Dear Mr. Vice President,

Thank you for your lifetime of dedicated service to this country. Be it the Vietnam War, the House of Representatives, the US Senate, the Vice Presidency, or your current role as an advocate for righting the wrongs of mankind’s abuse of this planet, you have given your strength and intelligence to this country throughout the course of your adult life and as a young American I thank you for doing everything in your power to hand my generation as great a nation as possible.

I believe we have reached a pivotal point in this nation’s history. We have suffered through eight years of unprincipled, irresponsible leadership and a brand of toxic politics that I and many other young Americans find reprehensible. I’ve come to the conclusion that the forthcoming presidential election is too important to sit on the sidelines for.

I would like to take this opportunity to respectfully urge you to endorse Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States. It is my feeling that Senator Obama will provide the kind of principled leadership we need to guide this nation through the rest of this decade and into the future. I for one am tired of living in 51/49 nation. I believe Senator Obama posses a unique ability to bring Americans of different walks of life together behind a common cause greater than themselves. It is my earnest belief that an Obama presidency will forever erase the stigma attached to the word “liberal,” ushering in a golden age for progressive ideals and principles. I plan on doing everything I can to make sure this man is elected President. It is my sincerest hope that you Sir will join me, and millions of other Americans of varying ages, ethnicities, and creeds in seeing to it that this opportunity to give this country the future it deserves is not squandered.

Respectfully,
Michael Fitzsimmons

Dear Vice President Gore,

I am writing, first of all, to say thank you. The grace, courage, and good humor that you have shown in the intervening years since the your loss in 2000 has been an inspiration to me personally and so many others. To know that you have overcome such a profound disappointment through more civic engagement rather than choosing to withdraw yourself from the process has moved me to do the same - to beat back my cynicism and fight for my beliefs, to fight for this country. You crystallized the necessity of this engagement for me in your staggering documentary about climate change, An Inconvenient Truth. You said that we cannot simply move from the pole of ignorance to the pole of despair about the human correlation to the warming planet, that if we skipped over the intermediate step, we would miss the opportunity to reform at our own peril. Paraphrasing the late Carl Sagan you said in the film, “You see that pale, blue dot? That’s us. Everything that has ever happened in all of human history, has happened on that pixel. All the triumphs and all the tragedies, all the wars all the famines, all the major advances… it’s our only home. And that is what is at stake, our ability to live on planet Earth, to have a future as a civilization. I believe this is a moral issue, it is your time to cease this issue, it is our time to rise again to secure our future.”

That moral urgency is felt more deeply by each passing day, while production and consumption habits march on unaltered. As you highlight in your documentary, we must reduce our carbon emissions by 50 to 80 percent within the next four decades if we are to avoid the catastrophic consequences of the changing climate. And yet, despite this obvious call to action, we lack the appropriate coalition to do so. We cannot afford another four or even eight years of inaction, and as the wealthiest country and largest consumer nation in the world, the imperative to lead on this issue could not be more clear.

Today in Denver, I saw a man who understands the stakes of these next crucial years - of the call to action. At 8:30 AM on a Wednesday, Barack Obama brought more than 10,000 Coloradoans from up and down the state to fit into an arena that holds less than 7,000. Judging by who I met during our two hours as line buddies in the bitter cold, Mr. Obama is capable of enlarging the party and building a coalition for change. As he said today, “It’s time for new leadership so my daughters and your children don’t grow up at a time when our economy is weighed down by the addiction to oil and our planet passes a moment of no-return. I won’t wait to do something about global warming — it is a cause of a generation.” He is drawing young people like myself into this process in a way that no one could predict was possible. His forward thinking, structuralist arguments for reform on any number of issues - climate change, technology and innovation, genocide and instability - make the substantive case that he is the Democratic candidate most able to transform our politics and America’s face to the world. Any other choice is sure to result in the same old math, a 51 percent solution that will not be a mandate for change, and certainly not in consideration of the broad consensus necessary to act on climate change, among other issues.

