February 24th, 2009

On teaching critical thinking, dissenting views and protesting, tax havens, Guantanamo Bay and the Uyghurs, Habeas Corpus and the imperial presidency, treasons and white house emails.

                                                                 Peter Lawrence

                                                                 PO Box [redacted]

                                                                 [redacted]

President Barack Obama

White House Residence

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, DC 20500

2/24/09

Dear Mr. President,

There was one thing you did mention in your speech that I saw as much more important than most realized. I haven't heard anything about it in the news of late. You brought up education and how programs that do not work will be removed. As I also mentioned in an earlier letter, teaching to the tests does not involved critical thinking and will only teach children how to follow and not lead. That makes it easier to control them as adults so government and corporations can have an easier time but I doubt that's truly what The People want. I would hope you keep your word on this.

I'm not sure what happened to advice and dissent. I am very happy you've tried to reach out to both sides. As I've said, dissent is critical for critical thinking. I would hope that dissent would also be eagerly accepted from The People. Luce Guillen-Givins and 7 other members of the group RNC Welcoming Committee, also known as the "RNC 8", were formally charged with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism. This has to stop! Dissent is NOT terrorism and if it were then I should expect to be taken and imprisoned on this day. The very idea that protesting or dissent is criminal is ludicrous and flies directly at the wall of freedom to crumble it. Please, I beg of you not to let this happen. This type of a stretching of the laws could tear The Constitution in half.

To me, those who are poor who skirt taxes so they can eat are not the criminals. Those billionaires who hide money in tax havens force the taxes of the poor up. They rob me, most of my friends and The People of those monies used for programs and infrastructure.

Guantanamo reared its ugly head again this week with the news about the Uyghurs. We all know that China is now a fascist state where the government is the corporation and there are no human rights to speak of. The Uyghurs are a People who wish autonomy and are our friends in our fight against Fascism. Since 9/11, Beijing would have us believe that The Uyghurs are terrorists because they don't agree with their Fascistic government. They were detained without any proof of any action or threat from them against the US. They should be allowed to be released in their region to continue their fight for autonomy or be released into the US population to be allowed to live relatively normal lives. I'm not saying you shouldn't also keep an eye on them because they could be angry after being jailed for years and for no reason but a little understanding of their plight could be helpful to us. It would be nice not to have one group completely hate us after what we've done for the last 7 years.

In January I mentioned about how closing Guantanamo is not important unless you halt the policies that went with it. The People and I know the difference. On Friday, your administration decided to keep the policies of the former administration regarding detainees in US bases. This means that detainees cannot have redress for their imprisonment or trial in the US or abroad because no external military base is part of our country or part of the country it is in. That means the prisoners are nowhere and have no rights! My friends, who I've spoken with about this, are very angry that this has been allowed to continue. The Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to hold detainees at Guantánamo Bay without giving them access to the courts and trial. I do not believe the Supreme Court meant its decision to be as narrowly defined to one base as your administration would claim and I do not wish to live in the year 1214. All people who have been detained should have a right to trial. If we do not give them that right then We The People are far worse than they and We The People are at fault since our voices have not been loud enough. We all realize the danger of allowing trial for those who would destroy us but personally I would rather die than allow The People's values to be altered. I'm sure you will find a way to protect us, and our values, very soon because the loss of those core values would mean we do not deserve protection.

We've already lost too many values, like the value of three separate but equal branches of government. In my letter last week I mentioned The People's fear of an imperial presidency and how, no matter what the costs, we must return those powers of the President and Vice President to what they were before the previous administration. Flying right in the face of those beliefs is the attempt to squelch those lawsuits that are trying to uncover the missing emails of 43 and his administration. We The People MUST know what happened and MUST have anything that will show us treasons. If indeed those missing emails are hiding treasons then withholding them is also treason and no administration should have the power to do that.

Very Sincerely yours,

Peter Lawrence