Dear Mr. President:

It seems as if you are trying to destroy our country, as much as I hate to think that.

I hear, for example, that your immigration officers are disobeying a court order requiring them to allow attorneys to have access to the Green-card holders you have ordered detained. Where is your respect for the law, sir? Shouldn’t you be directing those in the Executive Branch to comply with court orders, pending full litigation of whether you are acting within the Constitution?

I know that you have demoted from the National Security Council the two people whose advice you need the most: the Direction of National Intelligence and the Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. How can you possibly expect to get good advice when the people with the most knowledge are relegated to second-class status? You will call them in if you need them? You won’t know that you need them until it’s too late. And, if and when you call them in, how are they supposed to give you pertinent advice when they haven’t heard everything you’ve heard?

It’s not only your arrogance that upsets me. It’s that, combined with your non-existence regard for performing your duties to all citizens. It’s your obvious view that you feel the presidency is some personal toy that you’ve earned. It’s you lining up your plastic toy soldiers and making them jump when you feel like it and knocking them down when you feel like it and throwing them into your toy bin when you feel like it. It’s you having a tantrum if your toys don’t worship you.

Mr. President, the office you hold is not your personal toy.

Yours in despair,

Bruce J. Berger