corycullinan.com

Friends,

No jokes, for once.

I send this to all of you, regardless of your political perspective, as I believe this is an election that transcends party affiliation. If you are one of my conservative friends, I especially hope you will grant me the favor of an audience. At the bottom of this letter are links to and descriptions of many insightful articles on this Presidential election I have read in the past months — articles by liberals, conservatives, and those in the middle. If you do nothing else, I hope you will skip down to the first link and read the New York Times’ eloquent and impassioned Presidential endorsement of John Kerry. Feel free to forward these links and this letter to anyone, and I welcome your feedback.

I urge you to vote to change our Presidential administration on Tuesday. I do not consider this a Democrat versus Republican issue — I am a progressive Democrat myself, but I have complete respect for principled conservative perspectives and have never written an appeal like this before, in any election. I consider it a national integrity issue, and an important statement to both ourselves and the rest of the world concerning our national standards of accountability. If Mr. Gore — the candidate I voted for in 2000 — had assumed the Presidency and proudly projected the same caricature of the Ugly And Uninformed American to the rest of the world that Mr. Bush has conveyed — at precisely the time when the arms of the world were reaching out to us — I would not be voting for him again despite my party affiliation. I would choose another candidate instead.

My friends, for once this election is not about how much money should be left in your wallet versus how much money should be entrusted to the government. It is not about whether Republicans or Democrats hold the key to our future prosperity. It is not about religious versus secular morality. Rather, it is about something more universally defining: It is about whether we have any sense of accountability to ourselves and to the world community. And it is this sense of personal accountability that lies at the very core of integrity, of character — of greatness.

The true measure of the character of an individual, an organization, or a nation is not the measure of our mistakes — rather, it is the measure of our response to our mistakes. We all make the wrong call sometimes. Whether or not we seek to learn from our mistakes, and improve — not just for our own benefit, but for the benefit of those whom our actions affect — is the measure to which we should be fairly judged.

This is what we teach our children, but this core value in the search for excellence sometimes gets lost in the complex competitions which govern our adult world. In this election, you are not voting Democrat or Republican. You are deciding if we are going to look in the mirror, evaluate our strengths and weaknesses, reach out to others, and proclaim what we can be; or whether we close the mirror, pronounce ourselves content, look out to the world, and defend what we are. The former describes individuals and empires rising to greatness; the latter describes individuals and empires in decline.

On September 12th, 2001, newspapers across the world proclaimed “We Are All Americans Now.” We earned that good will through a history of an unprecedented combination of democracy, strength and generosity, the most shining example probably being the Marshall Plan. Certainly, we have not been perfect. But we have headed in the right direction, and made some incredible leaps along the way.

Three years later, world opinion of America is just the opposite. What happened? Factors certainly include joining Australia as the only industrialized nations not to sign the Kyoto environmental accord; the undemocratic and internationally unlawful incarceration without due process of prisoners in Guantanamo, many of whom have subsequently been released without charge after months in captivity; and the hypocritical abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison coupled with the denial of responsibility for this by anyone of authority in the administration. But The Big One — because we made it The Big One — is our disastrous decision to go to war in Iraq, and our even more disastrous denial of accountability for the long-term impacts the war is having and will have.

We made the wrong call on Iraq. Many well-intentioned politicians — Republican and Democrat — passionately, sincerely and patriotically made the wrong call. It’s understandable. What happened to our country is something that hasn’t happened since 1941 — a deadly attack on our own soil. But our good intentions — and I believe that everybody, from Mr. Bush on down, had good intentions — will not distract history, as it has distracted us, from these now generally uncontested facts:

1. The reasons for which we based our attack on Iraq were completely erroneous;
2. Iraq did not pose an immediate threat to our country;
3. Iraq was not affiliated in any way with those who attacked us on September 11, 2001.

History will join contemporary international opinion to view these facts with incredulous disrespect, even if the dust of irrationality surrounding these events has not yet settled today in America. History will further recall that the tremendous human and economic costs of the second Iraq war were even more tragic because we did not accomplish our goal — to stifle terrorism — but rather inspired it. If you doubt any of this, open your child’s or grandchild’s history textbook in twenty years and read the verdict for yourself.

The judgment of history, however, is not what makes this election so vital. It is our own demand for integrity and excellence — and the impact this has on our ability to join, lead and inspire our international peers — that should concern us now. We are the sole superpower now, but we won’t be forever. There will come a time when, once again, the power of our integrity and values will be required to lead the world, not just the power of our military and resolve. Our biggest test in the post-9/11 world is on Tuesday, when we decide whether to stand before the world and announce that we do not feel accountable for our actions, and that given the choice, we’d do it the same way again — in a sense, that this is as good as we get. Or, we can deliver this message: We have the strength and decency to adapt and do better.

Mr. Bush proudly promotes his unwavering consistency of direction and guidance from within as a positive moral value in and of itself. “You may not agree with me, but at least you know where I stand.” “I don’t make decisions to win popularity contests in foreign countries.” Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Hitler, and Joseph McCarthy also followed an unwavering “moral” consistency from within, but history does not inform us that they had similar positive effects on the world. This is because following your gut and staying the course is not in and of itself a virtue — whether or not that course has a positive impact on the world community is where the measure of political virtue lies. Sometimes, changing the course is the sign of true strength and virtue. Just ask Mikhail Gorbachev.

