"The soul of our country needs to be awakened...When leaders act contrary to conscience,
we must act contrary to leaders." -Veterans Fast for Life

Dear Reader,

Dear Mr President was originally designed in the hopes of preventing (or at least documenting public resistance to) war in Afghanistan. Sadly, the United States' military involvement has now gone far beyond Afghanistan. The national and global situation has changed dramatically since the birth of this website, shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks. It has been exactly seven years to the day since I wrote President Bush and urged him to call the warplanes home from Afghanistan before they struck. Obviously, his administration didn't listen to me or any of the millions of people worldwide who didn't want us to spiral into this endless, pointless war-making. Everything that has happened in the last seven years was precisely what I (and many others) hoped wouldn't happen. It's saddening and demoralizing, but I like to believe that change is still possible. Perhaps the American people have had enough and we'll chart a new course for our national history and our global community in the upcoming election. I hope so.

The lack of updates since this site's inception is due to overwhelming and fast-changing world events. Over the years, I've received many wonderful and thoughtful letters that I never managed to publish here, unfortunately. In a nutshell: I couldn't keep up. The work became too much. I am no longer updating this site for that reason; this is the first update I've done in five years and will most likely be the last. I had considered taking the site down because it's so behind the times, but I've decided to leave it up for whatever historical/informational merit it might have.

If you have a letter you'd like to submit, I'm sorry to say that I probably won't be posting it, simply because I don't have time to work on this website anymore. I very rarely check my old email account either, so if you've written something you'd like to share, I encourage you to find a more active site to post it on. There are plenty of good forums for discussion online these days, so I hope you'll explore something more current and vital than this static, outdated site. Seven years ago, this wasn't a bad source of information and it was a labor of love, driven by what I like to believe were noble motives. But now I've passed the torch on to those who still have the time and stamina to continue this work. You have my fondest respect and gratitude.

Sincerely,
Chris Sovrin

For those who oppose the United States' so-called "war on terrorism," violence, war, militarism, and U.S. cultural colonialism and imperialism, this is obviously a difficult time. For those of us who believe in peace and nonviolence, not just as ends, but as the only reasonable means to those ends, the situation we now face may seem hopeless. But as people of conscience, we know that we must act. Speak. Protest. Resist. Public outcry may not be enough to stop the U.S. government from waging war, but one thing is absolutely certain: A lack of public outcry will guarantee that they'll continue.

Writing letters to President Bush and other members of government, both within the U.S. and internationally, is not by any stretch of the imagination the best means of anti-war activism available to us. But it is a beginning, and one that is available even to those who are intimidated by the very idea of calling themselves activists. It is reasonably easy to do, even if one is very busy. It is perhaps a small form of protest, but when a small action is repeated over and over by many people, it can gain substantial weight and power. So this site is dedicated to publishing letters written to President Bush or any other affected members of government urging them to chart a course of peace instead of war, nonviolence instead of violence.

 
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U.S. military spending ($343 billion in the year 2000) is 69 percent greater than that of the next five highest nations combined. Russia, which has the second largest military budget, spends less than one-sixth what the United States does. Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Cuba, Sudan, Iran, and Syria spend $14.4 billion combined; Iran accounts for 52 percent of this total.  - Source: ZNet

Updated September 21, 2008