Yesterday, François Hollande, the French president was
in Lyon; third biggest city of France for some French-Italian treaty. Being
from this city, it automatically affected me. Police patrols everywhere, it was
somehow quite impressive and one does not expect to see that when they get out
of their train …Then I got all excited about it, I thought that maybe I would
meet him, not like I would be “Hey sir could I shake your hand and have a
kiss?!” Being naïve enough, yes I believed I could maybe meet him and change something
in the world. A question came to my mind “what if you actually had the “chance”
to meet the president, what would you ask to him then?”
Quite honestly, I’ve been thinking about it and I
still wonder, he is just some kind of man, sure he is the French president but
what could he do for our world to change? What could he do for our country, for
France? I see it all coming, my country is just becoming desperate. When listening
to the news, I hear people dying at every corner of France, it is not like it
has never been so, but some places are more dangerous. I feel somehow useless
not being able to do anything for the world to go better, I am not an angel and
I cannot pretend to spread love and peace all around me which I would surely
love to do if I knew that I am actually this kind of person that never hates
and never talks wrong about my neighbour… I would tell him that, that I feel
useless and that there is so much that would need to be changed or just erased
and started all over again!
Dear Mister President,
I have never written any letter to a president, at
least not that important. I am a young person in this world and I am worried of
what the world is turning into.
I fear those wars in Middle East, I wonder if peoples
of Europe will be touched by what is happening there. I wonder how the people
there will survive, I think about those children that are dying in the torment
of the war, I wonder if some children will just see their parents again. When I
think about that it makes me believe I am lucky to be in France because we are
not living this but on the other hand we have our own battles, our own social
issues, death is not what we have to fight but have to fight against other demons.
I also wonder how French people will cope with this situation
we are in. You came to power less than ten months ago and maybe we should not
expect too much of the first few months. How are you going to make our country go
better, how will you fix our economy so that it still works in ten years and
more if possible. How can you ensure that people who have a job today will
still have it tomorrow?
How can you be sure that us, people of France will
still benefit of health, education and security. You said yourself during the campaign
that it was about time to change and I understand very well the fact there are
things we cannot change but there are things have been on for already too long
in our countries. Do you find that it is normal that a country like ours
requires charity association to help more and more people every year? People
cannot even pay their food anymore, they cannot live under a proper roof, they
cannot pay their bills, and how do you explain this situation? How come we do
not have work in our country anymore? Do you have some proper plan to sort it
out?
I know you are not some kind of Roosvelt president and
I know that the crisis we are now living has got nothing to do with the one we
had in the 20’s. I know the world is a complicated and sick machine and I
regret this because I believe in humanity and I believe it could be a lot
easier than it is. I am probably like any citizen of this world, I am scared of
the future, scared for my country, for the people I care about and the people I
don’t know, I am scared for our planet for the people that will be and for the
rest of us.
I wish you good luck in your task, I wish you could do
something good for all of us, something the rest of the world or at least the
French people will remember for a long time. Something that would change the
way we see our world. Make it brighter. You are not a miracle, you are just a
man but sometimes one man can do so much. I don’t believe that there can just
be a good or a bad side in someone, so I believe that you will do good and bad
but hopefully more good than bad …
I do not believe this letter will change the world,
but at least now I feel that I spoke out what was on my mind. I hope you read
well, I hope that maybe when you do something you will think about the rest of
the French population and not just think about the other politics, about the
power you have, I hope you will be aware and fair in your choices. I hope that
you will make a change.
Some citizen
