Congratulations Senator Barack Obama

Wednesday, June 04, 2008


Dear Senator Barack Obama:

I applaud your victory as heir apparent to the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. As they say in Texas: “It's all over but the shouting.” But shouting for joy is not on the immediate menu. Our joyous celebration is forestalled until the Party confirms your nomination in Denver at the Convention in August.

If there is a time for the Audacity of Hope, now would be the time. As a disabled veteran, I regret the loss of peace in the world more than anything else. I am ashamed that I put on the uniform of a country that has become the bully of the world.

Rest assured, that I will advise my children and grandchildren not to buy into this current war. We would spend our time and energies better by praying for peace. (Make sure that reads: Peace with Honor, another treasure in the American value system that has gone down the drain with the Bush administration).

I endorse your candidacy because it is the only visible means of returning to the days of Our Honor. Some, however, would have us to fight on indefinitely, even if we started this war by mistake. However, we cannot reclaim our honor unless we first admit to our mistakes and shortcomings.

The War in Iraq was a mistake and the American public was deceived.

I am dismayed also by the national economy. Our war spending has outstripped our domestic spending. We no longer invest in ourselves and our future. But we invest in another country at the expense of our own, and mortgage the future of our children.

As I said, I am a disabled vet, aged 62, and on fixed income. I realize that my days are numbered. Therefore, whether the earth returns to green or turns toxic brown that is a problem for you and your generation to solve. Whether you and your generation restore our country’s dignity in the world, as once again the leader of democracy in the world, it is your problem for your generation, and most certainly not helped by old foggy war hawks my age. I do not believe in gaining international respect at the point of a gun. This methodology I have always opposed.

I was part of the 1960s Peace Movement then, not because I feared the dangers of the Vietnam War, as some accused us “peaceniks”. I simply got tired of fighting to defend a lie. I will study war no more in the name of deception. But I fight for truth, honesty, and the American way (the “old ways” as it was once known).

I am not naïve as some would make me out to be, simply because I desire peace. It is naïve to not desire peace. It is naïve, arrogant, and self-serving not to try to reestablish friendship with the rest of the world. I am ashamed and in utter pain to see the level to which we, as a nation, has decline. The majority of the world hates us. And, yet we are too self-absorbed and self-righteous to see ourselves as others see us. We cannot heal ourselves without recognizing the beam in our own eye.

Those who choose the war path will never heal, not as a nation and not as a people. We cannot heal ourselves if the house is divided against itself. How can we if we are divided one against the other? Yet there are some who would rather have division, rather than healing.

But peace is sown in the hearts who those who make peace, so says the bible. The Son of God said: “Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God.” The true children of God will work for peace.

As a man of war most of my life, I wish to be counted in the number of the peacemakers. Therefore, I offer you my support. And, may God bless you.

As you proclaimed in your victory speech on yesterday, “God bless the United States of America.” And, I might add, may God have mercy on the “Disunited” States of America.

Sincerely,
From Eddie Griffin
http://eddiegriffinbasg.blogspot.com/