Dear Fellow-Americans

Oct. 4, 2004

Dear Fellow-Americans,

I am a Filipino-American residing in the Philippines. The U.S. Bill of Rights is precious to me. It has made it possible for me to think freely, to articulate my views, however unpopular or heretical they might be. Indeed to write what follows without fear of suppression or repercussion. I should wish to put on public record my shame of the U.S. government. The central government in Washington has become a source of national malady and international ills rather than the potential for local and global sanity.

More than half the population of the world is under-nourished, not because it need be, but because the U.S. government prefers to be in the business of killing rather than helping poorer countries achieve a higher standard of living. For example, instead of sending to the Philippines materials for human welfare, the U.S. government sends materials for enemy warfare. The result, thus far: - the Filipino is becoming more sophisticated in the business of killing fellow-Filipinos. Meanwhile poverty, hunger, disease, unemployment, and the continuing population explosion continue to be problems for divine intervention, and not attention for Philippine government confrontation.

Yesterday, killings were about the fight against “communists,” in possession of weapons of mass destruction. Today, it is called the fight against “terrorists” in possession of weapons of mass destruction. What’s the difference? In fact, many countries possess “weapons of mass destruction.” Half of the world calls it “faith in God.” The other half calls it “faith in Allah.” And under whichever faith, the faithful believers see nothing immoral to cut each other’s throat, especially since both cannot agree as to what will happen to them after their throats have been cut. Now isn’t it obvious that our enemy is not another human being, but organized conflicting faiths based on sacred barbarism?

Bertrand Russell once asked: “Have we all become savage? Why do we turn, inevitably, towards ferocity in dealing with political opponents – towards maiming or killing or sentencing them to disproportionately long imprisonment? I think it is because we live in an atmosphere of fear bred by political policies. We have been conditioned to accept cruelty, even the threat of extermination, as the sole means of defending a way of life that seems to prove itself, by such result, hardly worth defending.”

The greater crime we face today is the crime of silence. It is time to speak up. I am most proud of Michael Moore. In the film document FAHRENHEIT 9/11, he proved it no longer a theory, but a paradoxical fact that as far as the United States government is concerned, nations of this world can only keep alive by preparing to kill each other. The main economy of the United States continues to be based on revenues not for health and community development, but for war, death and destruction, and the preparation for future wars.

Nothing breeds more hate and terror than the spread of fear based on lies. Our young men and women in military uniform, no doubt, have the courage to die in battle; unfortunately, they do not have the courage to question what it is that they are dying for in Iraq today. Immoral acts breed immoral acts. Must we therefore continue to commit atrocities because we cannot discontinue to believe absurdities?

I appeal to fellow-Americans to support Americans with a conscience everywhere today who give the USA a good name. One such thinking American is Ramsey Clark. He referred George W. Bush, James Baker, Richard Cheney, Colin Powell, and others to the International War Crimes Tribunal – a commission of inquiry for evidences of war crimes against Iraq and crimes against humanity.

Let us work and vote for a government of construction and not a government of destruction. In this 21st century, there is no longer any need for American wealth and power to be based upon past wars, present wars, and the preparation for future wars. The power and wealth of America should be founded upon the pursuit of the truth, the spread of liberty, and the advancement of science for peace and goodwill to all men, women, and children throughout the world.

Yours faithfully,

POCH SUZARA
Bertrand Russell Society, Philippines
San Lorenzo Village
Makati city, Philippines