I had it this morning. Sometimes enough is enough, and I had it, and I had to say something. I had to draw a line, to say something that pained me to say.
I love this President. For everything he has had to deal with, to fight through, to overcome, I love the man and I respect him. And because I respect him, because I believe him to be a man of honor and conscience, I had to write to him and tell him just how horrified I am at how Bradley Manning is being treated.
The latest Glenn Greenwald article regarding Manning's captivity, the daily forced nudity for his sleep time and morning inspection, the humiliation, the degradation, the lack of human regard for a man who has NOT BEEN CONVICTED OF ANYTHING is just too much for me. I could not take it anymore, so I went to the White House website and maxed out my alloted character limit to tell the President how strongly I felt.
Text below the fold...
Mr. President,
Seven years ago, I wrote on my blog that you would be President one day. Four years ago, when you announced your candidacy, I was estatic. Three years ago, I donated to you and I volunteered for you. I went around town and did my best to convince people to vote for you, and I was so very proud when you won. I felt that I had a small part in your win, but I was prouder because history had been made, barriers had been broken, and the mixed-race man with a funny name had won the Presidency. I cried, I smiled, I celebrated.
For two years and change, I have defended you, to friends, to family, to co-workers. I did so because I believe in you, in your innate decency, in the words you spoke to inspire us. But in office, you have been letting me down. You capitulated on tax cuts for the wealthy. You have failed to close Guantanamo, in fact, you have bolstered the very idea behind it and continued with military tribunals. You did not go the distance on health care, and despite how far it went, it might've done so much more had you shown real leadership on the matter. The same can be said of the stimulus package, which was a congressional disaster. There is a difference between working with Congress and letting them run you over, and you let them run you over.
But still, I defended you. I believed in you. I felt you had a plan and were doing your very best to make it happen.
Now, I read about Pvt. Bradley Manning. I read how he's been kept in conditions that convicted terrorists, mass murderers, and mob bosses are kept in, all without a conviction. I read how he's being forced to sleep in the nude and be inspected as such every morning. I read how he's kept from exercising, from the outside for 23 hours a day. All of this confirmed by the military prison holding him.
Pvt. Manning may indeed be guilty of crimes, but he has not been convicted of anything yet. He has yet to stand trial, even. Why must he be imprisoned in a matter that the Geneva Conventions that we signed declare is wrong? How can you, as a human being, sit there, knowing (because you must know in this high-profile case how he is kept) is being held in conditions tantamount to torture?
I cannot and will not defend this. If you cannot end this, IMMEDIATELY, I can no longer defend you or work for you when next year's election comes. I have a conscience, Mr. President. Where is yours?
As I said above, I love this President, and I respect him enough to tell him how I feel and to tell him that I can't work for or support him if he can't stand up for a basic principle that deep down, I know he believes in. At some point, one's words have to mean something, or they mean nothing at all. I will not donate or lift a finger to volunteer as I did in 2008 if he cannot find it to end this inhumane treatment of a scared young man who, yes, violated his orders and his oath, but did so as an act of conscience, not as some venial sin. St. Augustine said that the human conscience is the most sovereign force. Bradley Manning followed his, and now I am following mine. I can't support our President if he continues to support the torture of an American citizen and soldier at our hands.