Dear Senator _________:

Tri-City Action for Peace is a rapidly growing and increasingly active organization in Saginaw, Midland, and Bay City. Many people in Michigan have been lifting up their voices in opposition to this war against Iraq. Many of these people are not the typical radicals; they are mothers, veterans, and hard-working people of all colors.

We oppose war against Iraq because of the moral evil it would do to Iraqi civilians, the fiscal crisis it will cause our government, and the further deterioration of U.S. relations with the world. As a senator from Michigan where working people are struggling through this greed-induced economic downturn, we hope you will do more than vote against reckless military expenditures that divert money from social services; we hope you will advocate proactively against the war with your fellow senators.

We were inspired by the stand of both of our senators against the war authorization resolution this past fall. We have been pleased to hear your support for the UN weapons inspection process. We read in your statement that you were "thoroughly convinced" by Colin Powell's UN presentation, and we are wondering if your opinion changed when it was revealed on BBC that large parts of the "British intelligence" report Powell referenced were plagiarized from a California graduate students' paper that was written 11 years ago.

We have heard you talk about your faith in the United Nations process but we have not heard much about your moral convictions regarding the lives of Iraqi civilians. In the theoretical world of politicians, wars can be fought against a single man, though they result in the death of millions. We know that out of the 535 members of Congress, only one has a child in active military duty. Please explain to us at what point the threat of terrorism against our population is so imminent that it justifies the certain genocide of 500,000 Iraqi civilians. Please also explain why attacking Saddam Hussein will decrease the risk of terrorism rather than actually provoking a retaliation.

Dennis Kucinich is running for president as a peace candidate since the leaders of your party's establishment have chosen to let realpolitik considerations trump their ability to take a moral stand. We are glad that our Michigan senators listen to us enough that we do not have to expend our resources building a campaign for a peace candidate to replace you. We hope that we can continue to call you our ally on Capitol Hill. Please address a written reply to the address at the top. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Morgan Guyton
Coordinator, Tri-City Action for Peace