William Jefferson Clinton
President of the United States of America
The White House
Washington, D.C.

Dear President Clinton,
        I have never before undertaken to write to a president of the United States -- not because I am not interested in the affairs of this nation, quite the contrary; but considering the volume of mail that you surely receive, I have never felt to take my time to write a letter that would only be cursorily glanced at by some staff member and then filed in a bin marked "please recycle," and then a check mark placed on some tally sheet. Why then, am I taking time now to write a letter, when I need to study for a huge exam next Tuesday in my five-credit-hour Physiology 601 class at the University of Arizona? If the good Lord wants you to read this, then he will make a way. I'll leave it in His hands.
        I'm not writing to complain, which is what you are probably used to -- especially from people such as myself who have strong feelings about the properly limited role of government. I'm writing as a brother: a fellow American and sojourner on this earth at this exciting time in history. I'm writing to extend to you warm greetings. I want you to know that I can say that I love you as a brother. I have recently been impressed by the fact that God is trying to get through to you, just like he is trying to get through to all of us.
        Last night (2/2), as I watched the MacNiel/Lehrer News Hour while preparing my bachelor dinner, I was deeply impressed by not only your words but the spirit in which you said them. I think it was a commemoration of a national day of prayer or something. You read a scripture from Romans and then spoke of the need for us to humble ourselves and work for unity in a righteous cause. I cannot remember your exact words, but I do remember being struck by your humility. The posture of meekness is perhaps the most nobel, especially when its mantle is upon a world leader for whom it is so easy to let his position carry his weight rather than his acknowledgement of his dependence on Almighty God.
        I had a dream the other night that struck me as very odd at the time -- not odd because of bazaarness, as dreams can often be, but odd because it presented a situation that I would have never conceived while awake. In the dream, you were with my family on a vacation. You were being very kind to us. Remember how in the early days of your administration how you held those "Cottage meetings," showing your interested in the "common person on the street"? It seems like in my dream the reason you were with us was in that spirit of staying in touch with the lay American. We were delighted in sharing various concepts with you that we thought to be important in the governing of this great nation. You were listening, and we were growing very fond of you. In addition, you were spoiling us with various presents. We were flattered, even though we knew that they were bought with public money, for we realized that perhaps you did not have the same conviction as do we that the proper role of government does not include the redistribution of the wealth of the people. In fact I lovingly embarked on telling you a story about Davey Crocket and a speech he gave before Congress about not using public moneys for charitable causes when I awoke from the dream.
        The next day, walking into the hospital where my class is, I read the headlines from a newspaper rack announcing that you had "sidestepped" Congress in diverting funds to Mexico. Rather than feel resentment toward you, I felt love, and was able to separate my convictions about the principles of a free republic and my bond with you as a brother because of our common heritage as children of God.
        Then this evening, I stopped by a bookstore to purchase a book pertaining to the Founders of this nation of destiny. On the way there, while walking, I was reading another book (Heavenly Ways of Earth's Graduates), and I had a strong impressed that God's ministering angels are striving with you to enable you to rise to the dignified stature of a righteous statesman and fulfill the hallowed mission conferred upon you before the foundations of the earth -- and that recently they have begun to make inroads that they had not been able to previously because of pride. This book talks of how God's ministrants are not able to do anything except that the agency of man invites it through a desire of the heart, a prayer, a glance upward, even a token gesture in God's direction -- though of course their work is magnified when these gestures grow in magnitude. Even the prayers of others enable them to protect a person to a certain degree from the forces of evil, making it easier for them to accept the influences of good being presented to them.
        I feel like God has a mission for me in life, and I sometimes wonder who he has assigned to strive with me at various times. I am just a graduate student now, but I believe that God has a specific mission for everyone and rejoices whenever another person dedicates his/her life to His service. I have been deeply humbled on occasion as I have inquired who it was that assisted me during a particularly gruelling circumstance of growth. Why would little me be the recipient of individuals of such grandeur who have graduate from temporal existence but continue their work here from beyond the veil? As I think of your position, I can't help but think that there are past Presidents of the United States who desire to influence you and do exactly that as you humble yourself. Surely many, if not all of the great and righteous kings and presidents of the past, who have passed on, have had the opportunity to converse with the Creator of the world. They may have been wise in their time, but the wisdom they now possess is surely far beyond our imaginings. I don't know about you, but I am deeply humbled at the thought of some of these great individuals from times past coming to my aid at the behest of God, striving with me in ways unseen and profound. They not only do this work but glory in it and rejoice when we respond in the ways we are prompted.
        Anyway, I went to the bookstore, and they did not have the book I was looking for. But another book did catch my eye. As I flipped through it, I came to a statement by President John Adams that reminded me of your statement yesterday. Because of my limited budget, I was going to leave and wait to purchase it later perhaps, and had actually walked away from the store when I felt impressed to go back and get that book. The manager had to unlock the door, as he had closed (he had already allowed me to browse past the appointed hour). Here is the statement. I think you will find it to resonate with both the tone and the content of your message yesterday.

        "As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him, but a duty whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion of that morality and piety without which social happiness can not exist nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed; and as this duty, at all times is incumbent, is so especially in seasons of difficulty or of danger, when existing or threatening calamities, the just judgments of God against prevalent iniquity, are a loud call to repentance and reformation; and as the United states of America are at present placed in a hazardous and afflictive situation by the unfriendly disposition, conduct, and demands of a foreign power, evinced by repeated refusals to receive our messengers of reconciliation and peace, by depredations on our commerce, and the infliction of injuries on very many of our fellow citizens while engaged in their lawful business on the seas -- under these considerations it has appeared to me that the duty of imploring the mercy and benediction of Heaven on our country demands at this time a special attention from its inhabitants.
        "I have therefore though fit to recommend, and I do hereby recommend, that Wednesday, the 9th day of May next, be observed throughout the United States as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer; that the citizens of these States, abstaining on that day from their customary worldly occupations, offer their devout addresses to the Father of Mercies agreeably to those forms or methods which they have severally adopted as the most suitable and becoming; that all religious congregations do, with the deepest humility, acknowledge before God the manifold sins and transgressions with which we are justly chargeable as individuals and as a nation, beseeching Him at the same time, of His infinite grace, through the Redeemer of the World, freely to remit all our offenses, and to incline us by His Holy Spirit to that sincere repentance and reformation which may afford us reason to hope for his inestimable favor and heavenly benediction; that it be made the subject of particular and earnest supplication that our country may be protected from all the dangers which threaten it; that our civil and religious privileges may be preserved inviolate and perpetuated to the latest generations; that our public councils and magistrates may be especially enlightened and directed at this critical period; that the American people may be united in those bonds of amity and mutual confidence and inspired with that vigor and fortitude by which they have in times past been so highly distinguished and by which they have obtained such invaluable advantages; that the health of the inhabitants of our land may be preserved, and their agriculture, commerce, fisheries, arts, and manufactures be blessed and prospered; that the principles of genuine piety and sound morality may influence the minds and govern the lives of every description of our citizens, and that the blessings of peace, freedom, and pure religion may be speedily extended to all the nations of the earth.
        "And finally, I recommend that on the said day the duties of humiliation and prayer be accompanied by fervent thanksgiving to the Bestower of Every Good Gift, not only for His having hitherto protected and preserved the people of these United States in the independent enjoyment of their religious and civil freedom, but also for having prospered them in a wonderful progress of population, and for conferring on them many and great favors conducive to the happiness and prosperity of a nation." (Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1:258-60; in Clark E.D., The Grand Design: America from Columbus to Zion; Deseret Book Company, SLC, Utah, 1992, pp. 175-177.)