A Letter from the President of Iran--To Americans

http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-17/0611293757222213.htm ; http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-17/0611291758221428.htm ; http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-17/0611293081220728.htm ---These three links go to the Islamic Republic News Agency , and cover a full text version of an open letter sent to the citizens of the United States from President Ahmadinejad of Iran. I do not think the letter is finished although I combined the text of these links for this blog post. You will have to check out their site for the rest of the letter. I have not read the letter in full, but I will. I would welcome any comments at this site that:

1. Resond to all or certain parts of the letter
2. Respond with your opinions in the War in Iraq
3. Responses from people about possible solutions to the civil war in Iraq



In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful "O, Almighty God, bestow upon humanity the perfect human being promised to all by You, and make us among his followers." Noble Americans! Were we not faced with the activities of the US administration in this part of the world and the negative ramifications of those activities on the daily lives of our peoples, coupled with the many wars and calamities caused by the US administration as well as the tragic consequences of US interference in other countries; Were the American people not God-fearing, truth-loving, and justice-seeking, while the US administration actively conceals the truth and impedes any objective portrayal of current realities; And if we did not share a common responsibility to promote and protect freedom and human dignity and integrity; Then, there would have been little urgency to have a dialogue with you.
While Divine providence has placed Iran and the United States geographically far apart, we should be cognizant that human values and our common human spirit, which proclaim the dignity and exalted worth of all human beings, have brought our two great nations of Iran and the United States closer together.
Both our nations are God-fearing, truth-loving and justice-seeking, and both seek dignity, respect and perfection.
Both greatly value and readily embrace the promotion of human ideals such as compassion, empathy, respect for the rights of human beings, securing justice and equity, and defending the innocent and the weak against oppressors and bullies.
We are all inclined towards the good, and towards extending a helping hand to one another, particularly to those in need.
We all deplore injustice, the trampling of peoples' rights and the intimidation and humiliation of human beings.
We all detest darkness, deceit, lies and distortion, and seek and admire salvation, enlightenment, sincerity and honesty.
The pure human essence of the two great nations of Iran and the United States testify to the veracity of these statements.
Noble Americans! Our nation has always extended its hand of friendship to all other nations of the world.
Hundreds of thousands of my Iranian compatriots are living amongst you in friendship and peace, and are contributing positively to your society. Our people have been in contact with you over the past many years and have maintained these contacts despite the unnecessary restrictions of US authorities.
As mentioned, we have common concerns, face similar challenges, and are pained by the sufferings and afflictions in the world.
We, like you, are aggrieved by the ever-worsening pain and misery of the Palestinian people. Persistent aggressions by the Zionists are making life more and more difficult for the rightful owners of the land of Palestine. In broad day-light, in front of cameras and before the eyes of the world, they are bombarding innocent defenseless civilians, bulldozing houses, firing machine guns at students in the streets and alleys, and subjecting their families to endless grief.
No day goes by without a new crime.
Palestinian mothers, just like Iranian and American mothers, love their children, and are painfully bereaved by the imprisonment, wounding and murder of their children. What mother wouldn't? For 60 years, the Zionist regime has driven millions of the inhabitants of Palestine out of their homes. Many of these refugees have died in the Diaspora and in refugee camps. Their children have spent their youth in these camps and are aging while still in the hope of returning to homeland.
You know well that the US administration has persistently provided blind and blanket support to the Zionist regime, has emboldened it to continue its crimes, and has prevented the UN Security Council from condemning it.
Who can deny such broken promises and grave injustices towards humanity by the US administration? Governments are there to serve their own people. No people wants to side with or support any oppressors. But regrettably, the US administration disregards even its own public opinion and remains in the forefront of supporting the trampling of the rights of the Palestinian people.
Let's take a look at Iraq. Since the commencement of the US military presence in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed, maimed or displaced. Terrorism in Iraq has grown exponentially. With the presence of the US military in Iraq, nothing has been done to rebuild the ruins, to restore the infrastructure or to alleviate poverty. The US Government used the pretext of the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but later it became clear that that was just a lie and a deception.
Although Saddam was overthrown and people are happy about his departure, the pain and suffering of the Iraqi people has persisted and has even been aggravated.
In Iraq, about one hundred and fifty thousand American soldiers, separated from their families and loved ones, are operating under the command of the current US administration. A substantial number of them have been killed or wounded and their presence in Iraq has tarnished the image of the American people and government.
Their mothers and relatives have, on numerous occasions, displayed their discontent with the presence of their sons and daughters in a land thousands of miles away from US shores. American soldiers often wonder why they have been sent to Iraq.
I consider it extremely unlikely that you, the American people, consent to the billions of dollars of annual expenditure from your treasury for this military misadventure.
You have heard that the US administration is kidnapping its presumed opponents from across the globe and arbitrarily holding them without trial or any international supervision in horrendous prisons that it has established in various parts of the world. God knows who these detainees actually are, and what terrible fate awaits them.
You have certainly heard the sad stories of the Guantanamo and Abu-Ghraib prisons. The US administration attempts to justify them through its proclaimed "war on terror." But everyone knows that such behavior, in fact, offends global public opinion, exacerbates resentment and thereby spreads terrorism, and tarnishes the US image and its credibility among nations.
The US administration's illegal and immoral behavior is not even confined to outside its borders. You are witnessing daily that under the pretext of "the war on terror," civil liberties in the United States are being increasingly curtailed. Even the privacy of individuals is fast losing its meaning. Judicial due process and fundamental rights are trampled upon. Private phones are tapped, suspects are arbitrarily arrested, sometimes beaten in the streets, or even shot to death.
I have no doubt that the American people do not approve of this behavior and indeed deplore it.
The US administration does not accept accountability before any organization, institution or council. The US administration has undermined the credibility of international organizations, particularly the United Nations and its Security Council. But, I do not intend to address all the challenges and calamities in this message.
The legitimacy, power and influence of a government do not emanate from its arsenals of tanks, fighter aircraft, missiles or nuclear weapons. Legitimacy and influence reside in sound logic, quest for justice and compassion and empathy for all humanity. The global position of the United States is in all probability weakened because the administration has continued to resort to force, to conceal the truth, and to mislead the American people about its policies and practices.
Undoubtedly, the American people are not satisfied with this behavior and they showed their discontent in the recent elections. I hope that in the wake of the mid-term elections, the administration of President Bush will have heard and will heed the message of the American people.
My questions are the following: Is there not a better approach to governance? Is it not possible to put wealth and power in the service of peace, stability, prosperity and the happiness of all peoples through a commitment to justice and respect for the rights of all nations, instead of aggression and war? We all condemn terrorism, because its victims are the innocent.
But, can terrorism be contained and eradicated through war, destruction and the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocents? If that were possible, then why has the problem not been resolved? The sad experience of invading Iraq is before us all.

