[Peace-discuss] Eve Ensler - Letter to American

Sat Jul 9 16:20:54 CDT 2005

Letter to America

by

Eve Ensler

July 1, 2005

Dear America,

I am longing to reach you-crossing this river of
indifference and consumption and denial. I am trying
to find you, reaching out through the desperate 
limitations of words and descriptions, swimming
through the rhetoric of terror and God.

I need you to wake up. The house is on fire and you
are still sleeping, lulled by the intoxication of
smoke and mirrors. I need you to wake up and I know 
that shaking you, scaring you will only make you cling
to your sleep and sleep more.

How then do I tell you what's going on? How do I tell
you about the one hundred thousand dead Iraqi people
that you and I are responsible for murdering.(1) 
Each one of them valued their life, longed for their
morning, cherished their first cup of milk or coffee
or tea. In what way shall I deliver what I learned?
The substance identical to illegal napalm that melted
tender five year old skin; the cluster bombs that 
have left their murderous and disguised offspring,
throngs of bomblets set to explode, scattered on the
Iraqi earth; the depleted uranium from the Bunker 
Busters we dropped that now lives in lungs and livers
and soil. (2)

How do I tell you about the strategic planning of such
atrocities in the boardrooms, the backrooms, the back
seats of limos, the organized take over and 
looting of Iraq right out from under the terrorized,
hungry, thirsty Iraqi people. (3) How do I get you to
listen to the stories of our soldiers who are 
trying to kill themselves now, longing to escape the
madness of murdering and maiming for no reason? (4)

Please don't go back to sleep. I know how hard it is
to hear of the massive black holes, called prisons we
have dug to hold thousands without charging 
them, without trials or the torture, the meanness, the
cruelty we are inflicting upon them. (5)

America, those who now control our country have
changed and ended law. I do not believe you are so
calloused or selfish that you do not care. Your 
sleep is induced. You are distracted and derailed. The
corporations have concocted and perfected these
sleeping potions for years, developing ingredients to 
make you despise every bit of yourself, to feel ugly
and fat and stupid and poor and not enough. And so you
spend your time and every bit of the money you 
do not have buying products that will make you better,
skinnier, lighter, whiter, tighter. And as you consume
and consume, the corporations consume you. They take
your money and your time and your voice and your
instincts and your outrage and your sorrow and your
anger and your grief. They consume 
your courage and leave fear in its place. They devour
your conscience and your memory and your compassion.

And how do I speak when they are sure to tie my
tongue? When they will say I do not love my country or
support the troops or honor the dead or believe in 
their God? How do I break through your sealed
wrapping, your self-obsession, your
TVheadphonedDVDcell pod?

America I am getting desperate and I know this will
not get me published or heard. Those who control the
information will say I'm extreme, that I've gone 
mad. But I have heard the cries of children in the
exploding houses of Falluja. (6) I have seen the
agonized faces of the sleepless Iraqi women who 
still clutch the outline of their charred dead babies
in their arms. I have watched as we as a nation grow
more isolated, despised and alone.

America, there is not much time left. The fire is
spreading, consuming the world. We are the arsonists.
We will need each other to find our way out through 
the lies and haze. It will take our greatest
imagination, courage and skill to subdue these flames.

Eve Ensler

This letter was written immediately after The World
Tribunal on Iraq in Istanbul where I served with
thirteen others from around the world on a 
jury chaired by Arundhati Roy. The Tribunal consisted
of three days of hearings investigating various issues
related to the war on Iraq, such as the 
legality of the war, the role of the United Nations,
war crimes and the role of the media, as well as the
destruction of the cultural sites and the environment.
The session in Istanbul was the culminating session of
commissions of inquiry and 
hearings held around the world over the past two
years.

Footnotes:

1. Iraq death toll soared 'post war'-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3962969.stm

100,000 Iraqis dead (Lancet survey)

2. US admits to use of napalm -

http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030810-napalm-iraq01.htm

Irregular Weapons Used Against Iraq -

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/consequences/2003/0407

irregular.htm

WHO studies depleted uranium in Iraq -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1506151.stm

3. Rumsfeld, Amnesty trade barbs over prisoner abuse -

http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=64

4. Army probes soldier suicides -

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-10-13-army-suicides-usat_x.htm

Military Families Against the war-

http://www.mfso.org

5. Rumsfeld, Amnesty trade barbs over prisoner abuse -

http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=64

Systematic Use of Psychological Torture by US Forces-

http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=68

6. This Is Our Guernica-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1471011,00.html

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