[Peace-discuss] letter to my former comrades

[Neil Parthun]

Robert --
  I am a person who is part of the wide anti-war movement be
it with the Libertarians, members of the right like Weyrich or
Buchanan, lefties of all sorts...so I really don't like the
guilt by association that you are discussing.

  Limosuine liberals in CU?  I guess I missed the ultra-rich
people all over here in corn country.  And to lump the entire
left as atheists and heathens -- that's not very Christlike.

  We on the left have values as well.  Workers' rights, civil
liberties, being against a purely elective war to get profits
for Halliburton.  A marriage license is a civil instrument,
issued by the state, not the church. Community property,
inheritance and child custody should be matters of law, not
tenets of faith. Decisions on pregnancy, abortion and other
reproductive matters are intensely personal, indeed moral
decisions, and thus not the province of the state. The
morality of science lies in truth, in a pursuit guided by
compassion and ethics, not government edicts.

There is no morality in the government forcing the victim of
rape or incest to bear the fruit of that horror or to dismiss
the health of the mother in abortion decisions. There is no
morality in the denial of legal rights based solely on whom
one chooses to love. There is no morality in rejecting the
promise of a cure to those who suffer from a terrible disease. 

  If you think that Bush's administration or any of the other
aristocrats give a good goddamn about anybody other than the
corporate fat cats that bankroll them, you're in for a rude
awakening.

  Nice job with the straw man about anybody being religious as
an extremist zealot, btw.  There are plenty of admirable
followers of Christ -- but when one uses a religious book to
justify bigotry, that's when the line is crossed.  

  

Stand up and keep fighting,
Neil [parthun at uiuc.edu]

OoOoOo...
On November 2, the voice of the American people was heard. I will not repeat the voice out of respect to the mentally retarded.
[Lewis Black]