Mr. President, when I watched you take the oath of office, I felt that I could feel the world shift to a better place. This summer I found through researching that my father came from the blood line of a freed slave in North Carolina, some thing that none of us even had the hint of it being true. we were always told that we were part cherokee, irish and german It explains why I never understood why people could discriminate according to race. As a white child,I could never understood why anyone would do that. I just felt that I was born too late to be a civil rights marcher, but now I do believe it was karma. I am a witch on the Wiccan path. Have always been a christian until 2006 when at the age of 52, I felt a calling to change. My talents of empathism, clairvoyance just did not seem to find answers within the christian church. Not faulting the church just explaining how I came on this path. I suddenly realised how prejudicial America is to those who are not judao christian or moslem. I had never realised this. being white, being christian (catholic) I never felt this discrimination before. I had seen it toward people of color and have always fought that. At an early age, I knew that discrimination because of race was inherently wrong. My heart rang with hope when I heard you mention "non-believers" and then to find that your sister in laws family is into Hinduism warmed my heart . I can only speak for myself. As a pagan, as a witch, as a wiccan, I do not want more freedom or more respect or more of anything. I just would like to have the freedom that christians have. To assemble without being protested. To assemble without being told that we are evil and rocks thrown at us and such. That when we are doing public service for people not to try and get the agency or the store to throw us out because we are "evil". For us to not have to still hide what we believe in on our path. And the most important is that somehow we can be respected and for it to be accepted as a valid belief. Your predecessor did not. He said wicca was not a religion. I h ave been republican all of my life, but when he said that I knew that it was time to search for hope. And in you I found that hope. We are tired of being maligned by the media, by hollywood, by preachers by people who read the bible and do not seek to see beyond it. Depending on their path, witches do not believe in the devil. So therefore we do not worship something we do not believe in. Many of us see the Lord and Lady that we follow to be simply other names used by different people for the same deity that the Jews followed. Many of us see them also as aspects of One God. The Divine Being who created this universe and whose name, whose real name is unknown by any of us. That the Lord and Lady are simply male and female aspects of God who is like the most beautiful diamond in the world that could have been created but which also has many many different aspects and sides. So yes, I would ask for you to do what you can to improve our world. Both for us, for others, for the planet. And to please, acknowledge that not all people who believe in a Creator Being is christian. Thank you for allowing me this chance to talk to you. My husband was proud to serve 21.5 years in the army. And the last 16 years as a chaplain assistant in the army. Our son is a submariner in the Navy at the present time. Humbly Yours