​As America continues to struggle with our terrible problems of racist & anti-Semitic behaviors, I am inclined to write a letter to GOD asking for HIS or HER help. Frankly, while I am not an atheist, I am a doubter of the existence of GOD. But given that GOD might exist, I believe it would be worth the time and effort to ask for GOD’S help on this issue. To that end, this would be my letter to GOD.
 
Dear GOD:
 
Needless to say, I know you are aware of our world's history as it relates to the hatred of Jews and to America’s history as it relates to racial bigotry. Once again, it would appear that anti-Semitism has begun to arise in my America. As for racism, throughout most of our American history that began in 1492, people of color have experienced a legally accepted racial bigotry that began in the 16th century. First came slavery that lasted for about three centuries. Next came segregation that continued for another century. Finally, in the 1960s, racism as a legally accepted practice, was ended, but racism, as a practical matter, continued to be practiced in many different areas in our country, and to this day, despite the progress America has made in dealing with racism, the fact remains that a significant number of Americans of Caucasian background still believe that people with dark skin are less qualified as humans than those of the Caucasian or white race, and these same people believe that America should still, as in the past, be controlled by the Caucasian or white race.
 
Now GOD, if you do exist, the belief held by those who believe in you is that you have created all of us humans. And given that science shows we humans are pretty much 99% the same in our physical being with skin color being literally the only difference, we need your help in bringing all of us humans around to accept this reality and to finally rid ourselves of these passions of racism and anti-Semitism that have done so much to tear our American nation apart.
 
So here is my prayer. I call upon you to speak to all of your dedicated American religious leaders, your priests, your ministers and pastors, your rabbis, Muslim clerics, and other religious leaders of every persuasion to come together as a unified group to demand, while standing next to each other in a public setting, that each and every member of their individual religious groups cease their godless ways and begin immediately to work for a better America that accepts the equality of each and every human no matter their race, religion or ethnicity. I call upon you to lead your flocks on a path that will accept and recognize what our terrible history of racism has done to our African American communities throughout our country; what we need to do to repair this fissure within our nation, and the real time that it will take before this problem is fully fixed.
 
I thank you GOD for taking the time to read my letter and I hope that you will, by your actions, give me a reason to finally accept your existence.

​What am I missing? I find myself listening to debates among our political leaders and our journalists regarding our national debt, and I never hear anyone suggesting that, perhaps, my fellow Americans might learn something from our former president Dwight Eisenhower.
 
Back in 1954, Eisenhower made a decision to work hard to repair, where necessary, and expand our aging national infrastructure of roads and bridges. Naturally, one of the main obstacles he envisioned for his idea was the cost for such an enterprise that our nation would face. His solution to the problem? Just as our fellow Americans, nearly one and all, arose to the challenge of World War II by joining the military if one was young enough and physically capable of doing this, by joining the many American volunteer associations like our Victory Garden groups that would make a difference in all of our communities throughout our country, Eisenhower called upon all Americans to increase payments into our federal tax fund based upon what they could afford.
 
And so it began. The wealthy, through what was known as an increase in the top tax bracket, increased their tax payments to about a total of 36 percent of their earnings. And the solution to our infrastructure problem was accomplished in more than just one way. Yes, we did significantly improve our national roads and bridges, but we also created millions of jobs for our lower- and middle-class fellow Americans, and in the end, the wealthy remained wealthy.
 
Compare the Eisenhower years of the 1950s with America today. The wealthy in our country are found to be paying even less than 20 percent of their earnings into our federal tax funds, less than 1 percent of our citizens are a part of our military compared to the 11 percent who fought for us in the 1940s, and we are more and more showing ourselves to be a divided states of America rather than a United States of America.
 
History can be an important tool for learning and for the method of seeking solutions to current problems that mirror challenges we have faced in the past. I remain hopeful that my America will learn well from our history in a way that will have us doing what is necessary to keep us on the right track.

​I love my country, my United States of America, warts and all. Yep! We do have quite a wonderful history. But my problem? In my opinion, too many of my fellow Americans seem completely unaware of our internal warts and cancers that we have also created and failed to treat in an effort to make us an even better nation.
 
Think about it. Yes, we have had glorious successes as a nation, but we continue to be a country with the highest homicide rates on earth, the largest prison populations, the lowest numbers for healthcare for our lower- and lower-middle-class citizens, the ever-widening financial gap between our wealthy and poor to middle class citizens, and more. How about our many African American communities? With our American history of 300 years of slavery and 100 years of segregation followed to this day by racism – among a minority of us, it's true, but still too many of our citizens – who can explain why my America has never once sat down as a community to help cure the difficult problems found in African American communities, problems that were created by my America?
 
Where do we go from here, from this day forward? Some are arguing that we have to expand our military as if we are not still the most powerful nation on earth. But in my opinion, we have already tried to do what every other great power before us failed to do, and we apparently have learned little to nothing from our experiences in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. To put it bluntly, if the British Empire could not overcome our founding 13 colonies, what makes us think we can be the police officer for the world?
 
I believe that my America should be leading not with power, but by example. Let us return to the community we were in the 1940s when we all came together to overcome the challenges brought on by the Nazis and their allies. Let us return to the days when the poor and the middle class worked hard on behalf of us all and when the rich and wealthy did the same and paid their fair share into our tax funds so that my America could afford to pay for the solutions that carried us forward.
 
I love my country, my United States of America, warts and all. I’ll love my country even more when my American community cures our internal warts and cancers.