Monday, April 18, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

I keep thinking about Bob Herbert’s last column for the New York Times, “Losing Our Way,” in which he points out the maldistribution of wealth in America and where we “…find it so easy to plunge into…war but almost impossible to find adequate work for [our] people or to properly educate [our] young…” Wealth and power have always skewed the scales of justice but it seems more blatant now than ever before. 14 million Americans are out of work and jobless benefits are being cut back in state after state while Wall Street bankers who caused the Great Recession continue to get multi-million dollar paychecks and bonuses thanks to the $700 billion bailout by U.S. taxpayers. Moreover, no one is held accountable. Example: Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide, one of the biggest perpetrators of fraudulent loans, was “off-limits” according to investigators, as were, apparently, all the other fat cat financial executives who walked away with billions in ill-gotten gains; after two years and in spite of the evidence, there is still no collective government effort to build cases and no senior executives have been charged or imprisoned. This in stark contrast to the S&L scandal of the 80s where 1,100 cases were referred for prosecution and more than 800 bank officials were convicted and did time. We have indeed lost our way. No one is held accountable for any of this just as no one is held accountable for the lies that got us into Iraq and the torture and flagrant disregard for human rights and international law that followed. But if you’re an average Joe you better toe the line and do as you’re told ‘cause these laws are made for you. Example: Pfc. Bradley Manning who tried to report a military cover-up of war crimes but was told to shut up; when he blew the whistle by releasing classified documents that showed the murders of civilians by the military in Afghanistan and Iraq, he was thrown into the brig and there he remains 263 days later, held without trial under conditions so harsh as to be deemed torture and denied official visits by Congressman Kucinich and representatives from the UN and Amnesty International. “Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal,” you said. But you have done just the opposite, defended the military against Manning and as long as he remains in solitary confinement in a Marine brig, the abuse of power continues and justice is just another empty word.

Free Bradley Manning!