Only Love Can Conquer Hate

Lately I've been listening to some really great music protesting the war. In the great tradition of Vietnam protest songs in the 60's (Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind, Lennon's Imagine, Marvin Gaye's What's Goin On?) we have these amazing songs such as When the President Talks to God (Bright Eyes), American Idiot (Green Day) and even Not Ready to Make Nice (Dixie Chicks). The song that has resonated with me most however is Dear Mr. President (Pink). The lyrics like "how can you sleep while the rest of us cry?" and "when you look in the mirror are you proud?" have inspired me to write my own open letter to the Executive in Chief. Enjoy!

Dear Mr. President,

I'm an American citizen who has lived abroad now for six years. I am also a Christian, like yourself. As you know, we are charged with thanking God for all things, in the good and the bad times. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought a "thank-you" note would be appropriate.

First of all I thank God for you. Jesus told us that leaders are allowed by God to lead. God probably helped save you from your addictions to alcohol and cocaine use. You wouldn't be where you are today if it wasn't for God. It's a hard job, harder than you probably expected and I don't envy you at all.

Secondly, I thank God for showing Christians the folly of being over-involved in politics. We're beginning to realize that killing of innocents is not of God and torture is not Christlike. Thank you Mr. President for showing us how we have been used and manipulated for political gain.

Third, I thank God that, because of your misguided leadership on the environment, we now know that global warming and dependence on oil are problems we can't afford to ignore. God created this Earth and gave it to us as stewards, not to exploit it for our own selfish reasons.

Finally, I thank God for your extremist policies on same-sex union, stem-cell research and terrorism. By focusing so much of your attention on these issues, we were able to see how far removed you are from our core values of compassion, justice, mercy, forgiveness and above all, grace.

I will continue to pray for you, your wife and your children in addition to all the families (on both sides) that have lost and will continue to lose their children and spouses in this war (almost 4,000 US military and over 77,000 Iraqi civilians).

Sincerely,

Danifesto

So- what would you say to the president?