18 December 2008

This letter, written in late 2004, was certainly the most celebrated to date. I misplaced it after changing computers several times, but recently located it. I decided to post it for the sake of completeness. It should be noted that most people loved the thoughts captured from those turbulent times made more so by the hysteria of fear waged by the Bush campaign to be re-elected. Kerry did not help matters any, but the irony that he actually went to Vietnam, as did Gore, while Bush could not recall what he did in the Alabama guard, still strikes me as a wee bit odd considering the chest thumping Bush was doing back then with the "Mission Accomplished" and "Bring em' on" comments. Nevertheless, those apparently flush fiscal times left over from the success of the Clinton years saw Bush inherit a surplus. This surplus, long since squandered on rebates and war, stands in stark contract to these apparently dim fiscal times being passed to Obama. We will soon see if Bush is the Hoover of our time and Obama the Roosevelt.




Dear Mr. President, Family and Friends, Christmas 2004


Congratulations on winning your first presidential election, Mr President! While we are quite happy the Supreme Court did not have to vote this time, I admit we were dreaming of a Blue not a red Christmas. While most Blue-stater’s supported you in Afghanistan, we oppose your invasion of Iraq. From early 2000 your handlers were determined to get Saddam. 9-11 gave them a reason and before that even Condie, a Birmingham Alabama girl, gave them a name (The Rise of the Vulcans, Mann). Of course you aren’t the first President to go to war over faked circumstances (Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War, Moise). Who were the 8 million voters with whom Mr Rove turned the election? In part they seem to be readers of the Bible as interpreted by Revs. Robertson and Falwell (Fixing America: Breaking the Stranglehold of Corporate Rule, Big Media & the Religious Right, Buchanan and McDonnell). Their underlying message of intolerance, hate and God as vengeful is as scary as their hairdos. We ask why pick on homosexuals and why do they want to be part of the failed institution of marriage, anyway? Of course what they really want is social rights. The same social rights mixed race couples struggled and were killed for in the South of my youth and before them Blacks. We suspect that if the Christian right ever gain control of our country, then there will be a mass exodus of intellectuals like the world saw from Nazi Germany while most others will be stuck here. Folk like Einstein who contributed the intellectual capital to make this country what it is today - a military power house – would skeedaddle. So, we were relieved to read that funds for your Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Bomb were scuttled. Aren’t our 10,000 nuclear weapons of mass destruction enough? Yes! And maybe moderate republicans will make your right-wing agenda a lame duck before you are even sworn in again rather than traditionally at the mid-term elections.

I know you like baseball, Sir. So let me tell you about my oldest son, “Mint”. Now in 3rd grade, he surprised us with his ability to pitch last season. Amazingly, he composed himself in front of crowds throwing baseballs straight across the plate without hitting batters. Before games he’d say “Dad, my heart is beating really fast. I can’t breathe well”. The first few times I thought it was asthma and gave him albuterol, but later I realized it was just nerves. David-Minter, more a Greg Maddox finesse pitcher than a Randy Johnson brute force guy, never threw a Mr Snappy that hit an innocent player. Did you ever see one of Johnson’s “Mr Snappy” fast balls get away from him? Ouch! One more thing about Mint, he learned to play drums this year and sang a duet in our church Christmas pageant, but it will be some time before he can finesse drums or voice. Finesse takes time and patience.

I gotta say I was bewildered hearing you say Jesus was your favorite prophet. So to the delight of my pastor, who really rails against your fiscal policy favoring the rich, I searched for your Jesus in my Bible. Having done so, I gotta ask you Mr President, “Can you read?” What I mean is, if you can read, then can you read with comprehension? That is key. I know because Ham, in 1st grade now, is having a devil of a time learning to read. He can remember/memorize most anything though and is as good at or better at math than his brother. And geeze, he didn’t struggle this much learning to ride a bike. He studied it for over a year watching his brother ride, got some tips from GrandPa and then one day, BINGO! Off he rode downhill without a crash. Time and patience served him well. So we sure hope this happens with his reading. Assumin’ heez gonna learn to comprehend what he reads, which passages from the Bible would you offer up for instruction on Jesus? The ones on love or vengence? While I can find lots of occasions of the former, the latter escapes me. So I’m tellin’ Graham, due to no fault of your own other than choice of interpreters Robertson & Falwell, that you have confused Jesus with King David. Because it matters, Graham-Robinson and I will read Martin Luther King Jr (Letter from the Birmingham Jail, King) who mastered change via nonviolent opposition.