Send a Christmas Card To a Soldier

Click on the title link to visit the Let's Say Thanks website, sponsored by Xerox and send a Christmas Card to a serviceperson overseas.

Regardless of your views on the war, we all can show them that we appericiate their efforts during this holiday season. We hope all of them swiftness in dealing with the Iraq Civil War and a safe return home.

An Inconvenient Truth Squeezed from Classrooms

An Inconvenient Truth Squeezed from Classrooms

This was an interesting read that I came across. Just thought I would pass the infomation on. Any comments are welcome.

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Browns Win--Donate to the Cleveland Food Bank

The Browns beat the Falcons today. Here is a cool fundraiser for football fans. Hopefully, Cleveland will move up in the rankings.

Go Browns

Rumsfeld Out; Gates In

The White House just announced that Donald Rumsfeld will resign from his position as Secretary of Defense and Robert Gates(wiki link) will take his place.

A Few Snippets that we took from the Press Conference with Mr. President today,

When Mr. Bush was asked about the timing of the decision he said that "they made the decision yeterday (election day)"

Is this administration prepared to deal with the oversight and investigation that could come from the Democrats. "The Democrats are going to have to make up their mind about how they handle their affairs..."

When asked about Nancy Pelosi, which of her objectives can you agree with "...opportunity to find some common ground to move forward on...minimum wage issue is an area where we can find common ground."

Special Issue-Voting Information for Voting Tuesday, November, 7, 2006

The S & G Political News
Issue 4—Special Issue: Monday, November 6, 2006
Voting Information—Vote your choice tomorrow, Tuesday, November 7

In this issue:
1: Welcome (Jeremy Grandstaff)
2: Information regarding Statewide candidates in Ohio
3: State Issues up for Decision-Ohio
4: Highlighted Local Issue of interest—COTA Levy (Central Ohio)
5: Special Contribution (Steve Wild, Columbus, Ohio)
6: In conclusion (Jeremy Grandstaff)
7: Subscription Instructions
To retrieve an online copy: visit www.sgendeavors.com/political

1: Welcome (Jeremy Grandstaff)

Welcome to the special Election Information issue of the S&G Political Newsletter. In our political newsletters, we try to provide information to our readers that is provocative. It is meant to grab your interest and allow you to ask questions. In this issue, we provide links to different web sites with diverse takes on the candidates, state-wide issues, and even some local election information to Central Ohio.
Be sure to visit our blog to leave your suggestion or read comments from others on the topics. If the above link does not work for you, please copy and paste the following into your browser: http://imakeadifference.blogspot.com/

2: Information regarding Statewide candidates in Ohio

The following links provide information regarding State Wide Candidates--including governor, secretary of state, treasurer, attorney general, auditor, ETC.

