Open Letter to Obama From Egypt

Posted on 23. Nov, 2008 by Shera Crossan in Free Speech, Opinion, Politics, Race, Shera Crossan

Open letter to Obama

Dear Mr Obama,

Salaam. I am not sure if this will ever pass your eyes. At a time when the whole world is excited about your landmark election and everybody who is somebody is talking about your meteoric rise, this letter is likely to be dismissed as just another outpouring of emotions from the Middle East.

But write I must. And I hope to God it does find its way to your table. Even if it doesn’t, I’ll at least have the consolation of having tried to persuade you what the world, especially the Middle East, expects from you and what a great opportunity you have of changing it for the better.

I may be ridiculed for my naïve idealism and for daring to hope that the agenda of the reigning superpower could be influenced by individuals sitting thousands of miles away in Dubai. But there’s no harm in trying, is there?

Besides, after your own incredible victory riding on a wave of idealism and message of hope, no one can ever suggest idealism doesn’t work. You wouldn’t be where you are today without idealism and faith and the incredible power of dreams. It’s this power that can take a “skinny guy with a funny name” to the White House.

By now you must be conscious of the impossibly high expectations the Americans and the rest of the world have of you. These hopes are only natural considering what the world has been through over the past eight years under the incumbent president. Your predecessor has somehow managed to rile up the whole world against America, a feat that eluded even Richard Nixon.

From the total destruction of Iraq to the shame of Abu Ghraib, from spying on Americans to the abduction of innocents by the CIA, and dumping hundreds of civilians as enemy combatants down the hole called Guantanamo Bay, this administration has never been short on new ideas for violating human dignity.more