This past weekend GR CodePink was out in full force looking for some face time with Michigan Congressman Vern Ehlers as he hosted what was billed as a Town Hall Meeting.
But ol' Vern must feel he does not need their votes must less the need to communicate with a group within the hall or he may have been more cordial with their attmepts to ask questions.
While I was out of town I could not attend the meeting, but this AM in my mailbox was a letter from one of the members of Code Pink who had trouble getting Vern Ehlers attention.
This is a reprint of Anne Gossett's letter she has sent to Vern Ehlers:
Dear Mr. Ehlers;
I recently attended your town hall meeting in Grand Rapids and I was really disappointed by what I heard. Not just with you, I was indeed disappointed with your responses, but with my fellow attendees. I was not called on, as you systematically avoided our area, but I can hardly blame you; my pink wig must have been quite disconcerting.
My problem with the tenor of the meeting was due in part to the truly self-serving nature of the questions asked. It bothered me that the general message of most questions was, "Will you fix my problem for me?" Very few seemed particularly global and , if they were, it was generally a xenophobic reaction to a perceived ethnic group destroying their way of life. Well done! I say to you. Well done! Washington has done a superb job of convincing Americans that their neighbors to the south are at the root of their every disconsolation. Well done! Keeps them off that pesky Iraq and Iran topic, doesn't it?
My question, however, did not have to do with my situation personally. I was incensed to ask a question when I heard you agree with that obviously very angry and misguided man that morals today were in a state of decline (not very original, I think when everyone turns 50 they become convinced of this fact). I've written you form emails before regarding my support of gay marriage and received your form reply. It basically said that if you don't personally support something, you won't support it in Washington. How exactly this equals representation is a bit of a conundrum for me, but I digress. . .
My question is this: You identify yourself as a Christian. Can you please explain to me (I wonder if you have a form letter for this one) exactly how it was Christ-like to authorize and continue to support a preemptive war against a sovereign nation? A war, with no end in sight, which has killed thousands of US citizens, 100,000+ Iraqis (mainly children) and has wounded numbers we will never know (not because they are not knowable but because we choose not to count). Was there a passage in the bible that said to turn the other cheek unless you have some specious intelligence information? I guess I wonder how you can hold to your self-defined Christian values so strongly on a subject as innocuous as gay marriage and yet let them fly out the window on a situation that seems to eschew every teaching of the Christ from the beginning to end of his life?
Can you sleep at night knowing the blood of the dead is on your hands? I hope that Christ shows more mercy on your soul than you have shown them.
Yours in Peace,
Anne Gossett
"And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're going through" - David Bowie
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