Speaking of violent, vengeful Gods, you may recall King Richard the Lion Hearted, who like your Daddy actually went to war trusting in God’s providence. King Richard invaded what is now the “middle east” nominally to free Jerusalem and install his “better” brand of religion and government. Unconvinced, Saladin took up arms and these two sons of Abraham (Abraham, Feiler) worked hard to win God’s favor. By all accounts (Warriors of God, Reston) it really was tough work, but neither minded owing to an abundance of the willing to die for Jesus and Mohammed. And yet, after years of tough, hard work as you say; no diplomacy; and atrocities by both sides much worse than Mr Rumsfeld’s Abu Ghraib (by the way - why does he still work for you?); politics and economics forced Richard to retreat. As I write this Al Qaeda has called for the US to establish a policy of mutual respect and leave the Middle East. According to Craig Unger (House of Bush, House of Saud) you know the Bin Ladens. So why not, like Israelis and Palestinians who also blow each other up, talk? I know 1) this seems ridiculous to most who only know Al Qaeda by the superficial, easy to comprehend “truths” manifested in the massacre of innocent civilians on September 11th, 2) that truth, grasped only by hard objective work, is complicated and 3) blood spills easily. So how long will we continue to spill their blood there before we are forced to retreat? And when ours is spilt again here, while we spend billions blowing up Iraq, who then to blow up and to what vengeful end? Wisdom is direly needed, but there is no indication that staring it in the face, like General Powell’s ignored doctrine (My American Journey, Powell), that it will be recognized by your folk.

After Afghanistan the Vulcans pushed you into Iraq. Instead you might have taken a page from the Israeli’s mission “Wrath of God” that took twenty + years to hunt and assassinate each terrorist responsible for the 1972 Munich massacre of innocent athletes. This operation saw only one innocent waiter mistakenly killed, not thousands as in Iraq. Time, patience and finesse (One Day in September, Reeve) won the day, but not their war. It continues. And without taking time to talk and long after Osama is dead our war will too. Currently, we waste billions in Iraq, engender more hatred of U.S. while Al Qaeda eyes our unprotected cities. Just one wee nuclar’ device in one unchecked cargo container, thousands of which enter Seattle and other ports everyday headed for the heartland on flatbed trailers bearing logos like Maersk shipping, and then what? Actually, I don’t think any amount of money can defend this threat. Note that even a wall around Israel cannot solve their fundamental(ist) problems. For that they, like we, have to throw off the right- and left-wing extremists and talk to our enemy. So why not talk rather than unilaterally make it worse? For the sake of my little men and others’ who play at war, but understand none of it, who will grow up to be drafted to fight a war that will not go away . . . please reach out. Neither bombs in Iraq nor killing Osama will protect us. There is a military adage: Know thy enemy and a Christian one: Love thy enemy. They aren’t mutually exclusive.
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Wow! You must be thinkin’, Dave!!!! it can’t all be bad? “No sir”, I say! I want to applaud you for your call for non-governmental agencies like churches to bear more of the burden of social responsibility than government. Even if we weren’t wasting billions bringing democracy to Iraqi’s who probably can’t use it yet, we know the government can’t do everything. Donna, freshly retired from the real estate business, helped organize an auction for the homeless again this year. They, the working homeless with children and with jobs that don’t pay a living wage, helped raise $16,000 for ownership of port-O-potties and hand washing stations. BTW these tent cities, set up in church parking lots, are protected by a law passed during your Dad’s administration; i.e. religious organizations have wide discretion as to how they use their property. We know because our church was sued by the city of Seattle for hosting them, fined thousands of dollars and we won!

God bless the World and Merry Christmas from a BLUE state!