Thursday, January 13, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Yesterday, in Tucson, you did what you are so good at – giving speeches, rallying people, making them think. You exhibited your mark as a leader and called for a more temperate civil discourse. I applaud that. In contrast, Sarah Palin continued to point fingers, to lay blame on the media, to excuse her own role in the proliferation of extremism and intolerance of anyone who does not believe what she preaches. “Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own.” She said. This is clearly not true as you must recognize. Our country and our society is saturated with violence in both word and deed and I believe most of it stems from the illegal unjustified and evil wars we continue to pursue in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military terms are now common in everyday speech, camouflage clothes for tots, cars and trucks designed to look like military vehicles; war has seeped into every facet of our lives. We are taught to hate the enemy, to demonize him to be glad when he is killed. You yourself vowed to kill bin Laden, maybe a political boast to show you’re tough as any Republican neocon, maybe not, but killing is never justified whether by individual or state. Killing not only kills the victim but kills part of our communal soul as well. The shooting rampage in Tucson was indeed tragic, carried out by someone who was, perhaps, mentally unhinged, but in a climate of hate and fear, of politicians touting maps with bulls-eyes, and catchy slogans like “don’t retreat, reload,” and violence an increasingly common way to settle disagreements - just as we’ve tried to force our brand of democracy on others with the barrel of a gun - it encourages these types of unconscionable actions. Those already borderline unstable are goaded on by the rhetoric of war and violence and hate. We’ve been in Afghanistan for more than nine years, Iraq almost eight, and it will take as long to purge ourselves of the evil and the harm that has caused not only to us but also to the rest of the world. You made a start last night, Mr. President, but please don’t stop there. Don’t make that a one-off speech. This should be an ongoing theme repeated over and over again as long as you have a platform. It will take enormous effort to turn our perception, our thinking, our very DNA as a nation from war to peace, but this is a start. Please continue. For justice sake, for humanity’s sake.

Free Pfc. Bradley Manning!