Just some kid from the Chicago suburbs that moved to the southwest, went to law school, and ended up confronted with shifting ideals. My thoughts...boring and unedited.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Open Letter to Mein Fuhrer, excuse me, My President...

Dear Mr. Bush:

Six years ago I was approaching the first presidential election in which I would be allowed to exercise the precious right to vote. I am certain you know of that most fundamental of American rights because one of the "boys" of which you were so fond, Mr. DeLay, labored so hard to diminish it in minorities in your "home" state of Texas. (Please excuse the somewhat sarcastic reference to Texas as your "home" state, but given that you are a member of the East Coast Elite, silver spoon and all, transplanted into Connecticut Southwest - i.e. Midland, Texas - it seems a little ridiculous to believe that your having donned a ten gallon hat somehow removes your privileged upbringing and repeatedly being bailed out by your family connections...but I digress).

At the time I held the sitting president with a measure of disdain for his actions in very likely perjuring himself, even after his most solemn oath to uphold the laws and Constitution of the United States of America. Somehow, as a child in America's suburban public schools I had come to expect the man holding the office of the presidency to actually conduct himself with a manner of dignity beholding to the office while sincerely trying to uphold the laws and Constitution. As I was coming of age I longed for a return of my innocent belief that the man or woman occupying the White House would hold themselves to the highest standards of human decency and the very best of the ideals of this nation as I wished them to be held.

In hindsight, perjury by the man sworn to uphold the very laws he mocked was taking a penny from the tip jar compared to the carnage you would make of the very laws and Constitution you were sworn to uphold. I have tried in vein to find any way to interpret domestic law concerning such deplorable actions as terrorism, war crimes, and crimes against humanity without them condemning the actions of which you seem most proud. I look at the Constitution and note that it declares treaties will become the law of the land, that same law you swore to uphold, and wonder how it is you could possibly justify the contempt you have shown for our international obligations, at the same time being so very two-faced about the international obligations of other nations. I look at ten of the most important declarations in support of freedom in history, the American Bill of Rights, and find it deplorable to recognize that you have managed to mangle just about every single one of them in favor of less freedom. I read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and note that over time it seems Americans were struggling to move further and further along the road to true freedom and an expansion of the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but then I see you asking that a retraction of freedom be written back into the Constitution, apparently forgetting the last time it took an incredibly bloody civil war and another hundred years of struggle to finally get discrimination written out of our laws so that we could finally get around to true equality.

I see all of this and I wonder if you just may be as illiterate as some seem to believe. You like to try to contort your most solemn duty into merely protecting the American people. Funny, I seem to remember the Constitution spelling out quite clearly what your duty is, and you may even remember reciting these words once or twice on a cold January day.

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Notice, Mr. Bush, that preservation of the Constitution is listed prominently, in fact before protect ever rears its head. Perhaps you do things differently in Texas, especially if you are actually from the East Coast and just pretending to be Texan, but I cannot think of how it is at all possible to preserve something by destroying it. I do give you credit for noticing that protection is part of your duties, but I think you missed that it is the Constitution you are to be protecting. Again, I fail to see how you protect the Constitution by disobeying the vast majority of its most solemn demands. (Although I suppose it may make sense for someone who follows the commands of the Bible by ignoring just about the entire book, namely the most basic and important teachings of Jesus...you remember Jesus, the most influential philosopher in your life). Lastly, you are to protect and the Constitution. If I am to accept your manner of protecting and defending the Constitution, I imagine "protecting and defending my children" would mean decapitating them.

You claim to be a christian man, Mr. Bush. When I was a child I dreamed of being a preacher (and I did not even have to become a cocaine user with a nasty habit of driving intoxicated...a felony where I come from. But again, I digress). Only as I began to grow and learn and look around the Church (with a capital "C" because I was raised a Catholic) I began to realize just how off track the Church had gotten. Just as you took Mr. Clinton's shortcomings to a whole nother level, you have managed to make the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church in my youth seem quaint.

You see, when I read the Bible I seem to remember Jesus and friends spending page upon page waxing about unfair distribution of wealth and showing incredible concern for the poor and their plight. Perhaps you just skipped over those few hundred pages and missed the part about why it was Jesus was against the tax collectors...because the tax system was slanted in favor of the rich and the poor were far too burdened while the rich got away without paying anything remotely like a fair share. You Mr. Bush, are creating exactly the type of society Jesus preached against.

You often speak of bringing people to justice for their actions, but not once have I heard you speak of bringing justice to people. I wonder what that most influential philosopher of your's would have to say about that.

I know the above may seem harsh, but you seem to be oblivious to critique anyhow. However, I ask that you please accept my most sincere wish for you and your memory...

May your God damn you for your blasphemous perversion of his Bible in support of your campaign for domination through death and destruction.

May true Americans, past, present and future, condemn you for the carnage you have done in their name, both to their nation and their world.

May history remember you as the architect of a horrendous attack on the best of humanity from it's most base element, the most disasterous and apocolyptic of results only narrowly averted by the better angels of our nature.

Sincerely,

Paul Linnenburger

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