for our mistakes and as soon as possible take the chance and communicate with to Iraqs neighbors and hope and pray and believe that every one of us in the world truly wants a better life for ourselves, our families, our future generations. Underneath all the hatred and fear we humans are all the same. Misfortune and fear make us hate, but it can change. We will never think alike, or even want to. We have to accept our differences. We must believe wars are no longer acceptable and that there is a different way to solve our problems. History tells us we repeat our mistakes. Yet history never had the television, the Internet to let us see the carnage, the pain. We see it daily on the news. We must not harden ourselves, deaden our feelings. We must stand in the others shoes and imagine what it would be like to be afraid to walk out of our homes, (if we even have a home), to have our children suffering as others do in our world. Then we will have the intelligent power to make the right choices and the positive choices, instead of letting the insane mentality of our administration ruin our world. I thank Barek Obama for bringing faith back into my heart.