You are the President not the Father of the United States

Dear Mr. President,

I can hear you singing with Bob Marley, "Let's Get Together and Feel All Right!" It must feel that no matter what you say or how you say it you just can't win. This is the bane of existence of a leader. Your task of communicating effectively with innumerable perceptions of what you are communicating is daunting.

I am sure as a leader you are not discouraged by this but inspired to strive for clarity in all you communicate. Every instance where your administration has to regroup, rewrite, and reconnect is another day closer to a tighter, stronger O'Bama Administration.

You have sent a message to schools to be viewed by children all around the nation next week. This is causing an uproar amongst conservatives. You might be shaking your head with a feel of "I can't win." But I can help you with this one. I should just give you my cell phone number, but for now I'll just type.

In all that you do with children, here is what will serve you well to assume. Assume they have a set of parents who desire to raise them to not only be law abiding citizens, but individuals who are loving, compassionate, and intelligent. This is a shared goal between you and I and all the other parents that are on American soil (and all the parents on this planet for that matter).

Last night I was standing in a checkout line and discovered that the clerk was from St. Martin's of the Caribbean Islands. Why are you here was my question to this dear woman. She chuckled and said it was her children's education. This woman was tired, ready to go home after working two jobs. Why working so hard? Her children period. We will do anything for our children.

Mr. President, you need to keep this in mind, when you were elected it was not to be THE FATHER to all the children it was simply (and as you now know, not so simply)to be president. You must leave the parenting to us, the parents. Your administration has a tendency to tread on other people's issues, territories, responsibilities, and families. When you step on toes the owners yell. These are the sounds you hear.

We as parents are protective of our children and rightly so. You as a father know what I am talking about. This is what your administration did not foresee. They did not counsel you to understand the uproar this would bring and the perception it would cause. It makes you look like you are indoctrinating our children. Why would you want to indoctrinate? We are not a third world country, you know what freedom is, you want to uphold it! But to assure us of this you need to honor the family structure.

Here is what I would suggest. Pull the plug from showing the video in schools. Air your speech on television so we as parents can sit right beside our children and process it with them. This is a democracy, show your administration how to respectfully maintain our democracy and how to uphold the family.

Something else you have not considered...my children would not have seen it. We are a home schooling family.

You have a good day. Find something positive about each one of your family members, including your mother in law and tell them!

Blessings,

Mrs. Burkholder