A Letter to the People that voted Bush into office

fryguy

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Tue Nov-16-04 01:48 PM
Original message

A Letter to the People that voted Bush into office

Edited on Tue Nov-16-04 02:05 PM by fryguy

A friend of mine just forwarded this to me. Pardon if its a dupe, but even if so it deserves reiteration and further dissemination...

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To whom it may concern -

I am writing this letter to the people in the red states in the middle of the country -- the people who voted for George W. Bush. I am writing this letter because I don't think we know each other...so I'll make an introduction.

I am a New Yorker who voted for John Kerry. I used to live in California, and if I still lived there, I would vote for Kerry. I used to live in Washington, DC, and if I still lived there, I would vote for Kerry. Kerry won in all three of those regions. Kerry also took Northern Virginia (more specifically Fairfax, Alexandria, Arlington) - a commonwealth which hasn't voted Democrat since Lyndon Johnson.

Maybe you want to know more about me...or maybe not. Maybe you think you know me already. You think I am some anti-American anarchist because I dislike George W. Bush. You think that I am immoral and anti-family because I support women's reproductive freedoms and gay rights. You think that I am dangerous and even evil because I do not abide by your religious
beliefs.

Maybe you are content to think that, to write me off as a "liberal" -- the dreaded "L" word -- and rejoice that your candidate has triumphed over evil, immoral, anti-American, anti-family people like me. But maybe you are still curious. So here goes, this is who I am:

I am a New Yorker. I was here, in my downtown apartment on September 11th. I watched the Towers burn from the roof of my building. I went inside so that I couldn't see them when they fell. I had friends who were in the Towers. I have a friend who still has nightmares about watching people jump and fall from the Towers. He will never be the same. How many people like him do you know? Do you know people in your home town that can't sit in a restaurant without plotting an escape route in case it is bombed by terrorists?

I am a worker. I work across the street from the Citigroup Center which the government told us is a "target" of terrorism. Later, we found out they were relaying very old information, but it was already too late. The subway stop near my office was crowded with bomb-sniffing dogs, policemen in heavy protective gear, soldiers. Now, every time I enter or exit my office all of my possessions are X-rayed to make sure I don't have any weapons. How often are you stopped by a soldier with a bomb-sniffing dog outside your office and all your possessions gone through?

I am a neighbor. I have a neighbor who is a 9/11 widow with two children. My husband does odd jobs for her now like building bookshelves...things her husband should do for her if he were still alive. My husband uses her husband's tools and the two little girls tell him, "those are our Daddy's tools." How many 9/11 widows and orphans do you know? How often do you fill in for their dead, loved ones?

I am a taxpayer. I worked my butt off to get where I did, and so did my parents. My parents saved and borrowed and sent me to college. I worked my way through graduate school. I won a full tuition scholarship to law school. All for the privilege of working 2,600 hours last year. That works out to a 50 hour week, every week, without any vacation days at all. I get to work by 9 am and rarely leave before 9 pm. I eat dinner at my office much more often than I eat dinner at home. My husband and I paid over $70,000 in federal income tax last year. At some point in the future, we will have to pay much more -- once this country faces its deficit and the impossible burden of Social Security. In fact, the areas of the country that supported Kerry -- New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts -- they are the financial centers of the nation. They are the tax base of this country. How much did you pay, Kansas? How much did you contribute to this government you support, Alabama? How much of this war in Iraq did you pay for?

I am a liberal. The funny part is, liberals have this reputation for living in Never-Neverland, being idealists, not being sensible. But let me tell you how I see the world: I see America as one nation in a world of nations. Therefore, I think we should try to get along with other nations. I see that gay people exist. Therefore, I think they should be allowed to exist and be treated the same as other people. I see ways in which women are not allowed to control their own bodies. Therefore, I think we should give women more control over their bodies. I see that people have awful diseases. Therefore, I think we should enable scientists to try to cure them. I see that we have a Constitution. Therefore, I think it should be upheld. I see that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Therefore, I think that Iraq was not an imminent danger to me and I would not have been lied to for the purpose of invading it. It seems so pragmatic to me.

How do you see the world? Do you really think voting against gay marriage will keep people from being gay? Would you really prefer that people continue to die from Parkinson's disease? Do you really not care about the Constitutional rights of political detainees? Would you really have supported the war if you knew the truth, or would you have wanted to spend more of our money on health care, job training, terrorism preparedness?

I am an American. I have an American flag flying outside my home. I love my home more than anything. I love that I grew up right outside New York City. I first went to the Statue of Liberty with my 5th grade class, and my mom and dad took me to the Empire State Building when I was 8. I love taking the subway to Yankee Stadium. I loved living in Washington DC and going on dates to the Lincoln Memorial. It is because I love this country so much that I argue with my political opponents as much I do.

I am not safe. I never feel safe anymore. My in-laws live in a small town in Ohio and that town has received more federal funding per capita for terrorism preparedness than New York City. I take subways and buses every day. I work in a skyscraper across the street from a "target." I have emergency supplies and a spare pair of sneakers in my desk in case something happens while I'm at work. Do you? How many times a month do you worry that your ride to work is going to blow up? When you hear sirens on the street, do you run to the window to make sure everything is okay? When you hear an airplane, do you flinch? Do you dread beautiful, blue-skied September days? I don't know a single New Yorker who doesn't spend the month of September on tip-toes, superstitiously praying for rain so we don't have to relive that beautiful, blue-skied day.

I am lonely. I feel that we, as a nation, have alienated all our friends and further provoked our enemies. I feel unprotected. Most of all I feel alienated from my fellow citizens because I don't understand what you are thinking. You voted for a man who started a war in Iraq for no reason and against the wishes of the entire world where well over 1,000 of our bravest men and women have died since the mission was "accomplished." You voted for a man whose lack of foresight and inability to plan has led to massive insurgencies in Iraq where weapons are disappearing into the hands of terrorists. You voted for a man who let Osama Bin Laden escape into the hills of Afghanistan so that he could start that war in Iraq. You voted for a man who doesn't want to let people love who they want to love; doesn't want to let doctors cure their patients; doesn't want to let women rule their destinies.

I don't understand why you voted for this man. For me, it is not enough that he makes himself out to be personable; it is not enough that he seems like one of the guys. Why did you vote for him? Why did you elect a man that lied to us in order to convince us to go to war? (Ten years ago you were incensed when our president lied about his sex life; you thought it was an impeachable offense.) Why did you elect a leader who thinks that strength cannot include diplomacy or international cooperation? Why did you elect a man who did nothing except run away and hide on September 11?

Most of all, I am terrified. I mean, daily I am afraid that I will not survive this. I am afraid that I will lose my spouse, that I will never have children, that I will never grow old and watch the sunset in a backyard of my own. I am afraid that my career -- which should end with a triumphant and good-natured roast at a retirement party in 2035 -- will be cut short by an attack on me and my colleagues, as we sit sending emails and making phone calls one ordinary afternoon.

Is your life at stake? Are you terrified? I don't think you are. I don't think you realize what you have done by electing George W. Bush into office. This man now thinks he has a mandate to make his right-wing, whack-job policies law where all he really has is a very slight majority. Half the country is very, very unhappy...most are very, very angry. And if anything happens to me or the people I love during the next four years, I blame you. I wanted you to know that.

This is who I am. Myself and half our nation voted for John Kerry. DO NOT think you have the moral majority or are morally superior because you live on a farm on one of those red states in the middle of the country.