I don't have the answers yet, but I have learned enough to be dangerous, and ask better questions..

Dear residents of the Red States,

Greetings from a former resident! I used to live over there, you know, first in Georgia, and then Texas. Fine places, though I had to move for business reasons in 2000 to my current residence in one of the Blue States. It's a little different here, but I've grown to love it.

I am writing this to you because basically, we need to talk. I know that in 2000 and 2004, you believed you were making a terrific choice in electing our current leadership team. I talked with many of you about it, and got such erudite reasons for your choice as:
1. His performance in the Iraq war
2. The notion that somehow a war veteran would have been a less appealing choice
3. The sense that Republican = Smart Government, Less Taxes, and More Prosperity (For Me).

Well, I have to ask you in the light of recent events to perhaps reevaluate your choice there. You might have heard this morning on the news that Michael Brown, the former head of FEMA, has been hired back as a consultant to examine the agency's response and (non) performance in the recent hurricaines. Now, Mr. Brown is, I am sure in Republican eyes, fully qualified for such a mission since he has experience in horse sales. These two things are directly related because everyone knows that people who can manage stallion sales can totally handle marshalling the appropriate disaster response strategy for the most industrialized nation on Earth.

With panache, even.

Well, then again, maybe they actually can't. Perhaps a better response than, "Let the (red) states figure out what they are going to do about a category 5 storm" was called for. Perhaps a guy with more qualifications was called for. Perhaps even if we'd had such a guy, Bush would have still undercharged the organization with funding and resources because, as everyone knows, especially with the recent loosening up of airport security, terrorism is our Number One Problem.

It's All Terror, All the Time here in the good ol' US.

I know you thought you were getting a more efficient government, too. I supported your view on that score. Our president sure wants you to have that more efficient government too. Not only is FEMA still carrying the resigned and inept Mike Brown on the payroll, they are going to pay his consulting fees as well. The reason is that his resignation hasn't officially taken effect yet. He doesn't actually work there, but he needs a paycheck, doesn't he? So, to compensate him for his great leadership of FEMA, as we have all recently witnessed (because hey, a lighter government is way more efficient), we, the noble taxpayers, get to pay his salary, not once, but twice.

That sure didn't work out like you thought it would, now did it? How did a smaller, more efficient government dream turn out this way? And right there in your own yards, too! I am sorry to see the pictures of New Orleans and Texas, and know in my heart that, damn it, we coulda' and shoulda' done better than that.

I know when you cast that vote last November, you really believed in your hearts that the liberal dream was just that - a dream. You fervently believe in the ability of faith-based organizations to take over and better handle the work formerly done by government-funded welfare organizations. That government you put in place believes the same thing you do! So they are going to reimburse the faith-based organizations for taking care of the dispossessed and disenfranchised from our recent hurricaines in your states. Our government is going to divert our tax dollars from those meddlesome and much less important needs like schools for our children, paying off the national debt, or ending the war in Iraq, and instead send it to faith-based organizations for doing the job FEMA was supposed to do, and didn't, for which we are now going to pay Mike Brown twice, while he no longer even works there.

I understand that you thought you were going to be rolling in prosperity with our Republican government. I could see how that could have motivated you to cast your vote the way you did. After all, who needs to worry about anyone else when a shot at your own prosperity is glimmering in the distant horizon? Well, I hope that little dream comes true for you, because the rest sure seems to be heading to vaporland.

I feel for you, really I do. Who knew our government would turn out to be this inept?

As for me, well, I just want to welcome you personally from over here in the blue states, and invite you to a more open dialogue on the next one. Perhaps if we work together on this sort of thing, and unite as a country rather than persist as a bunch of self-seeking renegades, we might find our way to being a healthy, prospering, and debt-free nation again.

God I hope so.

So, we sent $16 million to the Red Cross for Katrina victims from the ghettos of Los Angeles. I hope it gets there, and that you remember that even though you guys in the red states elected those idiots, we here in the blue states are always ready to help you out when you get in trouble. That's part of that liberal dream we have over here, remember?

It has its moments at times, doncha' think?

Hope to hear from you soon.

With love,

Sharon, in the Great Blue State of California