For the most up to date information of the statewide ads please go to http://www.uselections.com/oh/oh.htm. USElections is the actual name of the site and they provide a thorough list of current officers and active candidates for each race and most of their websites. This link is for Ohio, but if you browse the site you will see that they also cover 49 other states. They also have links to new stories, blogs, a bookstore, and voting information and rights.

You may also want to check out this recently created blog: http://30fpspolitics.blogspot.com/ . This is a great new blog idea for politics. It has 30 second ads from a lot of major Ohio races and issues on the ballot. You can click on them easily and watch the ads. Use the ads to decide how to conduct last minute candidate research before the election; you should not make a decision buy using the ads alone.

Another website that deserves kudos and mention in our political newsletter is Politics1, which can be found at http://www.politics1.com/index.htm. This is another great site to find out tons of information about politics, national races, local campaigns, issues, and political parties. Make sure you check out the National “issues” link which covers most major issues including Global warming, Gay Rights, International Trade and Immigration. They also have extensive coverage of political parties other than the Big Two, including but not limited to, CHRISTIAN FALANGIST PARTY OF AMERICA, AMERICAN NAZI PARTY, GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES and the LIBERTARIAN PARTY. They list the active races for each state, have an ongoing political blogroll (a list of political blogs on their site), and links to the different media outlets (usually newspaper and television) for each state as well.

3: State Issues up for Decision-Ohio

In addition, we wanted to offer some web sites of interest for each of the state-wide issues that are on the ballot in Ohio. State-wide issues do involve some amendments to the state constitution and warrant your consideration before going to vote.

http://www.ohiocathconf.org/L/06ballotissuesum.pdf -- A report on the ballot issues for Ohio by the Catholic Conference of Ohio

http://www.lwvohio.org/pdf/fall%202006/Ballot%20issues%20pros-cons%20F%202006.pdf – Pros and Cons for the Ohio Issues from the League of Women Voters of Ohio

http://www.gcpartnership.com/uploadedFiles/Advocacy/ballot%20issue%20brochureFINAL.pdf –A comprehensive report on the issues for Ohio prepared by COSE-Council of Smaller Enterprises and the Greater Cleveland Partnership

4: Highlighted Local Issue of interest—COTA Levy (Central Ohio)

Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA)—Central Ohioans will vote on Issue 7 which provides the necessary funding to expand COTA services throughout Central Ohio, keeping our roadways running smoothly and providing continued affordable transportation on a daily basis. Visit www.cotacampaign .com to learn more about the benefits of voting “yes” to the levy in Central Ohio.

Some additional links of interest:
Columbus RetroMetro Article - The site RetroMetro with an article in which Mayor Coleman supports the levy.

http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2006/09/25/daily23.html; http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2006/10/23/story3.html; - both links to articles in Columbus Business Journal about the Cota ballot issue.

The following is an inclusion from Marie Keister, volunteer for the COTA Campaign:
This is just one last reminder to vote “yes” on Issue 7 tomorrow. Endorsed by an impressive list of chambers of commerce, city councils, area media and a bi-partisan list of various organizations, Issue 7 will help COTA connect people with jobs, increase service to persons with disabilities and increase service for second and third shift workers in high growth areas. Having worked on several area highway projects that also depend on transit to play a key role in offsetting dramatic future increases in traffic congestion, I know we must make this investment to keep people and goods moving.

As the Columbus Dispatch pointed out, the “10-year, 0.25 percent tax….will be collected starting January 2008, when an identical tax imposed by the Franklin County Board of Commissioners will expire. As a result, county residents won’t see a net change in the tax rate.”

Thanks to all of you who have posted yard signs, participated in lit drops, or just told your friends and neighbors the importance of this levy. Remember to vote!

