Sean Penn

After my period of complete devastation in November 2004, when America allowed Bush and his cronies to continue fucking up the world, I concluded that I would surely forget about what might have been had there been no such thing as a Florida Supreme Court. I was fairly confident that I would eventually learn to live with it all.

It is now March 2006, and not a day goes by that I don't splutter a hostile anti-Bush statement, packed with expletives, to my housemates or anyone else I happen to be in the presence of. I feel sick with every image I see of gwb, with every simple word I hear him say. Listening to celebrities bag the administration is utterly therapeutic.

This evening, I came across an open letter from Sean Penn to gwb, dated October 2002 (when the prospect of an invasion of Iraq was part of international conversation). It is articulate and full of truth. I want to highlight certain sections of it. For the complete letter, go to http://www.peace.ca/seanpenn.htm.

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"Like you, I am a father and an American. Like you, I consider myself a patriot. Like you, I was horrified by the events of this past year, concerned for my family and my country. However, I do not believe in a simplistic and inflammatory view of good and evil."

"Many of your actions to date and those proposed seem to violate every defining principle of this country over which you preside: intolerance of debate ("with us or against us"), marginalization of your critics,the promoting of fear through unsubstantiated rhetoric, manipulation of a quick comfort media, and the position ofyour administration's deconstruction of civil liberties all contradict the very core of the patriotism you claim. You lead, it seems, through a blood-lined sense of entitlement."

"How far have we come from understanding what it is to kill one man, one woman, or one child, much less the "collateral damage" of many hundreds of thousands? Your use of the words, "this is a new kind of war" is often accompanied by an odd smile."

"It concerns me that what you are asking of us is to abandon all previous lessons of history in favor of following you blindly into the future. It worries me because, withall your best intentions, an enormous economic surplus has been squandered. Your administration has virtually dismissed the most fundamental environmental concerns and therefore, by implication, one gets the message that, as you seem to be willing to sacrifice the children of the world, would you also be willing to sacrifice ours?"