We get a lot of e-mail to Gold Star Families for Peace. There's a lot of support, a fair bit of hate mail and the occasional reasonable disagreement. Here's something I wrote in response to the latter.
Mrs. Graner, I generally don't respond to people who send to Gold Star Families for Peace messages that insist that we are dishonoring our troops, aiding our enemies or otherwise are unpatriotic. However, you seem to be one of the most calm and reasonable folks to send us such a note, so here's my response. Like you, I pray that God is guiding our president and blessing our country, especially for us to open our eyes to the truth that frees us from our habits of seeking wealth and power, freedom from self-deception. The stakes are never higher than in the decision to make war. The president is responsible to ensure that his leadership is based on accurate, complete information. If he didn't know that his justifications for the war were falsehoods, he was still responsible to know. We deserve to give ourselves better leaders. Even though this war removed a terrible dictator and may have given the Iraqi people greater hope, we deserve to give ourselves better leaders. I am not God, so all I have are opinions, but I believe that it would a great blessing for our nation to acknowledge that we allowed ourselves to be led to war on false evidence and to act accordingly as stewards of freedom. It would a blessing to acknowledge that we are doing far more harm than good in Iraq, and that freedom, although it can be defended with arms, is is never a gift of bullets and bombs. It would be a blessing for our nation to agree that peace is not simply the absence of conflict, for then we might better resist the temptation to solve conflict by force. I believe that we can redeem the loss of my nephew Wes and the many others who gave their lives for their friends in Iraq by adopting their spirit of self- sacrifice -- in the cause of peace, not an unjust war. I also wish to respond to the poem for which you send a link in your last e- mail. I have received this poem a number of times lately: > It is the soldier, not the reporter, > Who has given us freedom of the press. > > It is the soldier, not the poet, > Who has given us freedom of speech. > > It is the soldier, not the lawyer, > Who has given us the right to a fair trial. > > It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, > Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. The United States of America, from our very beginning, has deeply opposed the idea that freedom is given by any person, king, soldier, lawyer or writer. The words of our Declaration of Independence say this as clearly as anyone ever has: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Freedom, the Declaration says, is a gift of God, Mrs. Graner. Soldiers, reporters, poets, lawyers and activists at their best, are stewards of freedom, not its creator. I respect the spirit of self-sacrifice of our soldiers, their willingness to take orders, but I will not worship them. I will not confuse the power of the sword to defend freedom with the power of God who created it. Those who give their lives for their friends, with their minds, hearts and hands, give the greatest love of all. Soldiers walk among us every day, Mrs. Graner, in visible armor of steel or Kevlar, in invisible armor of ancient words or new prophecy. These are arms that can destroy or build up, but armor and weapons do not make a soldier of war or peace; it is the spirit of self-sacrifice and love that is the beacon in earthly darkness. Nick -- Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] Voicemail: 408-904-7198 _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