Marie

Issue #7 (COTA) is endorsed by:

-Columbus Dispatch
-Columbus Business First
-Columbus Chamber of Commerce
-Columbus Workforce Alliance
-Columbus Partnership
-Columbus City Council
-Dublin City Council
-Upper Arlington City Council
-Westerville City Council
-Worthington City Council
-The City Council of Grove City
-Grandview Heights City Council
-Minerva Park Village Council
-Canal Winchester Village Council
-Minerva Park Village Council
-Northland Community Council
-German Village Society
-Dublin Chamber of Commerce
-Upper Arlington Chamber of Commerce
-Clintonville Chamber of Commerce
-Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission
-League of Women Voters
-NAACP
-Transportation Workers Union Local 208
-Central Ohio Labor Council (AFL-CIO)
-Ohio League of Conservation Voters Education Fund
-Sierra Club
-1000 Friends of Central Ohio
-Central Ohio Bicycle Advocacy Coalition
-Columbus/Central Ohio Building Trades Council
-Schumacher Place Civic Association
-Bexley News
-Big Walnut News
-The Booster
-Delaware News
-Dublin News
-Gahanna News
-German Village Gazette
-Grove City News
-Hilliard Northwest News
-New Albany News
-Northland News
-Northwest Columbus News
-Olentangy Valley News
-Pickerington Times-Sun
-Reynoldsburg News
-The Times
-Tri-Village News
-Upper Arlington News
-Westerville News & Public Opinion
-Westland News
-Whitehall News
-Worthington News

5: Special Contribution (Steve Wild, Columbus, Ohio)

Steve is a close friend of S & G Endeavors and is very active in progressive politics. Though his writing may appear to some as a bit in-your-face, I feel it might help to inspire our readers to believe that each individual has the power to make a difference. You can find more of Steve’s writing at http://www.dailyspeech.net/. If you would like to see more of his writing in future newsletters, please be sure to let us know.

This is it folks. Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 7, 2006, we have an opportunity to send George W. Bush and his Republican Congress a real wake up call. (Likewise to his Republican allies in Ohio and other states across the country).



Let’s let Republicans know we are tired of their reckless and incompetent management of government at all levels – their reckless foreign policy and military campaigns that have made us and the world less safe, their filling the coffers of military contractors like Haliburton in Iraq while cheaping out on military armor for our men and women in the armed forces, their giving lucrative contracts to Arab companies to guard our ports while not investing in real port security and first responders in America’s cities, their tax breaks to the rich and corporations while cutting back on student loans, health care, attempting to take away our guaranteed Social Security, giving breaks to drug companies on the so-called new Medicare prescription benefit instead of negotiating bulk rates on medicine and reducing prescription costs for seniors, working with banking interests to make it harder to get bankruptcy relief even for those with unexpected unemployment and high medical bills, a political party that trips over themselves to interfere with very personal end-of-life decisions like Terry Schaivo and impose a federal answer to a state’s issue – marriage, while not investing in a Homeland Security department that can adequately respond to a major disaster like Hurricane Katrina (God help us if terrorists cause a man made disaster of that magnitude).



Neither political party is perfect or super human. It was Democratic presidents who led America during some of the most critical national security crises (WWI, WWII, Cuban Missile Crisis) and Democrats are just as able as Republicans to be strong on national defense. We, as Americans, were fully united on 9/11 and all but one Democrat supported the Afghanistan invasion, the nation harboring the mastermind of 9/11. It was the reckless and unnecessary war in Iraq that the Bush administration was hell-bent on doing regardless of the facts and now we have caused the world to hate us (Because of Iraq, not Afghanistan) and our military is worn to the bone. We are in an endless quagmire and we need a real opposition party to challenge the Bush administration on their stubborn “stay the course” mentality in Iraq that is leading into an endless black hole.



Just as importantly, though, Democrats have historically looked out for the less then rich, the middle class, the working man and woman, the poor. They have been better at providing for the needs of everyday Americans including better job security (the economy boomed under Clinton with his federal budget SURPLUS), education, health care, retirement security.



Democrats will PROTECT and HONOR the Bill of Rights (unlike the tyrannical Bush Administration who has gotten Congress to strip you of your Habeas Corpus right - the right to challenge an arrest) – this includes TRUE freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to challenge an arrest, the right to an attorney, a jury of your peers.



In case you think the government would never arrest you because you are not a terrorist, tell that to a poor Canadian man who was arrested last year in New York (because they mistaken him for someone else) and shipped him to Syria where he was tortured, before they realized their mistake and released him – Oops, oh well – mistakes happen. Maybe if your name is Smith or Jones, or you are light skinned, you may be OK – then again, maybe not.



The most recent opinion polls across the country this past weekend show a distinct tightening in the races. If you assume the Democrats will win because their polls had been good recently, you may be in for a rude awakening Tuesday night if we all don’t make every effort to get out the vote.

6: In conclusion (Jeremy Grandstaff)
Thank you for taking the time to scrutinize the sources and information provided in our special “voting Information” issue. Please remember to vote tomorrow at your designated polling place as listed with your County Board of Elections. Visit here to get general information on voting from the Secretary of State.
We hope that you visit our blog http://www.imakeadifference.blogspot.com/ to discuss your ideas on the topic or simply provide us with your feedback. Let’s discuss how we can all work together to make a difference!

7: Subscription Instructions

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