My Letter to Senator Grassley

I wrote this letter on April 10, 2010 in about 20 minutes.  This was purely off the cuff and spur of the moment.

I hope I did myself justice.  I've saved it, word-for-word, for you to read.  I will then post his response, if I ever get one, here.

Dear Senator,

I respectfully demand that you protect Pvt. Manning.  The imprisonment that he is being forced to endure without any criminal charges brought against him, officially, is horrendous.  He is being illegally and unconstitutionally held, but because prosecutors supporting the illegal actions of parts of our government have decided to reinterpret our laws in a way that suits their needs, he remains in 23 hour isolation.

It is your duty as a representative of the American people to stand up and demand that his basic human rights be maintained, that he be released if he is not going to be charged, and that those charges brought against him are just and founded in factual evidence, and that the punishment fits the crime.

This is a man who served our country in the way that he saw fit.  Our founding fathers saw it as a responsibility of the people to hold the government responsible for their actions.  This is what Pvt. Manning was doing, making the government accountable to public scrutiny, because we can not make decisions that are sound if we do not know the workings of the government.

Thomas Jefferson said, "When the Legislative or Executive functionaries act unconstitutionally, they are responsible to the people in their elective capacity… I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."

Now, it is your time as a public servant to serve the public.  Think of this man, enduring torture at the hands of a government that criticizes countries around the world for torture, ignoring human rights, tyranny, suppression of freedom of speech, etc. and yet we are committing some of these same acts right here.  This issue is bigger than just Pvt. Manning.  There needs to be some consistency on the world stage between our rhetoric and our actions.  When our government and the people that represent our government around the world demand an end to human rights violations, tyranny, oppression, authoritarian and totalitarian governments, democide, genocide, torture, corruption - and then with our left hand we give concessions to governments that we publicly criticize...outfit the airplanes of kings (Saudi Arabia) who put down protests for other countries (Bahrain).  This is not what America stands for, this is not what I stand for, and it should not be what the citizens of our beautiful and wonderful, free country stand for.

It's time we stand up to the hegemonic values that are ruling the Western world and demand that the enlightenment of our age in the view of human rights be not only theorized and philosophized, but be put into actions, and not just in the mouths of speakers spewing specious words.

It is the job of the people to represent the world.  You should be encouraging the youth of our country to travel the world, experience the people in it, drink with them, eat with them, live and speak with them.  Because, at the end of the day, it is easier to hate a stranger than a friend.  Education, not just in our schools, is the answer.  A knowledge of the world around us, the people in it will save us from destruction- not a multi-billion dollar defence budget.

As Mark Twain said, "I never let schooling get in the way of my education."

Thank you for your time, sir.  I hope that I have shed some light on topics that need to be brought to the attention of the people.

Sincerely,
Jared E. Krauss

So, post in the comments what you think.