nineteen.

I watched Bush's Presidential Farewell Address last night. Let me start off by saying that I do not have anything against President Bush. I agreed with him last night when he said that I may not agree with all the decisions he has made but I have to agree that he was willing to make the hard decisions.
I believe that he has done the best job he could with all he had to deal with over the last eight years. I do not presume that I could have or would have done anything different.
My one hang up with what he said tonight was when he started to clarify what he has tried to accomplish over in Iraq and Afghanistan. He gave an entire list of positives. Then he went on to add to the list the "fact" that he has freed the oppressed over there.
I have a question for you, sir. If you are so willing to free the oppressed over in the middle east, why are you not willing to do the same for the people at your door step?
You say that you live by the words in the Holy Bible, but why have you decided that the people oppressed in other countries are more important than those oppressed right in front of you?

Isaiah 58 says:
"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday."

Now, I am not claiming to have all the answers, but those verses seem pretty simple to me. When I am seeking after God it will be when I stop pointing the finger of wickedness, feed the hungry, break down the walls that divide us from one another, and FREE THE OPPRESSED then I will find what I am looking for. When I call out he will answer "HERE I AM".

You say that you believe these words but after eight years of watching you limit the freedoms of my GLBTQA brothers and sisters, judging them with your harsh words and saying that God does not approve sounds very contradictory to me. When you seek after God you will find your creator when you stop building divisions between us, stop judging things you do not understand, and finally letting the oppressed go free.

I am standing here before you as a child of the same creator as the rest of humanity. I want to say that if you are truly seeking after God then you have to recognize that you are not fulfilling the simple requirements to find him. I say simple because once you start on the road to understanding what it means to seek after God then this list will show itself to the seeker.

I pray you find freedom soon. I pray that you take my limited understanding of scripture and find your own message from the creator. Too often the Bible has been used against the GLBTQA community, but to my knowledge it actually calls for the reaching out and inclusion of all creation. Be blessed my friends.

Yours freely,
Tennessee James