Al... you could end this nightmare

This letter has been writing in my mind for a long time, but today I've reached my threshold. Al... you could end this nightmare. All of it.

Al wrote an Oped in the New York Times today, upping the ante on climate change (the very climate change we're already doing nothing about, because we've got a president who seems hell bent on destruction.)

Without realizing the consequences of our actions, we have begun to put so much carbon dioxide into the thin shell of air surrounding our world that we have literally changed the heat balance between Earth and the Sun. If we don’t stop doing this pretty quickly, the average temperature will increase to levels humans have never known and put an end to the favorable climate balance on which our civilization depends.

Thanks for the warning Al... but if you really want to help us fix this... RUN FOR PRESIDENT.



I don't know if you've noticed, but you are the only 'FDR' or 'Lincoln' or 'Washington' our generation is going to get. We're in dire times here, dire straits. Our government has been overrun by jackals in high office, looting the coffers and gutting our federal agencies -- including the EPA.

You want us to step up? I'm doing everything I can here at our house, with our income constraints... but we need a massive, rapid change in direction on a national level. The people want this -- we're not stupid, we want to live and we want the next generation to have a chance. But we continually run into roadblocks from our government and the hulking corporations standing in the shadows. Do you think we wouldn't all be using solar power by now if it were cheap and readily available? How about solar cars?

And what is stopping us? Corporations. Their interests, not ours. So much for government of the people. Words are fine, but the reality is quite different these days.

Hell yes, we all need to do more to stop climate change. And to do this, we need strong, devoted, moral leadership. We need another Lincoln, who will speak to the 'better angels of our nature,' and reunite this house divided. We need a Kennedy who will entreat us to "ask not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country." And then the planet.

Our current leaders want us to live in fear. They spy on us, and steal our freedom in tiny, barely noticed increments, while misdirecting us with propaganda media. The frog is nearly boiling now. They are fanning the flames of hatred both here and abroad; and while we are distracted, they are eating away at the most basic framework of this government that has stood for over 200 years.

This is not the way out: it is the way of chaos, destruction and despair.

Step up, Al. You've done so much already -- there must be a reason you didn't take office in 2000. Perhaps you 'lost' because you had other, more pressing work awaiting you. Perhaps you were being forged in the fires of life; traveling your own 'hero's journey,' so that you would grow into the magnificent and fearless leader that you are today.

If you had been just another politician, just another corporate tool, you would have become a lobbyist after leaving office. Instead you chose to teach, and then to travel the world warning of impending climate change. This is not the behavior of a politician. This is the behavior of a leader!

You are now exactly what this nation needs: not just our nation, but the entire world. Your country is calling, and never has our need been greater. It is time for you to take that office we elected you to hold in 2000, bringing all of your fiery passion, leadership skills, intelligence; your knowledge of government, Constitution and history; and yes... political courage with you to the White House.

We need our FDR. We need a president who will say NO to fear and hatred and divisions between blue and red, and instead say "there is nothing to fear but fear itself." It will take every one of us working together if we are to get this done.

You will notice the current administration is doing the exact opposite: sowing discord and distrust. Divide and conquer. I have never seen the people so divided, into 'blue' and 'red;' conservative and liberal.

And while we are all busy fighting each other, the Executive Branch is busy amassing power, gutting our CIA, discrediting our FBI, has thoroughly embarrassed FEMA, made a mockery of the EPA, a laughing stock of the DoJ. Now they are privatizing our army (actually, they are creating their own army,) while our National Guard is destroyed overseas; doing tour after tour after tour. Our army is being systematically broken on the rocks of Iraqi civil war, as our government is quietly being outsourced at home.

If our hamstrung, ineffective Democratic 'majority' can't or won't do anything to stop this downturn, we will need a master of leadership to bring our country back to something again resembling a constitutional democracy and government of the people. And this is assuming there is still time... that we are even still a Republic in 2009. Our forefathers made no such promises that this democracy would last through time, without our own vigilance and a strong citizen media.

Lincoln's great fear has come to pass: corporations have been enthroned, and the Republic is on it's last gasp. You are the only life-support that many of us can see anywhere on the horizon. You are the only person who truly cares and possesses the knowledge and the leadership to bring us through this mess. And yes, you do care; and Al, we can all see that you care, about us and about life on this planet. We also know that you grasp the challenges (those of us who have read "The Assault on Reason.")

Al: we will need you to restore our federal agencies, reign in these rampant corporations and lobbyists, restore corporate oversight, bring our troops home and then rebuild our military. We will need you to somehow restore the trust of prospective enlistees, so they will know that their leader cares about them, and will have their back while they defend our country. And all this, while fighting climate change and weaning America off of oil.

This will require a herculean effort, and you are the only person in the country completely qualified to step up to this task. Al; I cannot stress this enough. We need you.

There is no one else, Al. No one else who can do this job. You are our best, our greatest, and maybe our only hope. Please... put on the mantle you were born to wear, the one you have been groomed to wear -- not by your political training and career, or even by the popular vote in 2000... but by the trials, disappointments and struggles of life itself.

Save our country: then give us the tools and leadership so that we can work with you to save our world.