Dear Mr. President: President Washington, it will be Christmas in just one short week from now in the year 2023.  We are just shy of the 248^th year of our “Declaration of Independence.”  At this time in your life, you are fighting gallantly and will be successful in your efforts to gain the freedom of the American people.  In fact, my ancestors fought along with you for this freedom, also fought gallantly, and some died for their efforts.

With our beloved constitution in hand, you were somewhat reluctant to run for our first president. I can’t blame you. The revolution took some heavy tolls on the people who fought, and you were ready to put that behind you and let others carry on. But they, somehow, talked you into running and you became our first president for two terms and again, did your best to help your people build a beautiful and lasting country, a democracy with liberty and justice for all.

So, it is with a very heavy heart I tell you that we may not have been up to the task. We may be failing you during the next 11 months. We may be allowing our most precious democracy, our liberties and justice to evaporate. Without getting into much detail about our dilemma, I will say that we have allowed our county to be divided. Not divided amongst ideals which will always be a part of the administration of a nation, but divided by hate, and dare I say it, spiritual beliefs.

I know, I know, separation of church and state. I guess in all the years that have passed, even though it is mentioned on a periodic basis, we are more than willing to ignore this today. So, we have but a short year to determine who we are, what we are willing to do, and what we are willing to give up, if anything. Ahead of this I humbly ask your forgiveness if we fail in this task of keeping the “greatest experiment” alive.

President Lincoln, we are working through our 247^th year since our “Declaration of Independence.”  I may have to apologize to you soon for our lack of ability to keep this great union together. We may end up, in a little less than a year, not being able to keep our democracy alive. Our liberty and justice hang in the balance right now. We are divided in a much different way than the country was when you were president. The surprising thing about this is that our division is not as laborious as the division then, but the stakes may be much higher.

You held your ground, when it was required, though it cost dearly to do so. Some lives of our ancestors, both yours and mine, were lost to the conflict, but with a will and determination to save our union we fought on. And since we knew we were more formidable as a single nation, we won the day. Yet, though you went through so many heartaches and tribulations to keep our union together, it cost you your life. It would be such a waste if we were to lose that now.

Would it be unwise to ask you for your help? To ask you where your strength came from? To ask how you did it? Would it be unwise to ask if you could give us some direction in changing the course of our country in these times? We have voted into office so many people that shouldn’t really be there. That even though they talked about what they would do for us, we couldn’t fathom how they would govern. But yes, I’m sorry to say, we could have known this had we tried to look in the right places. Or really listened to what they were saying to us. So, I ask your forgiveness in case we are delinquent in our efforts. When you left us that night of April 14/15, I am praying it was not lost upon us to respond appropriately to it, though it’s been so many years hence.

President Roosevelt, you were able to get us beyond the Great Depression.  To get us through World War II and be victors thereof.  With your health so frail, you were still able to make it just short of four terms in the White House. Famine and war were formidable, so it appeared that health was just a hindrance. I doubt this but you made it look so straightforward.  It was just something you needed to do and kept it “full steam ahead.”

We have done that now for about 247 years since the Declaration of Independence.  We have done our best, have made mistakes, have overcome adversaries, have guided the rest of the world at times, and have made it till now. Yet, it is at this point in our history that I must apologize to you. During the next year, up to our next presidential election, we may not have the stamina you represented during your lifetime. We may not be able to overcome some of the pressures we are seeing today to overpower our democracy and remove it from our hands.

We may lose the liberty and justice we have cherished for so long. There are people that are trying to slip a blindfold of falseness over our eyes, like the blindfold that was slipped over Lady Liberty’s eyes. To blind us to what they are trying to accomplish. They feed us falsehoods, untruths, and, yes, hate to blind us to what is going on in the backdrop of our lives.  They believe us to be sheep to be guided to the slaughtering of our knowledge.  They believe that as they remove one small liberty at a time, we won’t see that our total liberty is threatened. They are focusing these removals on the females amongst us hoping that the males will not be concerned. President Roosevelt, will you forgive us if we let our democracy, our liberty and justice slip away?

But I must have faith in our nation and its resourceful citizens to do what’s right for our country.  To wash off the choices that have been muddied in recent years and make their country proud.  After the civil war, we slowly became the true ‘United States’ of America.  Can we get together, once again, to keep it that way?