Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr. President,

Congratulations on your recent career advancement and I wish you the best in your new role.  I am praying for you that you will have the stamina, integrity and creativity to move our country towards economic stability and, dare I say, world peace.

I have just a few concerns as you enter into heated budget discussions regarding stimulus package offers:

• My friends are being laid off in droves from big name companies that employ most of the city's population like Circuit City, Qmonda, Land America, Wachovia Securities and Philip-Morris.  It seems like our city is imploding with lay-offs.  We are scared.
  

• My friend, who doesn't work outside the home, is scared.  Her husband just got laid off with a minimal severance package and limited healthcare and they have a severely low-functioning, handicapped child.  She is scared.
  

• My friend has closed her upscale day spa despite years of successful entrepreneurism due to lack of income as she watched the luxury industry slow down to a near halt.  She is in the process of losing her home and is a single mom with a teenage daughter.  She is scared.
  

• My friend, in her 3rd round of chemo on her second round of fighting cancer, works for the state and needs her job and desperately needs the healthcare provided to her.   She is scared.
  

• My family is living on separate coasts so that my husband can be gainfully employed.  We are scared.
  

Please, Mr. President, be careful with your choices because there is a lot at stake.  Now is not the time to be prideful and self-serving.  I plead with you to look across our nation and ask God, who is the giver of all wisdom, for direction and purpose.

We need you to act, Mr. President.  Please.

Sincerely,

Me:  patriotic, optimistic, disabled veteran, your cheerleader.