With seemingly little fanfare or response from either the Congress or the public, we have just witnessed President Bush and his Capitol Hill entourage shift the power relationships in Asia by power-broking with nukes and delivering another blow to the possibility of peaceful coexistence among human communities on Earth.
I personally feel completely disengaged from the people who supposedly respresent me in Congress, and I am more convinced that when we observe these dramatic actions from Bush that it is all part of a carefully constructed plan and philosophy, far from the actions of a democracy, just being rolled out in spite of any public will or consensus process on the Hill.
Below is the letter I sent all my respresentatives in DC last week. I fully expect a form letter, not responding to my concerns, but a statement of what my representatives personally think should happen. I am talking in the wind.
What can a private citizen do? This is my deep musing this morning. What can I personally do to right the wrong action of this government when my Constitutional means and methods for democratic action are so compromised as to be like citizens in countries with anti-democratic governments? I will decide and I will act, but it will be like nothing I have ever thought about doing before.
For sure, I will be supporting Moveon.org and other democratic people's action forums. Should I pay my taxes? How can I best protest what is happening to the land I love so much? What can I do so that when I die I can go knowing I tried to leave a legacy of hope and promise for my children?
Letter to My Representatives:
February 26, 2006
Senator John McCain
SR-241Washington, D.C. 20510-0303
Senator Jon Kyl
SH-730Washington, D.C. 20510-0304
Congressman Raul Grijalva
1440 LHOBWashington, D.C. 20515-0307
Dear Sirs,
My concerns about the direction of the United States government in foreign relations and domestic security prompt me to write you directly. I share these concerns with you and urge you to act on behalf of me and other Americans citizens who share my view.
First and foremost is the issue of war in Iraq and instability in the Middle East in general. As I step back and look at the results of our invasion and occupation of Iraq – and the deceit imposed on Congress and the voting public – I see a more destabilized Middle East, an erosion of many international relationships with allies and world bodies such as the United Nations and European Union. I see leaders in countries on the South American continent who polarized their nations away from the U.S. as a reaction to the heavy-handed diplomacy of Condoleezza Rice and Dick Cheney.
U.S. leadership, developed over decades of careful diplomacy, has been wasted and delivered a mortal blow by this administration.
I did not vote for George Bush but I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, to examine closely the rationale that drives his administration’s decision and policies. After six years of disappointing results, and more – with our country’s security more imperiled than ever – I and many of my fellow citizens have no faith whatsoever in this administration.
Impeachment has crossed my mind, but how can we impeach an entire administration?
Domestically Americans have never been in worse shape. While costs of living rise, the amount of take home pay has declined; medical care and social security are passing through the hands of this generation, the Boomers, to be non-existent for future generations. How could this happen in the land of plenty, the most important democracy on Earth?
I would like to answer that question: it has happened because a belief in the free market, unbound by democratic principles, continues to sequester wealth in the top 1% of Americans. Corporations have grown to control almost all of what occurs in Washington these days. This must stop!
I represent educated citizens who are active in voting, responding to issues and working locally to maintain our democratic principles.
We, the voters, elected you to seek wise counsel, to learn all you can about issues, laws, and bills that come before you for critical decisions. The Republic we established two centuries ago is based on a body of representatives, who by virtue of their talent, good sense, and clear intent to uphold the provisions of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, run this country for us, its citizens - its blades of grass.
With all due respect, I believe this has been imperfectly implemented. Republican or Democrat, it is a disappointing and worrisome record.
I write you out of my own respect for your office and your efforts. But for reasons unclear to me, we are much worse off than I can ever remember as a citizen. I grew up in a military family. But today my family and I no longer believe in armed conflict. In fact millions of Americans have seen through the wrong idea that war brings peace.
Today I see my representatives embroiled in petty infighting when what is needed is a much broader vision of where this nation is headed and what we stand for. We based our government and indeed the viable future of our democracy on the principles of religious freedom and non-violent co-existence with agreement on a set of basic values expressed in the Bill of Rights.
Instead, Congress and this administration have tried to impose on us a one-size-fits-all religious and social reform movement that is anti-democratic. Moreover, this set of ideas is being used in international relations to our great detriment. We are isolated, hated by other religious groups and nations, and about half the American population is not represented by these ideas.
Yet, Congress has offered little resistance, supporting laws like the Patriot Act to be voted in and then re-approved, even after the recent revelations of security abuses in the highest office of government have come to light.
Clearly this administration acts above the law at will. This is treason. Where‘s the outcry, the outrage from our representatives?
To me, we are in the most confused and fragmented state in American government in my lifetime. We need a whole new kind of leadership, one that can rise above politics to the high calling of democratic principles.
Can you help? What can I do? How can we save our Republic from this threat? I urge you to consider these actions:
Ø Pull our troops out of Iraq with a staged withdrawal plan;
Ø Use the resources saved on military occupation to help New Orleans rebuild wisely, and develop the Homeland Security program to needed levels;
Ø Immediately launch a program to significantly reduce green house gases in recognition that global climate change is currently the greatest threat to national and international security;
Ø Pay down the national debt;
Ø Invest billions saved on the war to strengthen American schools; start by raising the salary of teachers across the country;
Ø Launch a national citizen education campaign to study and re-invoke a discussion about the Constitution and Bill of Rights;
Ø Recognize publicly that we are not a Christian nation only, but a pluralistic nation of many faiths, people who come together based on a set of principles outlined in our Constitutional laws;
For my part and those of citizens who share my view, we promise to:
Ø Elect wise leaders who have clearly demonstrated their commitment to principles, not politics, special interests, or a personal religious ethic.
We have a catastrophe in American government. An administration and a President, who act on their own, in secret, and who espouse a religious and moral agenda not permitted by our laws, have gripped this country for six long years and taken us to a point of great peril. We have to bring it to an end.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan L. Williams
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