Open Letter to Al Gore: Come to Our Corner

Dear Mr. Gore,

I would like to invite you to come to the corner of Sierra Dr. and Cornwall Rd. in State College, Pennsylvania, any weekday morning at about 8:15.

Every morning all of the moms and dads on the block walk down to the corner to put our kids on the bus. We are mostly in our 40s,  mostly Catholic, comfortably middle class parents. Politically we are Democrats, Independents, and hard-core Republicans. Some of us have family members in the military. Some of us have kids with special needs.

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Every morning after the bus leaves we stand around drinking our coffee and lamenting the state of our country, our military, our economy, our schools.

We worry about our parents’ and our families’ health care. Even with insurance making sure our families get decent medical care is hard.

We have all come to realize that the War on Terror is a bumper sticker based on lie, and the war in Iraq is a terrible mistake. We all want someone who will get us out there now, not in a few years.

We are all worried that the toys we buy our children for Christmas will be toxic. Or the food we buy at the store will poison our families.

What my neighbors do not talk about so much is Global Warming. Which is hardly surprising. Polls show that the top issues voters are concerned about are Iraq and Health Care. The candidates look at those polls and then write their speeches and proposals and talking points to address those concerns. That is not leadership.

After seeing your movie, “An Inconvenient Truth”, however, my father traded in his beloved Lexus SUV and put solar panels on his San Diego home. Now he plugs in his car at night. He loves watching the meter go backwards.

My dad is smart, but it took your film to get him act. None of my neighbors even went to see your film. Global Warming is the number one threat facing our country and our planet today, so why the hell isn't it the number one issue in the presidential campaign?

BECAUSE NOT ONE OF THE CANDIDATES  RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IS A REAL LEADER!

SIR, YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN WAKE THIS COUNTRY UP TO THE DANGER WE ALL FACE. AND YOU CAN ONLY DO THAT BY RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT.

We need a leader, a leader with experience and wisdom. By entering the race, you automatically shift the national debate. Global Warming will become the issue everyone cares about most. If not, then it is business as usual, and the crisis of Global Warming will only be addressed on a scale that reflects its relative importance in the polls, far too little, far too late.

A CBS/NYTimes poll in June and an NBC/WSJ poll in July had Global Warming as the number one issue for 6% and 7% of voters respectively. By September open-ended polls list Iraq, Health Care and the Economy as the top issues. Global Warming is not even on the list. Why? Because the candidates aren’t talking about it. Because they aren’t willing to lead. You can change that. And only you.

We are, all of us Democrats and Independents and hard-core Republicans alike, very disappointed in the candidates running for president. No one likes or trusts Hillary. We do not need to go back to 1992. We don’t need triangulation and cautious, corporate-friendly baby-steps of reform. We need a bold leader who saw from the beginning that the war in Iraq was wrong and who profoundly understands the nature of the true global climate crisis we are in.

Some of us were originally intrigued by Obama, but now universally see that he is too inexperienced in Washington and internationally to clean up the mess Bush has made. This is not 2004 when we were so divided as a nation that we need a feel-good leader to unite us. We, the people, have done that ourselves. We are united in our disgust with the current administration and our disappointment in the quality of the current candidates to replace Bush.

The GOP candidates are all clowns and even the Republicans here can’t find anything to like about any of them.

If you come to our corner we will all tell that your country needs you like never before. Please run for President. Gray Whales in the Pacific are starving to death because of changing ocean temperature. How long before people around the world begin to starve?

On the day you announce, I pledge to donate the the maximum allowed by law to your campaign.

Please, sir, run for President. We need you now. Anything else is too little too late.

Most Sincerely Yours,

Grassroots Mom
Central Pennsylvania
P.S. If you come to the corner some morning, I’d be happy to bring you coffee and even a homemade muffin.

My apologies to supporters of other candidates (not Hillary's). There are some real great people running. However, Climate Change and Global Warming are the NUMBER ONE CRISIS facing this planet today. The polar ice caps melting makes everything else trivial. So why isn't this the biggest issue in the campaign? BECAUSE YOUR WONDERFUL CANDIDATE IS NOT MKAING IT SO. I very much like Edwards on social issues and his leadership is making a difference in bringing these issues to the forefront. Poverty is actually on the list, not very high, but it is on there. I like anyone who promises to get us the hell out of Iraq. But People wake the hell up. Climate change is going to be devastating. And while any Democrat would probably do something about it, Only AL GORE has the massive government experience, foreign policy experience, scentific knowlege, and world respect to clean the Aegean Stables of Bush's messes at FEMA, DOJ, DHS, EPA and so on; fix our broken military; repair our international reputation; and change the course of this vast ship which is heading toward global disaster of biblical proportions. And yes, I will work hard and vote for whoever is nominated, even Hillary.