[Newspoetry] Newspoem--Dear America

[Robert Porter]

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/28/national/28BUSH-TEXT.html

Dear America,
by President George W. Bush
 

Dear America, 

Thanks for your recent letter.  You sure ask a lot of questions.  I usually
don't answer letters by myself, but Ari says I should give it a try.  He
says I should just be myself, and not go into a lot of boring detail.

So here goes. 

Let me start with the first of your questions, which was what? I've already
forgotten. 

Oh, the tape, yes. I didn't watch it all. I saw snippets of it on TV. You
know, who knows when it was made.  So we don't know whether he's in a cave
with the door shut or a cave with the door open.  We just don't know.
There's all kinds of reports and all kinds of speculation.  And we also know
that we're on a hunt. And he knows that we're on a hunt. And I like our
position better than his.
  
I don't spend a lot of time looking in the mirror, except when I comb my
hair. And you know, listen, I give you a hint, I liked coming to the ranch
before September the 11th; I like coming to the ranch after September the
11th. 

I have had no contact with Enron officials in the last six weeks. Do I think
the government ought to help what now?  I think it's very important for us
to fully understand the whys of Enron, and there'll be plenty of
investigations. 
 
In Afghanistan, well, the Taliban gone, the country's secure, the country's
stable, that, you know, al-Qaida cells rounded up. Taliban fighters, you
know, brought to justice; the over 6,000 troops -- prisoners being held,
prisoners of war being held by our allies, interrogated, fingerprinted.

Dead or alive is fine with me.
 
And you don't need to worry about whether or not we're going to get him,
because we are, and it's just a matter of time. I mean, you know, I've read
reports where he dyed his hair red. That's not going to stop us from finding
him. 
 
I am going to -- I would have gotten up and run three or four miles this
morning, which I'll probably do that this afternoon. I'm going to take Tommy
around to show him parts of the ranch. But if Tommy weren't here, I'd be
working down there, a little chain saw work, clearing some brush, burning
some brush. 

We're making some great progress in one of our -- one of the bottom areas
that was heretofore relatively inaccessible. One of these days, I'll take
you down there. It's a beautiful place. It's a Bodark grove, Bodark trees.
It's a native tree, real hard wood, that grows these giant green kind of
apple-looking things, but it's -- I'll spend time doing that. And then this
afternoon, it gets dark here about 6 -- at about 5:30, and so I'll probably
watch the University of Texas football tonight.
 
Tree plant, very good, my senior staff gave me a beautiful oak, a 10-inch
oak, and we planted it right outside the house. It's a -- I haven't written
my thank-you note yet, so I'll give them a verbal -- thanks for the tree.
It's a -- it is a beauty.
 
Did a little fishing yesterday, by the way, not very successful. Water's
cold, the fish are at the bottom; they're not biting very much. But just the
fact that I was able to fish was a nice treat.

Well, that's about it, America.  Hope that answers your questions.

George W. Bush
The President