All this madness, all this rage,
all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country's pride.
~ Bertrand Russell
STATEMENT OF CONSCIENCE
First Lady Laura Bush
The White House
10 February 2003
Dear First Lady,
These poems – the first by an Iraqi woman writing in the seventh century – I send you as a fellow mother. The proposed pre-emptive strike seems to me a “September 11th” which can still be stopped in time, sparing many children. It seems to me that all avenues to alternative actions should be explored now. I pray you agree and will bring your deep and humane influence to bear, for the children.
Sincerely,
— Sharon Olds
STATEMENT OF CONSCIENCE
Dear President and First Lady Bush,
I want to add my voice to the many who oppose the war which is mostly being treated as a major sporting event by the American media. I have yet to meet a single citizen who believes pre-emptive striking is appropriate for the mightiest country on earth. I have yet to meet anyone who thinks diplomacy is a secondary mode of conduct. I have yet to meet anyone who thinks the world will be one iota safer for our proposed actions. I have yet to meet anyone who thinks slaughter becomes US.
Everyone I know and in fact everyone I have ever met abhors your designs on the world and despairs of the wrath it will bring on our citizenry. You will no doubt go down in history as a decisive President and accommodating First Lady. You will go down as monsters.
— C.D. Wright, American Poet
Uni-verse
