President Obama, I am sorry...

Dear President Obama,

I am a middle-aged white woman from a working class family.  Growing up, I was fortunate to have had stable family, a good education, food to eat and a place to live.  I was born in Massachusetts and now live in South Florida. My political views are moderate to liberal.  I am a patriotic, American Flag waving democrat.  I believe Abraham Lincoln was our greatest President.  I admire Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith for her fierce independence and willingness to stand up to her Republican colleagues in the Senate when they, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, were destroying American lives with lies. I wish more Republicans had her courage.  I am gay.  I voted for you.  I supported the Affordable Care Act and celebrated when it passed, when it was upheld by the Supreme Court the first time and the second time.  I can afford and now have health insurance only because of the Affordable Care Act.

The Civil War ended 150 years ago and still the struggles continue.  You are the first African American President.  That is reason to celebrate how far we have come as a nation, but instead, we are forced to look in the mirror and realize just how very far we have to go and just how few steps we have taken.  I am sorry that some of my fellow white Americans refuse to support you not because of your political ideology, but simply because of the color of your skin.  I am sorry that my fellow white Americans who hold public office refuse to work with you not just because they disagree with your political platform, but also because of the color of your skin.  I am sorry for all that you have not been able to accomplish throughout your Presidency because a group of white American politicians decided that stopping you was so much more important than moving our country forward and part of their reason for doing so was the color of your skin.  I am sorry for all the disrespectful names you have been called and all the times that you have been heckled.  Many Presidents have been heckled and called names, including President Abraham Lincoln, who was subjected to much ridicule and derision.  But all of those men were white and none were subjected to the overt racism you have dealt with on a daily basis.

I want to apologize to you, President Obama, not for what I have done, but for what I have failed to do.  I have seen the racist posts and pictures shared on Facebook by people I know.  I have shaken my head and deleted them.  I have sometimes been stunned that people I know, including a few family members, have "liked" or shared certain things, but I have, until recently, said very little and never posted anything directly to my friends and family who are sharing those posts.  I've posted a couple of comments on Facebook and even wrote a blog post asking "Is that really what you believe?"  But i have come to understand that my silence becomes my acceptance of not just what I do mot accept, but must not accept.  I will no longer be silent, Mr. President!