Killing

Dear Friends,

I sent the following letter to the SF Chronicle this morning. They have not published one of my many letters since January. My job is to write and send my opinions. Their job is to publish them or not.

I will add here a bit about my Christian value system that motivates my writing on this topic. The Chronicle probably will not publish my faith perspective so I usually leave it out when I send them my letters.

As a follower of Jesus the revolutionary, I believe that caring or the poor, disenfranchised, the sick and dying is the essence of our ethics and morality. That is what flows from our worship in word and sacrament. We go out into the world to love and serve all the people. I believe violence only begets violence, thus I am against war. It is that simple for me. That is the background for writing the enclosed.

Another letter to the San Francisco Chronicle:

This business of sending more troops is about getting out of the war, annihilating Taliban and al Qaeda, stabilizing Afghanistan, containing costs and making our country safe. Editorials and letters extol or decry the president’s effort. Few commentators mention the killing of human beings, civilian men, women, children, the elderly and infirm as well as the soldiers of the United States and Afghanistan. Intensifying the war will result in the deaths of thousands upon thousands of human beings. I do not think the stated ends justify the necessary killing of all those human beings.