An Open Letter to President-Elect Barack Obama
Jan K. Nielsen
Dear President Elect Obama,
A new day is coming.
Your inauguration as our 44th president on Tuesday
will mark a new day for our country, and for our world.
Millions will watch as you take the oath of office.
My husband and I will watch
from our increasingly tattered red couch
in our ever cluttered family room,
along with our three children.
It’s going to be a day of celebration in our home,
with special food, candles and all the rest.
Before the election, I told the kids,
“If Barack Obama wins,
on Inauguration Day you guys, if you want to,
get to stay home from school.”
(And I say that out loud, here, from this pulpit,
with some of their teachers listening.)
Believe me;
parentally sanctioned absences from school
are a rarity in our home.
We know they might watch
at least some of the ceremony in school,
but Roger and I want to watch together, as a family,
this turning point in our nation’s history.
Roger and I are of your generation.
We remember
watching the tragic news of Dr. King’s assassination
when we were still grade schoolers.
We carry in our minds
ugly pictures of the blatant racism and segregation
we saw as kids growing up in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
We carry images of the division and discord
that came with the struggle for civil rights.
We want our children to know our nation’s history,
but we also want them to carry in their minds and souls
a picture of a new day.
We want our children to remember your inauguration day,
to carry in their minds a picture of January 20, 2009:
your face on the TV screen, the crowds, the celebrations,
and maybe some vague recollection
of the faces of their middle aged parents by their sides.
I want them to be able to tell their children and grandchildren:
“Yes, I remember
watching our first African American President
take the oath of office.
We even got to stay home from school,
and your Grandma Jan threw a party.
We watched the coming of a new day.”
I write to you today
both as a United States citizen,
and as a minister.
Across our land this week,
religious leaders of all faith traditions
have been invited
by the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center,
to offer words
about your inauguration,
words that will be saved for future generations.
I speak out of the Unitarian Universalist tradition.
In my tradition, unlike some others,
no minister speaks for all of the people in the congregation.
Instead, we are called to speak from our own convictions,
informed by our study of texts both sacred and secular,
our spiritual practice,
and our own life experience.
I speak today not out of my political persuasions,
but instead out of my religious convictions.
Among my congregation are your most ardent supporters,
along with others who perhaps did not support you,
and still others who might call themselves skeptics –
people who take a “wait and see” approach
to a lot of things in life,
politics included.
Here at our church,
we are theological liberals,
but politically, we count among us those who are liberal,
even some self described “flaming radicals,”
as well as others who are decidedly conservative,
even some self described “libertarians.”
(People ask me sometimes how that works,
how a minister can serve such a diverse bunch.
“Isn’t it sometimes like being a politician?” they ask.
I say nothing; I just smile.)
I know that none of this may come as a surprise to you.
Your mother and grandmother
knew our tradition well.
In November, your grandmother’s memorial service
was held at the First Unitarian Church in Honolulu.
I wonder if your upbringing
sewed in your bones
those words of Unitarian martyr, Francis David,
“We need not think alike to love alike.”
Now more than ever,
both our nation and our world
need leaders who understand
how to look beyond difference to find common ground,
leaders who can help us to know,
“We need not think alike to love alike.”
We face great challenges –
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,
bloodshed in the Middle East,
our world economy in upheaval,
the health of our home on this earth in danger,
a growing number of us
without access to quality, affordable health care,
children without access to a decent education,
people without enough to eat and nowhere to call home -
and so much more.
I echo what you have heard before:
these problems are not of your making.
I would add: you cannot fix them by yourself.
You need us,
all of us, every American,
no matter how we voted,
no matter our political labels or leanings,
all of us, no matter where we come from,
no matter who we are.
Now more than ever
our nation, indeed our world,
needs to understand that
we are one people,
with common challenges
and a common destiny.
In the words of Dr. King,
whose birthday we celebrate tomorrow,
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Remind us over these next four years, Mr. President-Elect,
that we are one people,
and never let us forget
that we are all in this together.
This will not be easy work.
Old habits and familiar voices
can lead us to look only at what seems best for us, right now.
We are addicted, some of us, to excess
and it’s time to get real.