Your generation marched on Washington seeking equal opportunity and civil rights, rejecting the politics of “Father Knows Best” and organized in hopes of attaining a seat and a voice at the bargaining table. Now you have one, arguably the most important one left to be heard, while my generation - silent for too long - is now awakening to Obama’s call. To say nothing and hedge so as to avoid being on the wrong side of history shows none of the moral courage you have asked of each and every one of us.

Vice President Gore, I urge you to endorse Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee. You have called upon us - now we call upon you.

Signed,

Scott Heiser
Denver, Colorado

Since the 2006 release of An Inconvenient Truth, the public face of global climate change has been Al Gore. Your reputation and standing on this issue has only been enhanced and validated by winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Through your diligent and tireless effort in addressing the most pressing issue of this century, you have been rewarded with an immeasurable amount of clout and political capital. Unlike hard currency, however, political capital is worthless unless it is spent. American politics at times is a very virulent process, and it is perfectly reasonable to argue that non-involvement is the best way to maintain the positive image you have constructed around global climate change.

Non-involvement in the 2008 election process, however, represents a complete abdication of the right to maintain leadership on the issue of global climate change. I strongly urge you to publicly endorse the candidacy of Barack Obama for the Presidency of the United States of America. No matter how sophisticated and progressive a certain policy might be in its inception, it is useless unless there is strong leadership to lobby on behalf of and implement said policy. There are few issues that are as important and divisive as addressing global climate change. Moving forward on this issue, the United States of America needs leadership from an individual who takes principled stands as opposed to taking a position that is politically expedient; who has the perceived ability to work across party lines; and who has the ability to inspire the American people that it is in their interest to address climate change.

As you know, addressing global climate change does not just require proper American leadership at home, but strong international leadership. In the last decade, the United States has faced a growing credibility problem throughout the world. I offer a unique perspective on this phenomenon. Since 2001, I have permanently lived abroad and become a young member of academia. Despite this fact, I do not consider myself an expatriate, in fact living abroad has only strengthened my position on the need of positive American leadership in the world. With the election of Barack Obama in November 2008, in an instant, the global attitude towards the United States will change. The parochialism that has dominated this perspective since 1993 will immediately cease to exist and the United States again will be able to inspire the world in the legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and John F. Kennedy.

Leading the world in protecting our planet requires credibility and trust, not vehemence and suspicion; it requires principled decision making, not decisions driven by polls and election cycles; it requires pragmatic idealists, not ideologic pragmatists; it requires a genuine international perspective, not one based on advancing political ambitions; and it requires the ability to inspire, not breed more cynicism. Of the candidates seeking the highest office in our country this year, only one possesses these necessary attributes: Barack Obama. The title “Nobel Laureate” carries great power and responsibility. With this power, you have the ability to fundamentally have an impact on who will lead the United States and the world in the coming years. Only one question remains: “What action would best forward the cause of combatting global climate change, hoarding political acumen resulting in a perceived vacillation in leadership, or spending political capital and taking a principled position?” As a fellow citizen of the United States and of the only planet we have, I urge you to publicly endorse Barack Obama.

Dear Mr. Gore,

I am writing you as a 30 year old man who himself has always identified with the Republican Party, and at the same time feels moved, inspired, and that it’s his duty to do everything he can to make sure Barack Obama is the next President of the United States.

I feel that your endorsement of him will literally put this man over the top in his fight against Hillary Clinton, and eventually in his fight against the Republicans to become the President. You have achieved a level in your party and in this country of one of the most iconic figures in some time. Your non-partisan fight against Global Warming on Capital Hill should be the future blueprint on how politics is done in this country, as well as a humanitarian blueprint on how to bring social and economic awareness to one of the biggest dangers this world has ever seen.

I have never voted Democrat. Not even for you, sir. For that, I’m sorry, but you won NJ anyway, so in the long run, it doesn’t really matter. Barack has inspired me to change my affiliation. Going against my family, a lot of my friends, and the very Republican community I live in. It’s a small price to pay to do something I truly believe in.

So, in my first letter ever to a political figure, I’m asking you to endorse the Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama for President of the United States.
I hope this finds you well, sir.
Sincerely,

Michael DeSilver