... is in your hands and voice! Using yours until a true victory is achieved is the best way we can show the world what kind of values the majority of Americans really hold. I'm certain this is the smartest way to keep this country safe, and financially sound.
Greetings,
As we look for things to be grateful for this holiday, I wish to thank everyone of you who is taking action to drive the real change all Americans, our troops, and our earth neighbors deserve.
Please help me find the words and actions needed to ignite the return of our military and all related forces, to use for defense, not offense, and the return of the power to declare war to Congress. No one should inherit illegally gained "War Powers". How can we get adherence to the Constitution on that?
Today's tally of US military "war" deaths is 5,210; this is in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. Did any of you see Congress declare war in Uzbekistan? How did WW III start without anyone making mention of it? Is our hypocrisy really so invisible, or are we just so overcome with anti-war fatigue or fear that we've become paralyzed?
Will you please help advise all our elected officials, from local to the White House, to take action on establishing a cease fire now? Will you keep it up until it's done? After all, isn't that how Bush took us to "war" in the first place.
We slowed the Wall Street bail out down with our precious and consistent free speech efforts. This time the focus needs to be the President, House & Senate - the funders of the industrial military complex - insist they call for a cease fire and re-tool for clean, peaceful, local, green energy production. Bring our National Guard home for protection on our soil. Help them see how the battles in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan are all US first-strike, wars of choice, not necessity as Obama has recently stated.
As your city/county/state scrambles to figure out how to bear the burden of even more looming budget cuts, ask them to pass a resolution like the examples in www.citiesforpeace.org. Please kindly remind them that even though this is a national and international issue, they all signed an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, (something we lost a big chunk of 8 years ago, which has not been restored), and the continued cuts to core municipal services gives them the imperative to do so.
I hope that taking consistent action for a cease fire will bring you, me, and our country, the peace we are starving for.
Much thanks!!!,
Colleen Fernald
www.sol-man.net
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The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
Comments: 202-456-1111
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FAX: 202-456-2461
Dear Mr President,
Hello again. I'm here to further help you with your most important decision at hand.
This is what I believe you and I have in common:
1.Born in 1961.
2.Lived in Hawaii (for me it was 1967-68, while my dad taught Air Force ROTC at the University).
3.We both ran for US Senate (I was in the 2006 California Democratic Primary, see www.campaignforpeace.org for details)
4.We are parents who want to use our personal and professional life to craft a better world for our kids, and all children, to inherit.
5.We need a way to pay for affordable health care for all US citizens. (For me, it really is an immediate life or death situation; for you, your needs are well covered.)
6.We want to keep a strong military well empowered to defend our country.
7.We want a strong economy for all Americans.
8.We want to protect our environment, natural resources, and climate security.
Here is the safest and fastest path for victory on all those levels:
Prepare and call for a worldwide cease fire, led by the United States, through the United Nations, to begin this winter solstice, December 21st; so that we may proceed to bring our troops home for the holidays; in the safest manner possible.
Let's see how it holds, then reassess; we can always try again with all nations next Sept 21st as Afghanistan tried to do through the UN this last International Day of Peace.
Why was there no press on this? Why didn't the White House join them in a call for a cease fire during the 2009 official UN Day of Peace?
Please see the following information on how the United Nations' Day of Peace came to be. Please have the military Commanders, House & Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committee members watch with you the video of "Peace One Day" and follow up one, "The Day After Peace". See www.peaceoneday.org for details.
Let's find a new way to honor our troops and find victory at the same time – just stick to defense, not offensive missions. The results will be evident through less violence by all sides, more federal appropriations left to fund all core services and programs including wellness care, climate and habitat protection, overdue water/wastewater and transportation infrastructure repair; continued support for clean & green tech, and small businesses.
By sticking to military operations only for defense of our country, we will vastly reduce the overall US carbon footprint; consider it a cap and trade-off for our US industries to have the time and resources to adjust to greener ways of operating.
This would be an excellent starting point for the upcoming UN Climate Summit talks in Copenhagen. If we lead in this way, I'm sure other nations will be compelled to follow, and enable us all to slow the rate of climate change much more quickly and efficiently.
Calling for a cease fire is also a wiser way to balance the federal budget instead of continuing to increase our deficits in a way our kids and grandkids can never pay off.
You know the majority of the public is behind you on this. You, more than most, know that their support and votes mean more than any old paradigms and failed policies which aren't worth continuing.
The world has evolved to a place where word of a cease fire can get to nearly every corner. There has never been a more opportune time to try it than now! As a mother, I insist you do it ASAP, so our children will have a future to inherit.
I pray that you will have the wisdom to persuade all those necessary, that at this time, a cease-fire is the strongest defense.
For support, I ask you to contact Rima Nashashibi, Vice Chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County, CA. I spoke with her in the last year when she was on the CA Democratic Party Resolutions Committee. As a Muslim herself, she verified with me that the Muslim's will honor a US led cease fire.
I believe we have already lost as much as we can take. I know for certain that we are less safe on our own soil when funding for public safety in our cities, counties, and states is cut; and our National Guard has been re-assigned to be the InterNational Guard, making us vulnerable to all hazards here.
As someone living in earthquake country – I am very nervous about my region's ability to respond to another major disaster.
Please see the video for "Peace One Day", listen to your instincts, and lead us to the better world right in front of us.
In the meantime I will help further by initiating the Song for Peace competition, and work with others to find many creative ways to make a cease fire very popular, and enduring.
Get your staff to run the numbers on an EIR of carbon emissions related to all proposed scenarios for all missions in the Middle East.
Here in Sonoma County California, we have the Climate Protection Campaign and many other very smart people, groups, elected officials, and businesses who have demonstrated how Green is good – for social, environmental, and economic success.
Now I ask you to seek the evidence of how a cease fire is Green, and a cease fire is safe and smart for our troops, our country, and all Earth's community members.
To quote Congressman Kucinich; the man many voters know endorsed you at a critical time in Iowa, "strength through peace". Let's show the world we are strong enough now to do what is right, with a call for an honorable mission led with a cease fire.
With much thanks,
Colleen Fernald
PO Box 3007
Santa Rosa, CA 95402