06.22.04
Posted in politics, culture at 1:56 pm by
So, I get back in the office from a nice lunch with my boss at Rose’s on reeds lake (I had the grilled Mahi Mahi sandwich…it was great.)
When I got back, I had received an email regarding my recent request to her (Debbie Stabenow) to urge the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld. I decided to post it and some thoughts–mostly because of the few naysayers who claimed that my form request to a senator would go unanswered and uncared about. (By the way, all you naysayers can suck it.)
So here’s the email…
Thank you . . .
. . for contacting me regarding the resignation of Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. I appreciate you taking the time to share your views with me.
The recent revelations of prisoner abuse and humiliation at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq raise serious concerns about the military’s treatment of Iraqi prisoners. I am profoundly disappointed that the actions of a few could potentially undermine our efforts in Iraq and the rest of the world. However, I am pleased to see that my colleagues, Senators Carl Levin and John Warner, are conducting hearings to find answers in the Armed Services Committee.
I want to stress that the overwhelming majority of men and women who serve our country do so honorably and in accordance with U.S. and international law. I fear that the photos of prisoner abuse are a symptom of a failed system, not merely the actions of a few bad apples. If senior civilian or Pentagon officials instituted the policies that created an environment for this abuse to occur, they must be held responsible. I will ask for the resignation of the Secretary of Defense if he is no longer capable of effectively leading the US military. I eagerly await the results of the hearings and investigations currently underway.
In light of these deplorable incidents, I hope that real change can occur in the process by which our military conducts interrogations. As the moral and military leader of the world, we should hold ourselves to the highest standard of conduct. I expect the Department of Defense to critically examine its procedures, and initiate a wave of reforms that will prevent incidents depicted in the Abu Ghraib prison photos from occurring again.
Thank you once again for contacting me. Please feel free to do so whenever I may be of assistance to you or your family.
Sincerely,
Debbie Stabenow
United States Senator
I appreciate “Debbie’s” response…although it was likely an aid who crafted this email. And let’s be clear–I am certainly on her party’s side of the issue on this one. One thing took me aback though. Debbie cites that we are the military leader of the world, and I certainly agree with her treatment of this issue–though I would speculate whether the money it takes to be a world military leader is money well spent. My question, though, is why are we the “moral” leader of the world–I mean, what have we done truly to have such an honor bestowed upon us? Are my morals–our morals–somehow better than those elsewhere? I find this more than disturbing, it would seem that my ‘liberal’ senator is adopting some of that rhetoric that has made her commander-in-chief so popular with the religious right.
Ah…now it dawns on me. I submitted my request to Debbie through Sojourner’s magazine. Maybe she assumes I AM the religous right. It all causes me to ponder–where does the religous “left” exist? It would seem that it doesn’t exist in the mind of a politician, or in the mind of those who would call themselves the religious right. Where does that leave me? I fear it leaves me in some nebulous middle ground…no womans land. A place where the popular political wisdom would lump me in with the religous right, and the religous right would damn me to hell for supporting a tax hike. I’m a political renegade on one hand and a religous renegade on the other.
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Posted in politics, culture at 1:56 pm by
So, I get back in the office from a nice lunch with my boss at Rose’s on reeds lake (I had the grilled Mahi Mahi sandwich…it was great.)
When I got back, I had received an email regarding my recent request to her (Debbie Stabenow) to urge the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld. I decided to post it and some thoughts–mostly because of the few naysayers who claimed that my form request to a senator would go unanswered and uncared about. (By the way, all you naysayers can suck it.)
So here’s the email…
Thank you . . .
. . for contacting me regarding the resignation of Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. I appreciate you taking the time to share your views with me.
The recent revelations of prisoner abuse and humiliation at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq raise serious concerns about the military’s treatment of Iraqi prisoners. I am profoundly disappointed that the actions of a few could potentially undermine our efforts in Iraq and the rest of the world. However, I am pleased to see that my colleagues, Senators Carl Levin and John Warner, are conducting hearings to find answers in the Armed Services Committee.
I want to stress that the overwhelming majority of men and women who serve our country do so honorably and in accordance with U.S. and international law. I fear that the photos of prisoner abuse are a symptom of a failed system, not merely the actions of a few bad apples. If senior civilian or Pentagon officials instituted the policies that created an environment for this abuse to occur, they must be held responsible. I will ask for the resignation of the Secretary of Defense if he is no longer capable of effectively leading the US military. I eagerly await the results of the hearings and investigations currently underway.
In light of these deplorable incidents, I hope that real change can occur in the process by which our military conducts interrogations. As the moral and military leader of the world, we should hold ourselves to the highest standard of conduct. I expect the Department of Defense to critically examine its procedures, and initiate a wave of reforms that will prevent incidents depicted in the Abu Ghraib prison photos from occurring again.
Thank you once again for contacting me. Please feel free to do so whenever I may be of assistance to you or your family.
Sincerely,
Debbie Stabenow
United States Senator
I appreciate “Debbie’s” response…although it was likely an aid who crafted this email. And let’s be clear–I am certainly on her party’s side of the issue on this one. One thing took me aback though. Debbie cites that we are the military leader of the world, and I certainly agree with her treatment of this issue–though I would speculate whether the money it takes to be a world military leader is money well spent. My question, though, is why are we the “moral” leader of the world–I mean, what have we done truly to have such an honor bestowed upon us? Are my morals–our morals–somehow better than those elsewhere? I find this more than disturbing, it would seem that my ‘liberal’ senator is adopting some of that rhetoric that has made her commander-in-chief so popular with the religious right.
Ah…now it dawns on me. I submitted my request to Debbie through Sojourner’s magazine. Maybe she assumes I AM the religous right. It all causes me to ponder–where does the religous “left” exist? It would seem that it doesn’t exist in the mind of a politician, or in the mind of those who would call themselves the religious right. Where does that leave me? I fear it leaves me in some nebulous middle ground…no womans land. A place where the popular political wisdom would lump me in with the religous right, and the religous right would damn me to hell for supporting a tax hike. I’m a political renegade on one hand and a religous renegade on the other.
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Tim said,
June 23, 2004 at 10:52 pm
I was taken aback by the same thing in that letter. Does the world think that the US is the world moral leader, or is it just the US. I would expectt that it is just the US. Of course, the rest of us countries aren’t there either. I don’t really think there is a moral leader. Some people in some nations just like to think of themselves as the big fish. Watch out for China. improving technology, many more soldiers, and smart enough to travel under the radar. Power and the perception of power are very different things.
J.R. said,
June 24, 2004 at 5:43 pm
I will join you in being the religious left.
together we will be shunned by our own party, and our own religion. yeah!
Karina said,
June 25, 2004 at 9:57 am
I received the same e-mail from Debbie. And I also found it interesting, disturbing actually, that the US in the moral leader of this world. Whoa, where did that come from?! I guess maybe there is something the left and the right can agree on…who’d of thunk it?!
Michael Stryder said,
May 25, 2005 at 11:32 am
Your “no woman’s land” dilemna is the result of a system that has to classify and fit everything into it’s respective box. For all the pop wisdom about thinking ‘outside the box’, our society still rejects those who do. We are more interested in statistics than we are in exploring the complexity of the human situation. It’s the market research, poll riddled world that we have grown so accustomed to which limits our options to only one of a select few choices between badly worded test questions. In this environment you are nothing until you choose a side. But this is a battle that can be won. I say, those of us in the middle outnumber those on the extremes, and if we are diligent, persistent, calm and rational, someday the sun will once again shine on the voices of sanity.