Posted by Jeff from d53-251-230.try.wideopenwest.com (64.53.230.251) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 at 12:04PM :
Sean Penn's Open Letter to Bush in Washington Post Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 18:31:41 -0800
Actor Sean Penn called on President Bush to "let us re-introduce inspection teams" to Iraq in an "Open Letter" on Page A8 of yesterday's Washington Post. A Post spokesman said Penn, who starred in last year's "I Am Sam," paid $56,000 for the nearly full-page ad, which warned the president that his "saber is rattling the faith of many Americans in you."
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An Open Letter to the President of the United States of America
Mr. Bush:
Good morning sir. Like you, I am a father and an American. Like you, I consider myself a patriot. Like you,
I was horrified by the events of this past year, concerned for my family and my country.
However, I do not believe in a simplistic and inflammatory view of good and evil. I believe this is a big
wo! rld full of men, women, and children who struggle to eat, to love, to work, to protect their families,
their beliefs, and their dreams. My father, like yours, was decorated for service in World War II. He
raised me with a deep belief in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as they should apply to all
Americans who would sacrifice to maintain them and to all human beings as a matter of principle.
Many of your actions to date and those proposed seem to violate every defining principle of this country
over which you preside: intolerance of debate ("with us or against us"), marginalization of your critics,
the promoting of fear through unsubstantiated rhetoric, manipulation of a quick comfort media, and the position of
your administration's deconstruction of civil liberties all contradict the very core of the patriotism you
claim. You lead, it seems, through a blood-lined sense of entitlement. Take a close look at your most
vehement! media supporters. See the fear in their eyes as their loud voices of support ring out with that
historically disastrous undercurrent of rage and panic masked as "straight tough talk." How far have we
come from understanding what it is to kill one man, one woman, or one child, much less the "collateral
damage" of many hundreds of thousands. Your use of the words, "this is a new kind of war" is often
accompanied by an odd smile.
It concerns me that what you are asking of us is to abandon all
previous lessons of history in favor of following you blindly into the future. It worries me because, with
all your best intentions, an enormous economic surplus has been squandered. Your administration has
virtually dismissed the most fundamental environmental concerns and therefore, by implication, one gets the
message that, as you seem to be willing to sacrifice the children of the world, would you also be willing
to sacrifice ours. I! know this cannot be your aim so, I beg you Mr. President, listen to Gershwin, read
chapters of Stegner, of Saroyan, the speeches of Martin Luther King. Remind yourself of America.
Remember the Iraqi children, our children, and your own. There can
be no justification for the actions of Al Qaeda. Nor acceptance of the criminal viciousness of the tyrant,
Saddam Hussein. Yet, that bombing is answered by bombing, mutilation by mutilation, killing by killing, is
a pattern that only a great country like ours can stop. However, principles cannot be recklessly or
greedily abandoned in the guise of preserving them.
Avoiding war while accomplishing national security is no simple task. But you will recall that we Americans
had a little missile problem down in Cuba once. Mr. Kennedy's restraint (and that of the nuclear submarine
captain, Arkhipov) is to be aspired to. Weapons of mass destruction are clearly a threat to the entire
world! in any hands. But as Americans, we must ask ourselves, since the potential for Mr. Hussein
to possess them threatens not only our country, (and in fact, his technology to launch is likely not
yet at that high a level of sophistication) therefore, many in his own region would have the greatest
cause for concern. Why then, is the United States, as led by your administration, in the small
minority of the world nations predisposed toward a preemptive military assault on Iraq?
Simply put, sir, let us re-introduce inspection teams, inhibiting offensive capability. We buy time,
maintain our principles here and abroad and demand of ourselves the ingenuity to be the strongest
diplomatic muscle on the planet, perhaps in the history of the planet. The answers will come. You are a man
of faith, but your saber is rattling the faith of many Americans in you.
I do understand what a tremendously ! daunting task it must be to stand in your shoes at this moment. As a
father of two young children who will live their lives in the world as it will be affected by critical
choices today, I have no choice but to believe that you can ultimately stand as a great
president. History has offered you such a destiny. So again, sir, I beg you, help save America before yours
is a legacy of shame and horror. Don't destroy our children's future. We will support you. You must support
us, your fellow Americans, and indeed, mankind. Defend us from fundamentalism abroad but don't turn a blind
eye to the fundamentalism of a diminished citizenry through loss of civil liberties, of dangerously
heightened presidential autonomy through acts of Congress, and of this country's mistaken and pervasive
belief that its "manifest destiny" is to police the world. We know that Americans are frightened and angry.
However, sacrificing American soldiers or innocent civilians in an! unprecedented preemptive
attack on a separate sovereign nation, may well prove itself a most temporary medicine. On the other hand,
should you mine and have faith in the best of this country to support your leadership in representing a
strong, thoughtful, and educated United States, you may well triumph for the long haul. Lead us there, Mr.
President, and we will stand with you.
Sincerely,
Sean Penn San Francisco, California
October 19, 2002; Page C3
-- Jeff
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