An
Open Letter to America.
Written by Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr.,
to Rejected Letters to the Editor,
September 6, 2007.
Dear
America:
On July 1, 2007 I sought the support of regular Americans after
receiving notification from the U.S. Air Force Reserve that they
were threatening to discharge me on the basis of behavior that,
in their words, is “clearly inconsistent with the interest
of national security.” The behavior in question is my outspoken
opposition to the occupation of Iraq and the inadequate and inhuman
response to the tragedy of Katrina.
As a result of the outpouring of support I received from all over
the United States and from around the world, the Air Force backed
down. Thanks to my brothers and sisters in the movement, I will
end my service with the honorable discharge that I earned. I am
eternally grateful, and evermore committed to taking on the powers
that be for the powers that ought to be.
At first, when I informed the Air Force that I would fight their
harassment, they threatened me with deployment to Iraq, or even
prison time. Then with the tremendous circulation and widespread
publishing of my first Open Letter, the Air Force realized if they
were going to challenge me, they would have to challenge thousands
of Americans from across the nation outside of Robbins Air Force
Base in Georgia, on my hearing date.
Even now, after all the pain we have been through as a nation these
last years, the reaction of the Air Force shows that when we are
organized in the face of a government that does not represent us,
we the people have the power.
Mine is the third case in which the military has backed down when
the people have challenged their attempts to silence dissent. When
former Sgt. Adam Kokesh spoke out after risking his life in Fallujah,
Iraq, the U.S. Marines threatened him with a “less than honorable”
discharge but backed down after many came out in support of Adam.
When Marine Sgt. Liam Madden spoke out about this "war of aggression"
in which war crimes were being committed, the Marines threatened
him but again backed down when they saw organized opposition. The
military now knows they will feel the wrath of the people if they
threaten veterans who speak out against the occupation of Iraq.
The anti-war movement truly supported me in my case against the
Air Force, which as a young African-American minister was so empowering
to me personally that I pledge to increase my opposition to the
U.S. occupation of Iraq. I pledge to continue my work in solidarity
with the Iraqi people who are resisting U.S. occupation. I will
not let the media spin that portrays all Iraqi resistors as insurgents
linked to Al Qaeda and other terrorists groups, silence my moral
support for the good people in Iraq who are fighting to free their
land.
Indeed, I have just returned from a trip to the Middle East where
I visited with Iraqi refugees. As a person of color, I have no issue
with my brothers and sisters in Iraq. I also have no issue with
the U.S. troops who serve with honorable intentions and so often
join the military under the poverty draft. My issue is with the
Bush Administration and our co-dependent Congress.
These are the six ways I see to oppose the U.S. occupation
of Iraq:
1. Speaking out and creating an echo chamber
of opposition;
2. Participating in acts of civil disobedience
3. Joining the economic boycott led by the Iraq Moratorium beginning
Sept. 21, 2007
4. Casting your vote at the polls
5. Giving direct aid to humanitarian programs for Iraqi refugees
and internally displaced
6. Counter-recruiting campaigns.
All these methods become effective when a critical mass of people
is mobilized. The anti-war movement in the U.S. has yet to reach
that critical mass. The critical mass that is necessary to have
a real anti-war movement can be achieved by mobilizing those who
are most oppressed by the U.S. government. We must link the struggles
of the oppressed in the U.S. and in Iraq.
The displaced Katrina survivors and the displaced Iraqis is a good
place to start. But it must go deeper than that. Literally, the
money that was supposed to go to levees in New Orleans was diverted
to the war in Afghanistan. The money that is being spent to kill
Brown people in Baghdad is being diverted from programs that educate
Black people in the U.S. For example, for what the State of North
Carolina has sacrificed in war spending in Iraq, they could have
provided nearly 600,000 students four-year scholarships at public
universities.
I pray that our movement finds the strength of character to listen
to the very oppressed for whom we claim to speak, and let the voices,
ideas and actions of the oppressed drive a movement that can finally
grow to that critical mass.
—For Future Generations,
—Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Rev. Yearwood is President of the Hip
Hop Caucus and a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. On September
10, 2007, he was tackled and arrested by Capitol Hill Police while
waiting in line to attend General Petraeus’ testimony before
the House Arms Services Committee and Foreign Relations Committee
on the war in Iraq.
Comments will be reviewed and
posted on a daily basis.
|
