A response from the White House

Today, September 16, I received a note from Melissa S. Bennett, Deputy Assistant to the President for Appointments and Scheduling:

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Dear Mr. Feuerstein:

Thank you for your letter inviting President Bush to meet with you.

Unfortunately, we have had to make some difficult decisions regarding the President's schedule. It is with sincere regret that we must decline your invitation. I want to assure you, however, that your letter received every consideration. Thank you for your understanding.

The President sincerely appreciates your thoughtfulness in writing and sends his best wishes.
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Hmmm. Now that is a little bit odd. Certainly, the President's schedule must be an awesomely complicated and full thing with which to deal. But I set no timeframe for the meeting. Surely he has an open spot or two in, say, February 2007?

Well, I probably didn't make clear enough that I was very flexible as to time and place for a meeting. So I will call Ms. Bennett on Monday to make sure she is fully aware of how easy I want to make setting up this meeting.

Someone didn't like my idea....

I received this email from a person who really didn't seem to appreciate my efforts to meet with the President. I have removed his name and offer it to you so you can hear "all sides" on this "issue." His comments are in italic, responses to my original posting.

Subject: If I were GWB, I would not meet you

I want to meet face to face with my president, with the man to whom I have vested enormous authority over me and my family, in exchange for a fine quality of life and physical security.

The man has a pretty full schedule, are you bringing something to the table? An issue perhaps?

I want to meet with President Bush and see what sort of man he is. Does that sound like an outlandish thing to want to do? Do I sound disrespectful? I don't see why you should feel that way.

I am an American citizen. I pay taxes (lots of them, in fact) and those taxes pay the salary of the President, and everyone else in government. In that sense, I and millions of others are President Bush's boss.

Congratulations on being a tax paying citizen. Do illegal residents get to demand a meeting with the legitimate, elected leader of the most powerful (and complex) nation in the history of the planet too? You and I are his boss in the same sense that a Viacom shareholder is Sumner Redstone's boss. Are we going to arrange these meetings based on tax payments? Sumner probably gets to go ahead of us

Since this is a democracy, some believe the greatest the world has ever known, our leaders are or should be accountable to us.

Every 4 years, in the case of the executive branch

The President is not a King. We do not have a monarchy in which the Glorious Leader cannot be questioned. We, very fortunately, do not live in a nation in which it is a crime to meet the eye of the President (an act punishable by death in some monarchies in the past).

I can't prove it, but I would bet the farm on Iraqis having died for lesser infractions under the Hussein regime. He wasn't a king either.

It should not be difficult for an American citizen to meet with President Bush, especially if that citizen is ready to fly anywhere in the country to attend such a meeting.

300,000,000 million citizens You don't work in logistics, I'm also willing to bet.

I want to sit down with President Bush and have a simple conversation between two human beings. I would like to know things like....

Is he sharp as a whip, eager to take me on in debate on the major issues of the day? What better way to test one's ideas, to celebrate the power of the freedom of speech?

Does he exude the sort of gravity, a weightfulness, that a man with the future of the world on his shoulders (at least more than any other single human) would naturally acquire?

Probably not, since he can interrupt his day to meet with you.

Does he seem respectful of those around him, particularly those who serve him?

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/birdwell.htm

Is he truly compassionate? It is easy to say you care, quite another to really mean it and act on it.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/angel.asp

I want to see for myself, because from what I can tell from his appearances on television and the occasional quotation in the newspapers (the only ways that I have been able to experience the President directly, to date) it seems quite possible that George W. Bush is, in fact, a sorry excuse for a President. If I met him and was able to experience his integrity first hand, I might be less troubled by his apparent trampling on the Constitution and the principle of the separate of powers.

I have no idea what you are talking about here. Is there a specific issue or is this just mental diarrhea on your part?

If I met him and was able to feel his compassion, I might be less horrified by the agony his policies have caused the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of human beings.

Glad to hear you don't have an agenda.

So I am going to call the White House on Monday, August 7, and ask for an appointment with the President. At his convenience, his choice of location. I will chronicle my efforts to meet with the President in this blog.

Now, just so we are entirely clear on what I want to accomplish, I need to spell out my requirements for this meeting. Clearly, if I only am given five minutes to shake his hand and make small talk, I will not be able to take the measure of this man.

So here are the minimum requirements for my meeting (hopefully they sound reasonable to you):

• The meeting should last at least a half hour. (17,000+ years to give one to everybody)
• We don't have to be alone (I am certain that will not be allowed), but those others present should be silent observers. I want to be able to talk with my President directly and without intermediaries.
• We must treat each other with the respect due to fellow, equal citizens of our wonderful nation. We are all equal under the law, aren't we? Under the law and only under the law.
• The meeting can be recorded. In fact, I would encourage the media to attend. (I'm sure you would)

Ah, I bet that some of you are now thinking to yourself: so this is just some grandstanding by another commie-pinko-liberal-radical-tree-hugger, out to embarras the President.

Yup. Nice spell check ya got there pal.

Not at all!

Taurus feces.

I believe that a critical element of a successful, working and thriving democracy is openness and transparency. I have nothing to hide in a conversation with my President. Why would he have anything to hide from me? He surely is not going to divulge any secret information to me.

Openness and transparency Want a quick tour of the NSA/CIA/DIA etc as well? I'm sure you're not a believer in "need to know", but our people in bad places, with their lives on the line, probably do believe in it. I'm sure they appreciate that you understand that when he meets with you he'll keep the Top Secrets under his hat.

So that is my plan. I start on Monday. I will let you know how it goes. And I encourage you to do the same: ask for a meeting with the President, your President, our #1 Public Servant.

You have poor reasoning skills, as well as a whiny, self-centered world view. I'm sure you think that you're a world class humanitarian and man of the people, so why not put that ego to use and join a campaign to better the world. Or, just keep complaining. If you cry long enough, Mommy will bring you your bottle.