An Open Letter to my Brother

Oh, brother, where art thou?
by Charlie Leck

I’m going to let you share in this letter that I wrote this morning to my brother about his rather firm decision to vote for McCain and Palin in this November’s election.

Dear brother,

Thanks for your note criticizing my blog of 6 September about the contemporary Republican Party and the hatred that consumes it. I’m so sorry we’re on different sides of this issue.

It would be nice if we could sit down over a big lobster or a platter full of cherrystones and talk about this matter but I know that one or both of us would end up getting frightfully angry and there would be a scene.

Your main question seems to be about how I can possibly turn over the safety of this nation and international security to Senator Obama. Oh, brother, where art thou?

Do you realize how insecure we are right now? And, don’t you realize that what McCain and Palin advocate is just an absolute continuation of the current policies.

If there were problems anywhere in the world now, that threatened our security, we have, because of our current military involvements, only one means left with which to protect ourselves. That one means, of course, is the most horrific one and the one that we would least like to use. Our military is stretched to its maximum limits right now. We have a powerful and superior air fighting force and a good Navy that can move it; and that gives us the only hope we have in a moment of crisis. Otherwise, we are stretched too thin. We have no available ground forces to inject into volatile situations.

To hear Palin say it, and McCain endorse it, the idea that the war in Iraq is God’s battle is something that nearly turns my stomach. You personally know better than that. For how many years did we attend the same church and listen to the same sermons and learn from the same Sunday School teachers. This war has nothing to do with God and His will is not being implemented in this cruel war. God does not ever approve of the useless and cruel killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. It gets very dangerous to inject religion in this whole question. It is even more dangerous when people who don’t understand the depth of our faith treat it as if it something common and simple.

Dear brother, the Muslim people are not our enemy. Our enemies are those extremists – whether Christian or Muslim or Taoists or Atheists who threaten our ultimate freedom.

The desperateness of our nation’s economic condition right now further weakens us militarily around the world. We haven’t the money to spend on further clashes and involvements – even the most petty ones – without driving ourselves even more deeply into debt. If there were to be an actual economic crash in the nation, we might be left impotent.

It is difficult, if not total fantasy, to try to blame this economic crisis on anyone but the ultra-conservative political movement in this nation that his given away virtually all the regulatory controls we once had over massive financial institutions and Wall Street.

The McCain/Palin ticket promises only a continuation of the Bush economic policies.

I fear you spend too much time listening to the constantly chattering purveyors of hate and division on the radio. These talk show idiots got exactly the kind of leadership they have been calling for over the last eight years and this awful administration has driven our nation into the dirt. I cannot believe that you want more of the same old, same old.

I have ultimate confidence in Senator Obama’s ability to reunite us with our former international friends and allies.

Don’t you find it refreshing that Senator Obama is incredibly intelligent? Are we afraid of intelligence in the White House? Over the last eight years, we have certainly proved what a lack of it in our highest office can do.

If you question Obama’s loyalty to our nation, you have definitely been listening to the bottom feeders among the media. Obama is a proud American who adores his country and wants only the very best for it. However, Obama also believes in the concept of global brotherhood. He is aware that we must be internationally responsible and a good and fair playing partner on the world scene.

A vote for McCain/Palin is a vote for the least we can be. America has lost its place as a great leader on the international stage. Obama, with the respect in which he is already held among our former friends and international partners, can return us to that place of leadership. Obama can make America proud of herself again and he can make the world admire us again.

I fear you will not even get to this place in my letter, dear brother, but, if you do, I hope you will try to think all of this through with a clear and unbiased mind. Do not bind yourself to a movement of hatred and fear. Move on in hope, knowing America needs to save itself – knowing that America can be a proud and great nation again.

Love from your brother,

Charles