Joys of Technology

When this came across my desk, I thought you might like to see it. This is not an endorsement of Barak Obama; I'm still rooting for Dennis Kucinich.

But this is an indication that peace activists are getting attention in high places, even though the press ignores them. Not a good thing for democracy. What other voices are being silenced?

A public letter to Senator Barack Obama

Dear Senator Obama

Please hear me out. Two years ago I sent you an invitation to be the keynote speaker at an International Congress of World Citizens. I do not know whether or not you personally ever saw the invitation. My only reward was to have a "cookie" placed on my computer presumably to track my computer usage. There was no acknowledgment that I had even written.

I am a member, like you, of the UCC. I am also a peace activist whose work comes out of the conviction that violence solves nothing, whether its the violence our government is doing to the people of Iraq or the violence it does to its own people, including our own military that is treated as so much cannon fodder, or the violence done to our poor by an economic system hijacked by politicians in the pockets of big corporations, or the violence done to those who, like me, dare to dissent in the name of justice, morality, and decency. I am weary of being targeted by the IRS for harassment without just cause, and I am weary of apparently being labeled by my government as a traitor because I do not buy into the policies of a corrupt administration.

In spite of your non-response to my previous overture, I still believe that you are our best hope for turning our nation around from its spiraling descent into hell. I will vote for you and beat the drums for your election every chance I get. The invitation is also still open for you to address an international conference here in Knoxville, postponed at this point to a date that would be mutually agreeable. I look forward to your prompt response, unless of course you too are just a politician, and not the statesman I think you are.

Sincerely, Jim Foster