[Peace-discuss] reply to Kerry fundraising letter

[jencart]

Want this read by Kerry's staff?  Send it into a magazine, Ricky.... The Nation, or Progressive, or ?    Jenifer
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[I recently received an appeal for funds from John
Kerry For President Inc., as I suppose did many of
you.  At Sunday's meeting we discussed communicating
our positions to the Kerry campaign, so I thought I'd
share my response, below.  I'd be interested in any
thoughts anyone has. - Ricky]

Dear John Kerry:

I received your fundraising letter the other day,
saying you’d “fight for every vote,” and asking for
money.  So I’m writing to let you know what it would
take for you to win my money and my vote.

Your letter is pretty vague about why I should vote
for you -- as is your campaign.  It’s mostly about
voting against George W. Bush, and maybe you think
that’s enough.  But some of us expect better.  I for
one want to vote against what Bush represents -- not
just against the man -- and I’m not sure that you’re
giving me that chance.

First, your letter cites Bush’s “inept, reckless
foreign policy.”  But you’ve agreed with him on every
major policy decision along the way.  You voted for
the illegal and immoral war in Iraq.  You said, “I
believe we must always have a preemptive right” to
first strike, which is illegal under the UN Charter. 
You have agreed with the vicious and illegal Israeli
policies toward occupied Palestinian lands, blaming
the Palestinians for Israel‘s refusal to abide by UN
Resolutions calling for Israeli withdrawal.  You were
right behind Bush in condemning the US abuse of Iraqi
POWs -- and rightly so -- but you also joined Bush in
declaring the problem to be of limited scope, limited
to a few “bad apples”, and not the pattern of abuse
stretching back to Vietnam that the evidence shows
(and you once seemed to know).  I'd like to see a
reversal of these positions.

You also voted for the “USA PATRIOT Act”, the “Visa
Entry Reform Act” and other draconian legislation,
much of which was on the Republican wish list for
years.  You seem to agree with the President that the
only way to protect our lives is to trash the
Constitution, the same document you would have to
swear to defend if you’re elected, justthe opposite of
what I look for in a candidate.

True, as you say, millions live in fear of losing
jobs, healthcare, pensions, etc.  But so far you
haven’t shown that you would fix any of that.  These
are not academic issues to many of us who have not had the benefit of your personal wealth.  My family has
experienced unemployment, loss of healthcare and other benefits, underfunded education, children raised in
poverty and abortions out of desperation.  My mother,
who recently suffered a major heart attack as well as
gall bladder surgery, may be about to lose her
healthcare.  These are issues I personally, along with
millions of other Americans, need to see addressed in
reality not just rhetoric.  You say you want to
replace “doubt with hope,” “fear with security,” and
“broken promises with a real plan.”  But mostly what I
see coming out of your campaign so far are doubt, fear
and not much of a plan.

On jobs, you called the idea of pulling out of NAFTA
and the WTO “disastrous,” even though these kind of
so-called “free trade” agreements are in fact draining
off US jobs at a “disastrous” rate, not to mention the
devastating effect on neighboring economies.  You
haven’t  promised to stand behind unions when their
employers lock them out or permanently replace
strikers, to my knowledge.  You haven’t come out in
favor of penalties or other consequences for
corporations that “cut and run” from communities that
have subsidized them for years, leaving une