Letter to the Editor

This was published in the Asheville Citizen Times on April 24, 2010.  President Obama was in town, sure hope he read it.

Rev. Martin Luther King made a speech in April 1967 where he said “we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness.”   I believe that is true of today’s times also.  We are now closing down on almost nine years of war in Afghanistan, with no end in sight.  We have been in Iraq for over seven years, with a promise of withdrawal that is moving at a snail’s pace.

Today, as back then, actions are needed to “save the soul of America.”   Today, we are supporting a government in Afghanistan that is totally corrupt and without popular support inside the country.  We are regularly killing and hurting civilians, even as we are proposing to “liberate” them.  As in Vietnam and Iraq, we are poisoning the water and the land.  And while doing all this, we are inspiring others to acts of terrorism against our own country.  This madness must cease.

Our country is dealing in the three vices of militarism, poverty and racism.  If they are left to continuously fester, they will destroy us.  To Mr. Obama, I would like to say that war is not peace, and it is not a peace prize either.