What is Washboard Express?

Washboard Express is a way for me to express my own opinions, to be a provocative gadfly, by writing a "letter a day" to the President. I may miss a day here and there, because sometimes my family with be my first priority, but my goal is to write a total of 365 letters, representing one full year. To say I have opinions about most things would be to understate the obvious. Those of you that know me, know this is true, those who don't know me, will learn that it's true. The Washboard is a reference to going back to basics and "keeping it clean," so if you would like me to post your comments or opinions on this blog, I only ask that you be respectful. So go ahead, express yourself, and I look forward to an exchange of ideas and opinions.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Day 37...Dear President Obama...Kicking a Dead Horse


Day 37

Dear Mr. President,

First I want to tell you what a privilege it is to be able to write a letter directly to you and know that it will be read by someone on your staff. Perhaps some day, one of my letters may even reach your desk. I know you receive hundreds and thousands of letters every day and that you are given only 10 of those letters. While that may not seem like many letters considering the volume you receive, I don’t know of anyone who receives and answers even 10 letters a day, so I’m not complaining.

The reason I bring this up in the first place, is because this is my 37th letter that I have sent to the White House and posted to my Blog… www.washboardexpress.com. I do this for a number of reasons, but one reason that never even occurred to me was, who might be reading them.

I assumed that friends and family would occasionally check them out, and probably say to themselves… ‘Well, she’s at it again, ranting from her soapbox and kicking a dead horse’. That’s just how my family is… kind of like cats, independent and hard to control, but they’re family and I love them in spite of their cynicism.

What I am discovering, and had not considered, are the readers from around the world that may be interested in what an ordinary citizen would write to their President. Since I have only been doing this for a little over a month, I was astonished to see from my stats that I have readers in other countries besides the U.S. Some may even be Americans just wondering what’s happening at home, but I like to think that they are citizens of the countries that they are in. I have readers from Australia, Germany, Malaysia, the Ukraine, Russia, Denmark, Thailand, India, Turkey, and Chile… so far.

It’s good for people from other countries to see that we can send letters to our President without the fear of being arrested, detained, imprisoned, tortured or even shot for disagreeing, and at times, even chastising our President. I don’t even worry about my family being in danger because of what I write or what I believe… now that’s what it really means to be living in a FREE country.

In essence Mr. President, I guess I’m not only speaking for myself, but billions of people around the world that may not have the freedom to disagree with their government or their leaders, and for that I am grateful. They may be reading and watching to see if anything happens to the “Gadfly Granny”… curious to see if an ordinary citizen can make a difference by writing just one letter a day to her President.

So, like my family says… it may be like kicking a dead horse to write a letter every day, but this is my horse and I’ll kick it if I want too… that’s what it means to live in America… to do what you want without fear or repercussions for saying what’s on your mind… so I’ll keep on writing, if you’ll keep on reading.

Most Respectfully,

Your Gadfly Granny

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