Dear President-elect Obama,
Congratulations. Like most Americans, I watched Tuesday night as history was made, wrongs were righted, hope was restored and the cloud of exclusion, violence and hate finally lifted from our great country. For the first time in my life, I felt that fear need not govern my choices. Then the news about the passage of Proposition 8 in California trickled in. Also the news that the Arkansas ban on adoption rights for gays and lesbians had passed, and so on, wherever gays' rights were, inexplicably, on the ballot. Pride turned to sick stomach churning as I realized that, even now, your message, "Yes, we can" did not apply to everyone. It does not apply to me.
It is astounding to me that someone I do not know, in some place I have never been, would be able to walk into a small booth and decide with a finger touch what must happen (or not happen) in my personal life. It flies in the face of reason and compassion that strangers could determine what is best for children who are in desperate need of loving parents.
Please remember that gays and lesbians put you in the White House.?Do not let history persist in its mistakes. Do not let hatred persevere. Just as you (and minorities, the GLBT community, women—even we Hillary supporters—elderly, union workers, the poor, the youth) organized and galvanized a country to vote for change in government, please urge the country to put the same amount of effort into eradicating prejudice.
Kimberley Ann Rogers
Easthampton
Almost every one is happy that gas prices have been plummeting, but does that mean we can go back to our unconscious, gluttonous, over-consuming ways? Not unless you wish to see prices skyrocketing again, gas rationing, and more global warming followed by more not completely natural catastrophic events.
We have choices. We can forget the gas rationing of the 1970s and the gas prices of the close to, or already reached, peak oil production of the early 21st century. We can keep drilling till there's no oil left, but prices are not going down or even staying stable if we forget the lessons of our gas-guzzling past. Another choice would be to treat oil as what it is, a valuable resource that is rapidly dwindling. For now, if we can walk, bike, take public transportation, use grease cars, buy hybrids, be conscious of energy we are using, we can get through a transition to a non-fossil-fuel-centered economy. We must demand that our leaders invest in renewable, sustainable, ecologically sound technologies. We must vote with our dollars by not spending our money on rapidly dwindling resources. Don't buy from corporations and businesses that are not investing in survivable technologies. We can go forward and thrive or hold onto the past and not survive.
Les T. Alcmodo
S. Deerfield