If our great nation were truly consistent in staying the course above all else without letting the facts get in its way, black people and women wouldn’t be voting on Tuesday, and we’d still be fighting in Vietnam today. There comes a time when facts and consequences force all great leaders to adapt their plans. Inability to adapt leads to extinction or tragedy, as mistakes are compounded. Children learn this from The Sneetches, the South-Going Zax and the North-Going Zax. Adults in powerful positions must be required to know it too. Above all else, I am stunned that Mr. Bush believes that his ideological entrenchment from reality is a virtue, and millions of Americans are cheering him on. It is closer to “The Emperor Has No Clothes” than I ever expected to see in my country.

I love my country. I think my country is the summit of political achievement in all of history. I’m not kidding. I am in awe of what we have accomplished in our nation — that rare and fine example of a group of people being far greater than the sum of its parts. I am in awe of group decisions that reach higher than self interest, gut instinct and adrenalized patriotism for something more far-reaching and noble, something more long-term and courageous — moments in our history like the adoption of real civil rights laws in the sixties and the formation and embracement of the Marshall Plan after the second world war.

This is one of those moments. It is one of those moments where we will decide whether we have the accountability and foresight to amend our direction, as we did in the examples above, or whether we’re too scared to do so. To communicate our true strength, both to ourselves and to our peers, it is time to reload, revitalize, and reconnect with the rest of the world as a responsible and accountable world tenant. It is time to return to a mature political perspective and realize that, as a nation, we can and must simultaneously listen to outside opinion and be strong and rugged individualists.

In twenty years, my daughters will be educated young women. I hope that their education will provide them with the same optimism and strength that mine did — the knowledge that, as a nation, we are strong enough to look ourselves in the eye and say: We’ve seen what we’ve done, and we can do better.

The links are below. Reading them would probably take an hour or two. If you haven’t found the time to read what experts unaffiliated with the candidates are saying about the election, it is impossible to sort out the facts. Do not believe the myth that all politicians exaggerate and lie equally. It’s a myth that appeals to the sense of overwhelmed frustration and exhaustion inherent in all of our busy American lives, but think about it: Belief in such a myth assures that those with the worst ethics will always have the upper hand.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Cory Cullinan
__________

Links:

Here’s the New York Times endorsement of John Kerry, which provides an impassioned point-by-point analysis of the “disastrous tenure” of the Bush Presidency:

http://thenooz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2004/10/new_york_times_.html

This is a great article by former conservative (now independent) Arianna Huffington, who factually and methodically debunks the myth that the Bush administration is strong on the fight against terrorism:

http://www.ariannaonline.com/columns/column.php?id=733

President Bush says that Iraq has made great strides and is now free. If the current conditions in Iraq existed in the U.S., our statistics would be as follows:

http://www.juancole.com/2004_09_01_juancole_archive.html#109582366638394688

This summary of a nonpartisan report published this week calculates that there have been 100,000 “excess deaths” of Iraqi civilians in the last 18 months due to the war:

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=NW_1-T&oldflok=ne-us-12-l6&flok=FF-RTO-rontz&idq=/ff/story/0002%2F20041028%2F1457167130.htm&sc=rontz

This article fact-checks Mr. Cheney’s pre- and post-war explanations of reasons we went to war in Iraq:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6192327/site/newsweek

Below are two eloquent lifelong conservatives who describe and lament the Bush administration’s defection from core conservative principles and values…

Noted conservative columnist George Will discusses why the people who should most want Bush out of office are true conservatives. Will also criticizes Kerry, primarily for not pointing out the ludicrous nature of Bush’s positions more persuasively:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6038230/site/newsweek/

“Respected conservatives agree with ˜clueless lefties”” is an insightful article by columnist Pierre M. Atlas, a registered Republican who twice voted for Bush’s father:

http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/182591-1310-021.html

Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria’s “A Vision, and Little Else” insightfully touches on the administration’s disrespect for the rest of the world — the people they claim they want to “liberate” — and total misunderstanding of historical lessons:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5915512/site/newsweek/

Newsweek’s financial analyst Allen Sloan describes “The Real Cost Of Ownership,” Bush’s reckless and typically shortsighted and poorly conceived pitch to privatize social security:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5916005/site/newsweek/

Billionaire philanthropist and Hungarian immigrant George Soros, who’s devoted half his personal fortune to fostering democracy throughout the world, has interesting and passionate insights on the war:

http://georgesoros.com:80/index.cfm?Fuseaction=SpeechHTML

A documentary about Mr. Bush, which premiered at the Republican National Convention and was created by a group of passionate supporters as a response to “Fahrenheit 9/11,” is described here:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/100404L.shtml

I didn’t even mention the dangers of global warming above, which is considered by many experts to be the greatest threat ever to face humanity — far greater than terrorism — and which the Bush administration has consistently dismissed as controversial junk science. The administration’s disinterest in global warming as an immediate threat is perhaps the ultimate example of dangerous short-term vision. If the articles below don’t fuel a desire for more information, I don’t know what will…

Here’s a chilling article on global warming and how much our candidates are addressing it:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041101&s=hertzgaard

Here’s a NASA Scientist who describes how the Bush administration reacts to briefings on global warming and other environmental concerns to the public:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/102804G.shtml

This year, the Union Of Concerned Scientists — a “who’s who” of Nobel laureates, top scientists, and experts — issued this statement on the Bush Administration’s response to environmental science and scientists:

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/rsi/page.cfm?pageID=1320

The Pentagon — which is generally considered to be fairly conservative — issued a report this year on what it considers a legitimately possible scenario this century:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0222-01.htm

And finally… For laughs, here’s the Onion’s “Election Day Guide.” If you’ve never read www.theonion.com, check it out — it’s one of the smartest, funniest, socially and politically astute satires out there:

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4043&n=10

I hope you find the articles illuminating.