Open Letter to Howard Dean

Dear Dr Dean,

What's a furious citizen to do? The Republicans are destroying American society and the Democrats are holding the door for them. Are Al Gore, Russ Feingold, Robert Byrd and John Murtha the only high-profile Democrats with any kajones?

Did you read Molly Ivins latest piece? (www.progressive.org/mag_ivins0306) That article precisely sums up my feelings. We Democrats are unhappy. We are disaffected. We are angry. Every progressive societal advance made in the last century is being undermined or reversed by Republicans sold out to corporations and industry.

Where are the Democrats? How could all those Democrats have voted for the renewal of the (un)Patriot(ic) Act? Where are their consciences? What about the Constitution? Who are they afraid of?

We're not happy, Dr Dean. Every Democrat I know is angry at the Party, and that's quite a lot of people. My family and friends are not anomalies. We are every-day working Democrats, ordinary people who have had it with the lies, the incompetence, the destruction, the abuse, the perversion of American values and the loss of good will around the world, to name just a few of the sticking points that enrage us.

We need you, not a Harry Reid or a Nancy Pelosi who haven't got the guts God gave rabbit, to rouse the narcoleptic Democrats from their stupor and somehow make them come out fighting.

I wish Al Gore would announce (now). His speech of Jan 16 was of the right timbre and substance. Who cares what the right-wing pinheads say about him! Come out fighting!

Hillary lost me when she signed onto that stupid anti-flag-burning bill. What is she thinking? That she can pander to the extreme right and still retain my confidence even as she proposes trashing the Bill of Rights? What kind of principles are those?

This country was founded by Liberals on Liberal principles. Let's proudly take back our cherished label. I'm proud to be liberal, dammit, and I don't want Democrats in Congress ducking for cover whenever some Rovean creep points the finger of unpatriotism my way. I'm the patriot! Let's take a stand, for crying out loud.

Please, Sir. The clock is ticking on America. I hate to say this, but I don't see myself cracking open my wallet for wimps and cowards. Why should we throw money at an unresponsive party? But if someone will stand up and go toe to toe with the Republican Party and the Bush Administration, then I'll give and give and give whatever it takes, to defeat the agents of corporate greed that have hijacked the country.

I propose these planks for the Democratic platform. Who's got the muscle to hammer them home?

- Get us out of Iraq. Bring the troops home.
- No more pre-emptive wars.
- Public financing of all campaigns NOW.
- A return to healthy environmental policy.
- Roll back the damn tax cuts!
- Single-payer health insurance for everyone NOW!

Wake them up on the Hill, Dr Dean. Please!

When Life Begins is a Religious Question

In my religion, the name of which is unimportant, and which the First Amendment guarantees us the right to practice without government interference, human life begins at the time of birth. According to my religion, human life begins at the moment of birth when the soul takes possession of the body. From that point forward, we have a person with natural and legal rights of their own.

Also according to my religion, prior to birth and the soul taking possession of the new body, the fetus is a biological organism under the exclusive control of the woman carrying it. What she does with it prior to birth is entirely up to her and between her and God. Again, this is religion. There is no science that can refute this belief and no law that can constitutionally interfere with it.

Some people have the religious view that human life begins at conception. That's fine. They are free to believe that as an article of faith and to live according to that faith and there is no science that can refute such and no law that can constitutionally interefer with it. Pepople of this belief system are most likely to find abortion morally wrong, and I can see where for them it would be.

The First Amendment enjoins the government from interfering with the practice of either of these belief systems or from making laws based on any system of religious belief.

Therefore, neither the federal government nor any state can constitutionally make a law requiring, for example, that a doctor tell a woman that life begins at conception (or any other time) because that is a religious position and the First Amendment prohibits the enacting of laws based on religion. You'd think this point would be obvious to the legal scholars out there.

In closing, I offer a little prayer of liberation:

Lord, deliver us from the overbearing among us who, well intentioned as they may see themselves, would in violation of the law of the land seek to impose their religious stricture upon those of differing belief. Spare us, Oh Lord, from such iniquity, we beseech you in the name of all that is right and good and just. Amen.