Dear Mr. Ahmadinejad,

I am glad you had a great time in New York City and would like to extend my warmth and hospitality to you in the hope that you never come back. I can tell that you had an amazing time by seeing your face, all smiles and laughter, on public television. Your two hour tangent given to the Council of Foreign Relations was probably well received in Iran, although I found it quite foolish. I am puzzled to why you were even invited and I apologize I could not attend, for two reasons; the first being I was not invited and the second, me keeping my personal preference of listening to speeches by fascist dictators to a minimum. You probably went to all your buddies back home and laughed all night about how you made a mockery of democracy in the United States. But you didn’t. In fact I think you helped strengthen the foundation of democracy by demonstrating one of its essential components, free speech and press. You see Mahmoud, (I hope you don’t mind me calling you by your first name) things are done here in the U.S. a little bit different. In the U.S. you are given the podium to say what you want. It is kind of like a natural check and balance, allowing all opinions, the majority and the minority, to be put on the table, and then sorted out. While we may not always make the best decisions, one thing is for sure; all the options are available and can be debated, thus allowing us to reach the optimal solution. In Iran it’s the very opposite. What the “Supreme Leader” says….goes. And you Mahmoud, are the puppet in the middle. So if a newspaper or a television station questions your motives or invites people to think about different opinions and options, you pull the network and ban the newspaper. Thus when you went back to Iran and bragged to your buddies how you made the western world look like a bunch of idiots, I beg to differ. What you did show was the benefits of democracy and how free speech enables people to think of the best solutions. You enabled the young Iranians of your country to ask themselves:

“Why can’t we have a podium for free speech?”
“Why can’t we talk about our nuclear program?”
“Why do we need nuclear energy when we sit on enough energy reserves to last over three hundred years?”
“Why does the government have to subsidize over half of our GDP?”
“Why do we have all this oil, yet can’t refine any of it?”
“Why doesn’t Mahmoud create an economy so he can actually use his PhD?”
“Why were our most talented and experienced professors forced into early retirement?”

In closing, I want to personally thank you Mahmoud for teaching the young Iranians of your country the benefits of democracy and free speech. You did something that we in the United States have been trying to demonstrate for years through war, trade, propaganda and a myriad of other methods. And you did it through one of the most effective teaching techniques, by example.

~Michael Pencille