Hon. John Cullerton, Chicago, Illinois
Dear John,
You have often reminded me at our family reunions that you and your family are close personal friends of Barack Obama and his family. I recall that, as President of the Illinois Senate, you were instrumental in the process of elevating the young Obama from obscure state legislator to the status of United States Senator.
I don’t have Mr. Obama’s residential or email address, so my request to you is to take steps to make sure that he receives a copy of this letter, which is a call for him to step forward and answer an important question.
You may recall that when he was first running for President, his mantra was “I WANT TO NOT ONLY GET US OUT OF IRAQ – I WANT TO CHANGE THE MINDSET THAT GOT US INTO IRAQ.” He said this at almost every campaign stop, and almost immediately after he won the election, he got the Nobel Peace Prize.
His words and actions as President, however, made no further reference to this mindset. In fact, he and his Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton and his Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, presided over several foolish military interventions and the perfection of drone warfare. He (a constitutional law scholar) even used a drone to execute an accused American citizen without the usual first step of a trial to determine guilt or innocence, so it seems eminently just to ask him to step forward in public and provide any suggestion he might have about how to define the “mindset that got us into Iraq”, and once and for all, how to rid our nation of this mindset.
You recently noted a common credential among the two of us and our brother-in-law, Zack, i.e., that all three of us, in addition to being lawyers, are Ordained Ministers of the Universal Life Church (it cost me $10.00 – what did they charge you?). Your comment inspired me to wax religious and deliver what I called “The Sermon on Mount Hermon”, discussing Christ’s commandment to “Love Your Enemies”, Christianity’s best-suppressed secret. In that sermon I refer to the mindset cited by Mr. Obama. He can review that and other related matters at www.Voters-Intervene.org, including the call for “Open and Accountable Government”, which, had it been in place in 2009, would have provided an opportunity for us to raise these challenges effectively during his entire term.
Thank you for helping make sure that Mr. Obama receives this message requesting his public response. I hope that he will also encourage Leon Panetta to step forward in public to discuss how he and Congressman Sam Farr attacked the global environment and public health in the nineties, as discussed in that website.
Yours truly.
Ed Frey.
Voters Intervene 