Thank you so much for your eloquently stated position on the war and this administration’s politics.  The following letter was sent to my local congressman, to California Senators Boxer and Feinstein.  Only Feinstein responded and the response was embarrassing.  To put it clearly…Senator Byrd is right on…the Senate is silent on this issue…even with their own constituents.   Please feel free to use the thoughts in this letter in any way you choose.

Dated, February 12, 2003

AN OPEN LETTER TO OUR NATION’S LEADERS AND CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES:

This letter was composed after my 8 year old Grandson asked me:

“Grandmother, how long does a war usually last?”

Why am I unable to explain to this child that we can trust our national leaders and congressional representatives to act in his best interest…that he has no reason to worry about his future?  Frankly, my heart aches because I know why I struggle to give him comfort.

This letter of opposition to this Administration’s proposed actions at home and abroad is truly from Middle America.  I am a 60 year old, white, middle class, rural-residing, professional, middle-income business owner, wife, mother, sister, sister-in-law and grandmother of three.  While I have never registered formal protest before, I can no longer remain silent, hoping that conscience and good judgment will prevail.  I have to ask, has the intelligence, reasoning and moral conscience of our elected leaders gone into hiding?  Fear of retribution has silenced many otherwise strong-minded, intelligent, Middle Americans.  It is now time that we speak out.  I trust it is not too late.

By design, the use of political language today controls and directs the thinking of the masses in this Country.  Beyond the more innocent concepts of “Right” and ”Left,” it is time we stop giving credence to and excusing immoral and/or criminal action, wherever it may occur, through assignment of political terms, phrases and labels.

· The use of the term “terrorist” assigns political sanction to ideological action and provides national leaders an excuse for reactive political and military action.  The people who killed 3000 were criminals…plain and simple.  Their actions are not a reason for a nation to bully, destroy, or go to war to kill innocent people, whether the innocent are civilian or military.

· The use of the label “homeland security” assigns political sanction and a ready excuse for reactive political and ill-based government actions.  Any administration that would single out individuals and groups by their ethnic and religious affiliations is socially irresponsible and criminal in action.

· The use of the label “preemptive strike” assigns political sanction to unlawful military action.  The administration that would kill tens of thousands on foreign soil for oil is, likewise, criminal in action.

· The use of the term “patriot” is used to question the love and loyalty of individuals for their country as they exercise their right to dissent against any war that promotes personal agendas and personal and business gain.

· The use of the label “good Christian men” prevents honest and trusting people from looking deeper into the moral fiber and personal, financial and commercial interests of our national leaders, thereby overlooking unlawful and immoral action in the name of a Nation.

· “Corporate conscience” implies that there is a separate moral code for business that grants permission to corporate officers to “skim the cream,” defraud their employees and investors, and to financially support political candidates and influence political actions that promote their corporate presence.  Their political support allows them to expect, in return, that their actions will be sanctioned by those same political interests.

· “Borrowing from Social Security” allows thoughtless and potentially unscrupulous national leaders to raid financial coffers that would, by law, otherwise be unavailable for diversion to backfill a war economy, a purpose for which those funds were never intended.

·  “War economy” implies that it is acceptable for young men and women to die and by doing so to bolster and promote the wealth and resources of a nation and a rise in wealth of this Nation’s wealthiest.

· The use of the phrase “conspiracy theory” casts a pall on and diminishes those who raise legitimate issues and serves to ignore the important and logic-seeking questions of thinking people, excusing wrong-thinkers, wrong-planners and wrong-doers from giving honest answers and being held accountable for their actions.

· The concept of an “Opinion poll” offers simplicity and expediency of thought to national leaders and congressional representatives, enabling them to act on implied value in contrived public opinion that is limited and restricted by the political and commercial interests of pollsters, thereby negating the value of often complex, honest and open opinions of individual constituents.

The Administration and mass cable news media have depicted those standing behind the President and his administration and most Republicans as righteous, God-fearing, and conservative right-minded patriots, and those who question the Administration’s position and most Democrats as liberal, leftist, unpatriotic, intellectual wimps and/or minority “less thans.”  This rhetoric has caused a majority in this Country to step back, to be unheard for far too many months.  This rhetoric is dividing and polarizing a nation that was finally standing strong after recovering emotionally and economically from too many military actions around the world and two wars within thirty years, one horrible and reprehensible and one of questionable purpose.  And, unfortunately, the rhetoric appears to have struck fear into the hearts of once mostly clear-thinking elected representatives, both Republican and Democrat. 

To be morally, fiscally and socially responsible is neither Republican nor Democrat, neither “Right” or “Left,” it is simply prudent in a civilized world.  That means, by acting prudently, we would not waste, misuse or abuse our Nation’s or other nations’ resources, whether human, natural or financial.  And, it means that we would respect and uphold the most basic constructs of the most basic laws of this country.  Laws which state that I may not kill my neighbor because I fear him and think he may be armed and dangerous.  Our laws state that I may not take up arms against my neighbor because I think he has abused his wife and children.  And, I may not attack him and steal from him because he has something I want and need, even if I’m starving to death.  Neither can I retaliate by taking his life because he killed a member of my family.

And, it means that we would abide by our international agreements…agreements that are based on an understanding of non-aggression.  And, that we would demonstrate high moral behavior based on the highest laws of humanity…in other words, our actions should not harm others…meaning we would not cheat, steal, lie or murder, nor would we provide a political environment in which our friends and/or colleagues are allowed to do so.

Further, being morally, fiscally and socially responsible means that we must support an international criminal court, thereby affirming a position that international law, not the United States military, should be used to try in a court of law and prosecute international crimes against humanity, wherever and by whomever those crimes are perpetrated.

What do I fear?  Not demigods in foreign lands.  George W. Bush was, I fear, potentially, if not intentionally, prophetic in his State of the Union address about small men creating fear and amassing armies to take over the weak.  It is critical to state that I believe we have the most worrisome and least prudently responsible federal administration I’ve witnessed in my 60 years.  I want it clearly understood that:

· I do not give my permission for my tax dollars to be diverted to an internal campaign of fear-mongering or a foreign campaign of war-mongering.

· I do not give my permission for my tax dollars to be diverted to the construction of additional weapons of mass destruction and certainly not for a space-based war machine.

· I do not give my permission for my tax dollars to be siphoned into the investments of the richest in this Nation through tax breaks or war.

· I do not give permission for my Social Security investment to be used for any purpose other than for which it was established.

· I do not give my permission to the President and his cabinet which includes carefully selected business partners to engage in war and any unlawful and unjust waste of human life in my or my family’s name!

It is my expectation that my elected representatives will regain their moral conscience and good judgment, and that they will not be a part of or collaborate in these socially and fiscally immoral acts.  It is my expectation that good judgment and moral conscience will prevail, and that my elected representatives will demonstrate a renewed moral, fiscal and social responsibility.  Until that happens, my “trust in government gap” will continue to deepen and widen.

I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that they can trust the political structures of this Nation…that elected congressional, if not national, leaders will seek out and listen to counsel from and act in the best interest of their constituencies, not pollsters and party lines.  I want to be able to tell my Grandson that he will not be conscripted into yet another regrettable war as he turns 18.  I want to be able to tell my grandchildren and their young parents that “balance of power” actually works.