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An open letter to the Obamas

Dear President Barack H. Obama and Mrs. Michelle R. Obama,

Your time in the White House and leadership of our country has been a period of elevation in our history and led to enlightened actions and an atmosphere of acceptance. You have celebrated the best of human nature and led by example, and I am truly grateful for the progress you have provided to me, my family and our country.

The opportunity to volunteer in my community of Carbondale, Colorado, on the Western Slope, to work on the campaigns of 2008 and 2012 and then 2016, and gubernatorial and senatorial campaigns, as well, was a great experience that connected me to members of my community, and we came out enthusiastically to support your campaigns, and Hillary’s as well as Bernie Sanders’.



Now we are challenged with another mind set and atmosphere that seems a return to a less tolerant and very regressive world view. Those members of my community who believed in and benefited from your principles and powerful voices are searching for the path forward, to stand and protect that momentum and the light that came from it.

The difficult realization that many others did not experience the same positives, caught up in the aftermath of wars, devastating results of the financial and housing scandals and changing dynamics of cultural shifts, is a place to start to formulate a different way forward.




With other activists I am connecting and reflecting on these and other issues.

We will dig deep and find solutions to the uncomfortable place we find ourselves in, of living under leadership that does not reflect our beliefs and values and the potential of highly negative consequences for so many here and elsewhere.

There are those who believe in the value of the resources of water, the fragile network of species that create and support our food sources, the resource of internal human energy and its essential role in all human activity, and those ancient characters of “fate” and “justice” that play such a great part in the course of human evolution. Inspiration and creativity are valuable resources to protect going forward; it allows air to move through a culture. You have been supporters of that along with your other endeavors.

My husband and I and our shared family of seven daughters have been the beneficiaries of your steady and compassionate vision of the world.

Our heartfelt appreciation for that is sent on to you both and your family.

With deep admiration and respect, warm wishes for your future.

Charmaine Locke

Carbondale