I sent this letter to Al Gore (via snail mail) and the Wichita Eagle (via email).
Dear Al,
I know you must get these emails every single day ... "Please run, Al" ... "You're what this country needs, Al" ... "Come take back what was stolen from you in 2000, Al" ... So I can imagine that this one won't get much attention. But I'm feeling the urge, the NEED, to write to you, which I've never done to a political figure before. Hell, not even a famous figure - when we wrote letters to our "heroes" in elementary school, instead of writing to actors or athletes or politicians like most of my good little classmates did, I wrote to my uncle, who had just gotten out of jail from a crack cocaine conviction. I admired his ability to stand up to his addiction, and overcome society's negative and pessimistic view of people with drug problems.
It's in much the same vein that I write to you tonight.
Just as I know my uncle didn't want to be a solitary warrior in a fight against his addiction but reluctantly shouldered the burden, so I know you don't want to be the lone sane voice in the world of popular American politics, forced into a national fight for what is right and true by the lack of media exposure for others who share your viewpoint. I understand that An Inconvenient Truth, The Assault On Reason, and Live Earth have taken up much [even "buttloads" =) ] of your time, but at the same time I know you will make time, if you have to, to lead this nation out of its malaise and into an era of proactive empathetic responsibility.
So, Al.
I know you don't want to run.
I know that doing so would cause you a great deal of grief and pain, and subject your family to pressure and scrutiny that no upstanding citizen deserves. That is, unfortunately, the reality of the political process today.
I know that you feel that any time devoted to a campaign for the presidency, or even any time spent being the president, would detract from the time you can devote to attacking the problem of global warming.
I know that if I were in your position, I would feel inclined to run from the call of the people, and hide away in a dark corner until the masses stopped calling my name, and I could get on with the immeasurably daunting task of saving the environment.
I know that John Edwards (and possibly other Democratic candidates, but I haven't seen as much evidence of this) loves the Earth and the environment as much as you or any other intelligent, compassionate person, and if elected President would do everything in his power to advance the cause you hold most dear to your heart, so there isn't a huge imperative for you to jump into the race just to save the world (how can I use the word "just" here).
But ... I know that you, more than anyone I've ever seen or heard, have been able to rouse in me a loving, patriotic, excited, hopeful, conscientious fire that burns to change the direction this nation is headed.
For you, I want to help.
I know it seems simple. And pathetic. I should want to help no matter who is in charge. And truthfully, I do want to help. I want to contribute to the human race. I'm not in graduate school for the money - there is (virtually) none. I'm here because I feel that scientific research is one of the most important contributions I can make to a mature, developing society. But research is my JOB right now. I should be using my NON 9-to-5 hours to do something helpful, but I'm not.
I've donated significant money only twice in my life ... once to buy toys and sports equipment for children stuck in the middle of the terrible Iraq War, and once to the Red Cross immediately following Hurricane Katrina, for them to do as they saw fit. Never to a political candidate.
I've donated significant time only once in my life - to the American Diabetes Association of Wichita, helping them send out flyers and man the phones during a pledge drive. Never to a political candidate.
I've never volunteered for a political campaign before. I've never thought any particular person was so much better than the alternative that he/she was worth my time.
The honest truth about why I haven't done more, politically, is that I feel apathetic about our country. Our rights are being eroded, and our values are being made a mockery of. And by values I don't mean heterosexual marriage; I mean honesty, compassion, respect, education, justice, cooperation. And I feel there's not much I can do about it. What does writing a letter to my Congressman or -woman (or my newspaper) do? Often not a lot. I want to be able to put time, energy, and money into something that I believe can make a real difference in my life and in the lives of those I know and love.
I'm prepared to donate all of those - time, energy, money - in support of any presidential campaign you care to mount. It's one thing I'm completely confident will make a positive difference in the our way country is run, and the way we interact with the rest of the world.
If you choose to stay out of this race, I'll understand, and I'll throw my support behind whichever candidate eventually emerges from this (in my humble opinion) well-stocked Democratic fishing pond. But if you were to enter the race, I would be excited and moved by a political candidate in a way I never have been before. I'm barely 26, so I've had only 8 years in which elections mattered to me - or rather, in which I legally mattered to elections. It would be easy to shrug off my enthusiastic support as merely that of a newcomer to the scene casting all his weight in the first direction he sees political promise. My instinct is that this is something more.
In past elections, yes, I've had preferences, but I thought those were to a fair approximation the lesser of two evils. I'm ashamed to say that when you lost the 2000 election, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Yes, I wanted you to win, but I had no idea that Bush was as mal-intentioned and incompetent as he turned out to be.
I think what turned my attention and flipped my support to you initially was your beautiful speech on Martin Luther King Jr. Day of 2006. That day has always been special to me. Many people make New Years resolutions, but I never have (or at least never put much stock in them). However, my senior year of high school, I made a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day resolution to speak up more, and stop keeping all my thoughts to myself. To this day it's been the only resolution I've ever really kept, and it's been one of the key turning points in my life. Your MLK Jr Day speech was similarly a turning point in my political life. I've googled it and have it playing in the background as I write this letter. It awakened a political fire in me; for the first time I had a desire to see someone - YOU - as president of our United States. Your ideas, directness, honesty, and (frankly) correctness were refreshing and invigorating in a political world dominated by pandering and stubborness.
It is that honesty, frankness, and vision that I want in our next President. I know there are others with each of those qualities: Dennis Kucinich is honest to a fault; John Edwards, to the consternation of many lobbyists and corporations, speaks directly and frankly about the socioeconomic problems facing our country; and Barack Obama has a hopeful vision of an end to partisan bitterness and division. But it's you who I feel combines these qualities in a way every reasonable, compassionate American can get behind.
And it's you who I want as the next President of my United States of America.
Sincerely,