Watermark: Dear President-Elect Obama:

Let's have these again. Minus the fireplace. (Maybe a solar-powered atrium. Maybe the Oval Office.)

Forget the weekly radio broadcasts; or, don't forget them, but make them weekly television programs and video podcasts. [I will confess right here that I have never, not once, listened to the President's weekly radio broadcast.] These should be long enough to contain substance; perhaps one half-hour each.

You will be too busy to do one every week -- at least, one worth doing -- but you could do one each month, and have surrogates do the others. They might speak to whatever is timely, in the economy, or foreign policy, or new programs for health care and education.

The point would be to educate and update the citizens on what the government is doing; what the reasoning is for such action; and the anticipated obstacles and goals. The presentations must not be partisan. They must be from the position of governance and information, not persuasion.

Yes, tricky, I know.

But these surrogates should not be experts in talking points; they must be willing and able to present content, context, and transparency. Perhaps they might even answer questions submitted by viewers; if not immediately, then within a few days in writing. Pick, say, the five major 'themes' of the questions, and respond to those, and perhaps the occasional amusing outlier. I'm guessing that both Colin Powell and Michelle Obama would be good at this, but I'm sure you have access to many talented people who could pull this off, as a service to the nation.

But you, as President, should speak to the larger and more fundamental, issues. It has become painfully -- dangerously -- apparent that much of our population is almost completely unfamiliar with our founding documents: The Declaration of Independence; The Constitution; The Bill of Rights. And these, luckily, are your particular area of expertise, as well as where we most, I think, need leadership and clarification.

What binds us together as a people (or should) is not shared religion, or shared ethnicity, or even a shared language. What binds us together is the ideas and ideals expressed in these documents. These great achievements in idealism and pragmatism; structure and flexibility. But when many of us do not know these documents, the binding becomes frayed. We do not stand together; we fall apart; we are easily divided.

What I imagine is a real-time lesson on history, current affairs, and our Constitution. There are no links to our original documents on the CHANGE.GOV site; there should be. Maybe one of the first requests you make of us should be to read them, even before asking us to change our light bulbs or volunteer for service.

I am not suggesting a dry course on early documents. I am suggesting that you present whatever issue is most current, most insistent -- and help us understand how we, as Americans, might go about addressing them -- with reference to what makes us Americans. A sort of sneaky course on what America means, has been, might become.

These presentations should be so good -- like the Edge presentations -- that no school feels compelled to require their use in classrooms. Students and teachers will want to use them. Citizens will want to know what's in them. Young people will send them back and forth on YouTube and Facebook.

The government, and the governors, have drifted far from the people. I believe this can change. I believe that you can be a part of our lives, and we can be a part of yours in more than a philosophical way. You have led me to believe this.

I think that this regular contact might be one way to accomplish it.

In admiration and respect,

Sharon Brogan
Citizen of the United States of America