07 August 2015

Dear Mr. Stewart

A letter I wrote several years ago and never got around to sending.

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Dear Mr. Stewart,

            As a younger and more idealistic person, I wanted to make the world a better place.  Unfortunately, being young and idealistic, I made some serious errors in the attempt.  For the younger me, finding myself stuck neck deep in the various events that made up the War on Terror (among other things), the world was a very depressing place.  As a country, our attempts to alleviate one problem were creating many more.  I was not the only person to see this, but those of us who did were few and far between; the day to day was very lonely.

            For all of miserable 2005, I felt like I was the only one noticing things like Haditha and the slide of Iraq into chaos.  For my own mental well-being, I really needed to see someone speak to the problems we were facing with honesty and courage, without being a pompous bore about it.  And that was you.  (And later, Mr. Colbert.)

            You are doing a lot of good for those of us out here who are paying attention to the important things and feel like we are voices in the wilderness.  Please don't stop.

Sincerely,
Dave Witt

P.S.: Is Rob Riggle really a major in the Marines? That's awesome! I don't suppose you have any use for a burnt out Air Force captain?