Time to Expand My Horizon

Dear Mr. Bush, ahem, I mean, President:

I fear I am beginning to sound like a broken record. I also fear that more than half the people on the internet today have no idea what a broken record sounds like. I have been writing for months to you about the war in Iraq (which I still oppose, by the way, so quit it right now) and feel that so many other topics have been left to fend for themselves in the media (or in other people's blogs, or in parody on The Daily Show or SNL, etc, etc). I haven't gotten much response from you when I have focused my complaints on the war in Iraq; I suppose I just want to see if you are an equal opportunity "ignorer".

If I wrote to you about God would you ignore me? If I asked you why there seems to be a lot of indictments flying around Washington and they all seem to be missing both yourself and Karl Rove, would you ignore me? If I pointed out that "Intelligent Design" has about as much place in a Science class as rainbows have in Algebra, would you ignore me? If I challenged you to stop this ridiculous political game and start finding a way to improve this country's MORALE (NOT MORAL, let each family worry about that themselves), would you ignore me?

I'm not a big corporation with lots of money to give you. I am not a political pundit who will help you win influential votes in Congress. I am not the gun lobby nor am I the tobacco lobby. I am not even a member of your Presidential Prayer Team who will pray for you and other American political leaders. (In case you forgot the website address: http://www.presidentialprayerteam.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ppt_homepage) (And don't forget the kids! http://pptkids.org/index.php). I am just one of your constituents. And I want to be heard.

So from now on, no matter what the topic; I'll email you about it. (If I think it has anything to do with you or if I think you can do anything about it as President.)

Growing Up

Dear Mr. President,

Life is not fair. I just read that a Senator from New Hampshire (the “Live Free or Die” state), who was already a Millionaire, won over ¾ of a million in the lottery. He joked that he wouldn’t quit his job, but I guess if you are already a “Millionaire Senator” the term "work" is irrelevant. Do you think anyone dreamt of being a politician when they were children? Probably not, the boys dreamed of being soldiers and the girls dreamed of being nurses. (And in my neighborhood, some of the girls dreamed of being soldiers and some of the boys dreamed of being nurses.) As children we wanted to be strong and help people. When did the desire to be strong outweigh the desire to help people? Let me take that back. I don’t think our individual desire to help people has gone away or even lessened. The American soldiers in Iraq (as well as in other parts of the world and at home) do a job of helping people every day. And while there have been disgraces of strength that marred the reputation of the military, I must continue to believe that a majority of people in the military want to aid those les fortunate, to free those being oppressed, and to simply be the best they can be (for lack of a more apropos cliché). And to some degree the little boy who wanted to be strong, also grew up to be the man with compassion. Because what is strength without compassion? Tyranny? What is strength without morality? Criminal behavior?

Mr. President, what did you want to be when you grew up? Did you want to be strong? Have you learned compassion? When I read about the bill to ban the torture of prisoners by US troops, and your threat to veto it, I was stunned. What is worse? That we need to have a law that says torture is bad? Or having a President that’s willing to veto that law? Let’s assume a few things shall we? Torture is bad. As Americans fighting terrorism, we should not use terrorism as a weapon itself. This keeps our enemies in business. It’s the law of supply and demand. What I want to know is this: If the demand for peace increases, wouldn’t the supply have to as well? We need to demand peace, not just dream about it.

I wonder what our grown-up boys and girls in Iraq are dreaming of now? Probably of being a Millionaire Senator in New Hampshire. Or maybe just of coming home to a country that fights against governments that torture, not one that needs a law to prohibit it.

From Nothing to Irony

Dear Mr. President:

In the Beginning there was nothing. So, how *did* we begin? The religion you subscribe to has some specific things to say on this topic; but Science tells us we began in an ocean of goo waiting for the right moment to spark life. Abiogenesis: life from non-life. Something that paradoxically can only occur in an environment devoid of life. When there is absolutely no life, the extreme rarity of life can be generated without the fear of being gobbled up by something bigger. You see, the life that abiogenesis creates is not Adam and Eve, but microorganisms that change and evolve into more and more complex life forms until eventually they deem it necessary to slough out of the muck and suck in oxygen from the atmosphere itself.

