Chavez and the Castro brothers have had their way without our input. By opening the door to diplomacy just slightly, change and communication could follow. We cannot allow the policies of the Bush administration dictate our conduct today. Cowboy diplomacy and arrogance ended in January, and we must not revisit those failed policies again.
* According to an article in the NY Times, President Obama reads some of the letters he receives, and even responds to them!
...Tens of thousands of letters, e-mail messages and faxes arrive at the White House every day. A few hundred are culled and end up each weekday afternoon on a round wooden table in the office of Mr. Kelleher, the director of the White House Office of Correspondence.
He chooses 10 letters, which are slipped into a purple folder and put in the daily briefing book that is delivered to President Obama at the White House residence. Designed to offer a sampling of what Americans are thinking, the letters are read by the president, and he sometimes answers them by hand, in black ink on azure paper....I'm grateful that the President is taking time to read these letters.
