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[Webmaster's note: Sean Penn paid $56,000 to have this letter
published as an advertisement in the Washington Post]
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
world 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 position
of your administration's de-construction 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
[This work is the
property of Sean Penn who holds the copyright (if any) on
it.]
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