George W. Bush came to Utah on November 19. 2010 for a book signing. A couple of rallies were held in the Salt Lake valley in protest. The organizers of the “Rally for Accountability” invited me to speak. Since I had never written a letter to Bush while he was in office, I decided this would be a good time to do it, with some help from the rallygoers.
Dear George W. Bush,
I am reading this letter out loud to a group of people gathered together in Salt Lake City on occasion of your book-signing tour stop in our state. This rally is being held because many people believe that you and members of your former administration have committed serious crimes for which you should be held accountable.
What may surprise you, and many of the people here today, is that I am writing this not only to impress upon you my dedication to bringing justice to your actions, but to also express a genuine personal gratitude toward you, and to explain how I came to forgive you.
When you became president –elect in 2000, I was 20 years old. From the very beginning, your time in office was a traumatic experience for me. From the questionable election, to your choices for administration, to your handling of 9/11, I became more and more outraged. I joined the largest protests in the history of the world, chanting “No Blood for Oil!” until my voice was gone. I watched helplessly as you took my country into an unjustifiable war, and felt the blood on my hands as hundreds of thousands of innocent people were murdered in my name. Then came the signing statements, Abu Ghraib, Katrina… My 20s became dominated by hate. Hate for what my country had become, hate for your administration, hate for you. This hate made me very sick, George. It was destroying me. I had to find a way to let it go, I had to find a way to forgive. You.
To do so, I needed to find something that was more true than the atrocities you were responsible for. In that search I was awakened to the ultimate truth about reality itself–that underneath our every-day circumstances, like politics, war, and conflict, we are all one being. Your soul and my soul are from the same source; they are the same thing . I could no less hate your soul than to hate God. Forgiveness occurs automatically when you remember what you really are. So I forgave you. I am grateful that you were part of my remembering.
But George, in this world, at this level, we must protect innocent life. To do that, we set up laws. And your actions have breached that protective barrier. You are a citizen like me, like the people here today. None of us are above the law, because when one person is above the law, we are all below a tryrant. In a few minutes, you will be proudly signing books only a few miles away, wherein you admit to condoning torture. That a former president would break the law of our land, only to go around bragging about it, is the height of dark irony. I don’t know if there is a word for it, but treason comes close. We think the courts should decide that.
Many people question the relevance of pursuing justice for you and your administration now that you hare no longer in power. I can understand that. At first blush, it could appear that we are just holding on to the past, or unable to let go of our anger. Many accuse those organizing this event of self-interest. I think that they aren’t looking at the big picture.
“Moving on,” and “moving forward,” is exactly what we should be concerned with. Because right now, a precedent is being set. If you are not held accountable by our legal system, then others will surely follow in your footsteps, knowing they can get away with it. Someone is going to make the same tragic mistakes you made.
No, George, I don’t want revenge; I just don’t want you to happen to our country, or the world, ever again.
For as long as the sacred principle of equal justice under law remains sabotaged by your unaccountability, this issue will remain current.
I’ll ask the crowd here what they think.
Should George and certain members of his administration be let off the hook for the most serious crimes on earth because they are no longer in power?
[CROWD] “NO!”Is anyone above the law in the United States of America?
“NO!”
Have torture, warrantless wiretapping, and the suspension of habeus corpus made you feel safer?
“NO!”
Are you going to continue to call for accountability, for as long as it takes to restore the rule of law over all citizens, regarless of their political power?
“YES!”
They seem to be in this for the long haul, George.
Therefore, on behalf of myself, I promise that my respect for your soul will remain genuine,
And on behalf of myself and the millions of concerned citizens in our country, and around the world, I promise that our pursuit of justice will remain relentless.
Yours,
Ashley Anderson, and
Rally for Accountability participants
November 19, 2010.
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