Perhaps it had consumed too much of the oxygen in the swampy ocean and had to find another source. Isn't that what life's main purpose is? To consume? Well, most people nowadays refer to how it was "back in the day" as "surviving". The life-form who got enough food, who procured adequate shelter, it persevered to the point where it is obese and has several houses around the world. At what point in our evolution did "hoarding of all resources" take over "survival of self and species"? Or did it take over at all? Is this simply a manifestation of our innate desire to acquire everything? Is this what life is at its worst? Consume until your resources are dry and then move on. Repeat as often as needed. (Until supplies last, cannot be combined with any other offer.) When we run out of resources some speculate we will have to find ways to survive in the oceans again. How beautifully ironic that is!

You must be wondering by now (well, at least the staffer in charge of slogging through these emails must be wondering), so what? And if you are a follower of my emails (which pretty much excludes any resident - temporary or otherwise --of the White House), you may be wondering what all of this has to do with the war in Iraq? Well, there are a great number of historians and theologians who believe that Eden was located in what is now known as Iraq. There are also environmentalists and liberals and some rather sane individuals who believe that this war in Iraq is about oil (something we Americans are quite adept at consuming). So, the irony of fighting for resources in the place where your bible claims is the origin of species is not lost on me. I simply wanted to point it out in case it had been lost on you.

We are fighting the "evolution or creation" fight in gorey detail in the deserts and cities of Iraq. Did it occur to you that reclaiming Eden would look good on your religious resume? Does "survival of the species" mean to you that only the ones that agree with you can survive? Darwin's theory of evolution implies that only the traits that help perpetuate the species will survive. How can that possibly be true when our brave men and women in the armed services are dying every day in this war and politicians like you are safe in Washington DC? The outlook of the human species doesn't look good when those with one set of genes can send those with another set off to their deaths. Are you playing God, Mr. President? Or just playing Darwin?

Some more to think about...

Originally sent 7/3/05

Only that in you which is me can hear what I'm saying. 
~Baba Ram Dass


Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth. 
~Ludwig Börne


You become responsible forever for what you've tamed. 
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943,
translated from French by Richard Howard


If a man who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he lucky?
~Stanislaw J. Lec


There are some remedies worse than the disease. 
~Publilius Syrus


If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one. 
~Russian Proverb


We have all taken risks in the making of war.  Isn't it time
that we should take risks to secure peace?  ~J. Ramsay MacDonald



Do you understand? Do you hear me? I challenge you to be great.
End this war. Make your mark in history by achieving something
extraordinary, different and new.


War is an ancient response; we know the results of that action.
Bomb the enemy into submission. How else can we handle this
situation without more bloodshed? Try something new, something
different. I understand you are afraid of failure. Even possibly
afraid of more deaths (American or otherwise).  But we can only
grow by trying new ideas. Finding new solutions to old problems.


This is the greatest country in the world. We have access to
forward-thinking minds and technology.  Why are we using them
to wage war and not peace?

Guess?

Originally sent 7/29/05



Dear Mr. President,

What's happened to us? Our country, our people? Is this progress? Ask the parent trying to find a job to feed his/her family. Ask the hooker, ask the drunk, ask the barflies, ask the punks, ask any of the fringes of our society if this is progress. What do you suppose they would say?

I think they might be brainwashed into saying "at least my neighborhood isn't being blown up." And while they would be right, they would be entirely missing the point. Screw the world for right now. Let's focus on fixing our own problems before we go traipsing into someone else's backyard. I'm not suggesting complete isolationism; but there are some major changes to the budget and the focus of this country that need to be made if we are to survive as the "advanced society" we believe ourselves to be. Don't deny it. We Americans believe we are better than anyone else. And why shouldn't we? They are thinking the same things about themselves. It's human, well at least societal nature, to want to beat your enemies. Even if you have to falsely create them to do so. It's time to show our new strength. The strength involved in looking at our problems and recognizing that we need to fix them.