Dear Mr. Thomas.

I have been a very big fan of yours for a few years now. I always saw you an an underdog compared to other NHL players and I always wanted you to do well. You can imagine how happy I was when you finally won the Cup this past June, and when the rest of the hockey world finally gave you the respect I’d felt you’d deserved for years. You inspired me to keep working at my goals and dreams, and you made me proud to be an American hockey fan.

What you did today, however, has not only embaressed me, but made me question your character for the firstt ime since you joined the NHL.

One of the most incredible things about America is that we’re a country full of people who are extremely diverse in our beliefs and ideas, but extremely similar in the way we show our passion for those beliefs and ideas. Our right to be able to think and say what we want is not unqiue in the western world, but it is still something we cherish and pride ourselves in. We sometimes get a bad rap with people from other countries, as you probably know. You played in Finland for a season, and I live there now. Finns like Americans, but even they acknowledge that we can be pretty rude. It’s a stereotype I like to tell myself isn’t true.

What you did today, in front of the entire United State of America and the entire hockey world, made us look rude, disrespectful, and inconsiderate.

I’ve never done anything important enough to be recognized by the President, but if I did, and he invited me to the White House, I would go. On the last day of George W. Bush’s presidency, I threw a party. I was so displeased with the way he ran our country that I actually told a few people I was Canadian when I’d meet foreigners. However, if he’d invited me to the White House, and wanted to acknowledge an amazing thing that I’d done, i would have gone. I’m a mature adult who understands that putting personal beliefs aside to what’s right is more important than trying to make some kind of a statement.

You’re an American-born player who plays for an American team that won the Stanley Cup. Out of everyone on the entire team, YOU should be the most gracious and respectful towards a President that’s taken time out of running the country that you were born and still live in to honor what YOU’VE achieved.

You put political beliefs above your team, and that’s not what hockey is about.

Today, i lost respect for you as a person. It’s not because we have different political views, because you have a right to your opinion, but because you couldn’t find it in yourself to be the bigger man and say “thank you” to someone you disagree with when all theyw ere tyring to do was a nice thing. It makes me question how you’d treat a fan, like me, if I wanted you’re autograph and I was wearing an Obama t-shirt.

Respect for your fellow man should always come before your political beliefes. You let me down today, and while I’ll still cheer you on when you’re on the ice, I will never look at you off-ice the same way again. You expressed your rights, but you went about it the absolute wrong way, and I just can’t look past that.

Your disheartened fan,
Felicia Prehn