We forget that what hurts one of us on this planet, hurts us all,
both now, and for generations to come.
At this point in our history,
we need a new way of thinking,
and a new way of doing,
indeed, a new way of being.
We need to find
new ways to handle money,
new ways to relate to other nations,
new ways to manage all of our resources,
new ways to make sure everyone
has a good education,
the health care they need,
and enough of the basics to live an honorable life.
We need to learn that we, as a nation and as individuals,
are not the center of the Universe; it’s not all about us.
We are, in so many ways, a rich nation.
We have been given much.
Call us to give back.
In the words of scripture,
“From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required.”
It is our calling, our duty,
as human beings at this point in the history of this planet,
to live, as a nation and as individuals,
that teaching from the world’s religions:
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
As a mother, I have tried to teach my children
to treat other people the way they want to be treated,
as I’m sure you and Michelle
have tried to teach Malia and Sasha.
You and I know that we live in a world
where “Do unto others” is not always practiced,
and people are sometimes judged, and rejected,
based on difference.
Though your election as our President is a milestone,
racism in America is not a thing of the past.
Children with darker skin learn somewhere along the way
that they may have to work twice as hard to get half as far,
and this is both painful and wrong.
You don’t like to focus on race.
I understand.
As a woman in a position historically reserved for men,
I don’t like to focus on gender.
We both want to get beyond those old biases,
the tired arguments,
the divisiveness
and get on with the business
of trying to make this a better world.
Bias, however, persists,
and even subtle can be harmful,
and all the more difficult to overcome.
I know you wish for your daughters
a world where gender bias
doesn’t sap a growing girl’s self confidence,
a world where they won’t have to work twice as hard as a man
to be thought half as good,
a world where they will be accepted for who they are.
And let us not forget the heartache and hardship
our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters face everyday,
and the fact that in 48 of our 50 states,
they are denied one of the most basic of civil and human rights,
the freedom to marry.
Bias hurts,
and robs us of the energy
and talent we need to face the challenges of our day.
It may be neither politically popular, nor expedient,
to lead us to confront our biases
and to challenge us to work to overcome them,
but we will be a better nation, and better people, for it.
“Do unto others” may be the spiritual challenge, the moral lesson, of our time.
Lead us to do what is right.
We face great challenges;
there is much work to do.
To keep going,
we will need to feed one another’s souls.
Throughout the ages, the human voice,
and the gift of words,
have been the manna that has sustained the human spirit.
No matter what the critics and pundits may say,
let yourself be the poet you are.
Now more than ever,
we need the nourishment and inspiration of poetry.
Poetry points us toward larger truths;
poetry speaks to the soul.
I join Anna Quindlen
in pointing you toward that Chinese proverb:
“speech is the voice of the heart.”
Speak to us often; let us hear your voice.
Speak to our souls.
Your work as our leader will be hard.
So many will want you to be what they want you to be.
Don’t give in; be who you are, at your core.
A leader who gives up his or her soul ceases to lead,
and in a real sense, ceases to live.
Remember those words
of our Unitarian poet, preacher, and prophet,
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“To be yourself in a world
that is constantly trying to make you something else
is the greatest accomplishment.”
As our leader, you cannot keep all of us happy, all of the time.
Don’t even try.
If you try, you will have neither the time nor the energy
for the work of real leadership.
Again, I offer words from Emerson:
“Whatever course you decide upon,”
said Emerson,
“there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong.
There are always difficulties arising
which tempt you to believe that your critics are right.
To map out a course of action
and follow it to an end requires courage.”
Have courage, Mr. President-Elect,
that you might inspire us to find our own courage.
We, the American people, have it in us to do great things.
Demand the best we have to give.
Don’t coddle us; challenge us.
Call us to sacrifice,
to change our ways,
to use less,
to give more,
to look out for our sisters and our brothers.
Our children, mine and yours,
all of the earth’s children, are counting on us.
Let’s not let them down.
Let now be the beginning of a new day,
a new day for our nation, for our world,
for all humankind.
I shall continue to hold you and our nation in my prayers.
Respectfully submitted,
Jan K. Nielsen
Senior Minister
The Universalist Church
West Hartford, Connecticut