Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr President,

Come take a walk with me. Let’s pretend we’re just two people and you’re no better than me. I’d like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly. 

P1nks letter (song) to the president openly addresses her personal disappointment in President George W Bush. She attacks several of the issues that defined his presidency, from education reform with No Child Left Behind to equal rights for gays and lesbians.

“How can you say no child is left behind? We’re not dumb and we’re not blind. They’re all sitting in your cells while you pave the road to hell. What kind of father would take his own daughter’s rights away? And what kind of father might hate his own daughter is she were gay?”

I agree that No Child Left Behind is a failed attempt at education reform. The law provides additional help to students, who are not making adequate progress, but it also imposes punitive measures on the school, thus the school sets requirements lower. This results in students succeeding, however since they are only meeting lower standards the program is a failure.

P1nk  also points out that it is the families who working over 40 a weeks earning minimum wage trying to pay their bills while also preparing to have child who know about hard work, it is our brothers, sisters, sons an daughters who are fighting in overseas, it is our American people who are living in cardboard boxes. I feel that this song targets the idea of politicians hiding behind their desks while everyone else are the ones who are actually doing the work and being effected by the decisions made by our politicians.  I think P1nk is right – it is time to hold our country’s leaders accountable.

“Let me tell about hard work – minimum wage with a baby on the way

Let me tell you bout hard work - rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away

Let me tell you bout hard work – building a bed out of a cardboard box”

I also feel that a federal minimum wage is more destructive than if the states enforced their own min. wage laws. Since the Federal Min wage is based on the average of the states, it does not help those people who live in states where the cost of living is high. People should not have to work 40+ hour weeks and still live pay check to pay check. About 20% of American adults who have jobs are earning only $10.65 an hour or less, according to Osterman's analysis. Even at 40 hours a week, that amounts to less than $22,314, the poverty level for a family of four. There is also no reason why we should have homelessness in our country. We have the capabilities of providing shelter for these people while also helping them become an asset to our society, rather than just giving them government handouts.