Madam, - I think many people in the US must be experiencing the feeling that Wordsworth once so beautifully described: "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven". - Yours, etc,
Madam, - Time will only tell whether or not President-elect Obama's pre-election promise to change the ways the US government operates comes to fruition - particularly as regards the nefarious control lobbyists exert over policy. However, one thing is clear. Americans are to be applauded for the truly historic decision to elect their first non-Caucasian president. Of course prejudice, bigotry and racism still exist in the US, as in many other countries, and the election of one man will not change everything overnight. However, the American people have surely taken a massive step towards mending the deepest and most shameful wound in their nation's history.
Even the most cynical and self-righteous right-wing commentators, such as your own columnist Charles Krauthammer, must have been moved by the sight of Jessie Jackson's tears as he listened to Mr Obama's victory speech. Those tears spoke more than any soundbite, slogan or brandished placard about the corner the US has finally turned in social and ethnic equality. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - Barack Obama's election as president of the US is truly great news. It means that change is possible, that the majority of people believe in justice and peace, that we have not become defeated by cynicism and elite power, that people do want a better, fairer society with proper wealth creation and distribution.
I am really glad that Barack Obama has been associated with radicals because that tells me that he understands how deeply flawed US politics, economics and foreign policy have become. He should therefore understand what it will take to make it right. It won't be made right by superficial symbols of change, but rather will take a sustained commitment to transform a bankrupt system in which the rich get richer and the majority get poorer, an unsustainable system of inequity that can only be partly shored up artificially by warmongering across the planet.
I hope and believe that Mr Obama will stay true to the path of economic justice, fairness and peacemaking - the path that so many people in the US and around the world want him to follow. These are great days of reaffirmation of the human spirit and of the belief that reason can overcome fear and prejudice, that we can create societies where equality can be made real and where economics serve the needs of people, rather than people serving economics. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - If Mother Teresa was right when she said that abortion was the greatest destroyer of world peace, then Barack Obama's election heralds a Def Con One situation of world danger. His record is one of uncompromising support for abortion right up to birth. Respect for human life will therefore now be weakened and unable to withstand those who live by the dictum that "might is right".
Any slight progress made against abortion during the Bush administration will now be reversed. "The creature without the creator vanishes" ( Gaudium et Spes, 1965) is a true saying and we will see the great nation of the US begin to slip beneath the waves of history. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - Senator Obama's victory has been hailed as a triumph over racism in America, but is there really a difference between the white people who refused to vote for him because of his skin colour and the African-American voters who voted for him only because of his skin colour? - Yours, etc,
Madam, - To describe John McCain's concession speech, may I adapt what Malcolm said of Cawdor in Macbeth? Nothing in his campaign became him like the leaving it. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - Very suddenly, it's OK to love America again. Boy, what a good feeling that is.
What a difference, indeed, a day makes. - Yours, etc,