An e-mail to a right-wing Republican friend in NY

"...Now, Bush better read the pole numbers, realize it was again close, and he better reach across the isle, and get working on the economy, healthcare and the deficit." --Howie

Howie,

It is America who had better start reading.

It is a colossal act of arrogance to ignore reality and act on wishes, illusions, and myths. George W. Bush has made the world a far more dangerous place to live, and Americans don't see it. George W. Bush has recruited thousands and thousands of new martyrs for Jihad, and Americans don't see it. George W. Bush has weakened American civil liberties in the name of security and has given us neither, and Americans don't see it. But the rest of the world sees it. Someone is right here, and someone is wrong. Both points of view cannot be true.

The Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in Sweden reports that on average 9 minor armed conflicts (where the number of deaths does not exceed 1000 during the course of the conflict), 12 intermediate armed conflicts (where the number of deaths exceeds 1000, but is fewer than 1000 in any given year), and 13 wars (with more than 1000 deaths a year) go on at all times somewhere in the world. In the year 2000, war took the lives of 168,000 Africans, 65,000 Asians, 39,000 "middle-easterners," 37,000 Europeans, and 2,000 Central and South Americans. At the same time, American arms manufacturers profit from this death and destruction. Forty of the top one hundred arms-producing companies in the world are American companies with profits totaling $664 billion dollars in 1999. Over $93 billion of that profit comes from the manufacture and sale of weapons, more than the profit of the other 60 companies combined (US$64 billion).

Meanwhile, those in the less technologically developed world who are not dying in warfare are likely to be dying of disease or starvation. While the life expectancy of the average American was about 75 years in 2001, it was 65 for the Indonesian, 64 for the Russian, 45 for the Afghan, 39 for the Zambian, and 38 for the Rwandan and the Mozambiquan. While an American baby has 99.4% of survival after birth, the infant mortality rate is 2% for the Russian, 10% for the Ethiopian, almost 15% for the Afghan, and nearly 20% for the Angolan.

And while much of the "third world" believes that we care little for their welfare, many more question our motivations even less kindly. They believe we are more interested in exploiting their natural resources for our benefit, and exploiting them for their cheap labor.

Among the violations of the fair labor conventions of the International Labor Organization between 1996 and 2000, were many committed on behalf of American companies. Some examples:

· Factories in the Northern Mariana Islands (a US Commonwealth) that produce clothing for Abercrombie & Fitch, Cutter & Buck, Donna Karan, The GAP, J. Crew, Levi Strauss, Liz Claiborne, Nordstrom, Ralph Lauren Polo, Target, Dress Barn, and Tommy Hilfiger demand contracts of their workers which: waive basic human rights including the right to join a union; demand 12-hour workdays seven days-a-week; subject workers to "lockdowns" in the factory;
· Factories in China producing clothing and shoes for Adidas, Disney, Fila, Nike, Ralph Lauren, and Reebok employ forced labor in prison camps; demand of their employees 12-16 hour workdays, seven days-a-week; employ child labor; demand forced overtime; and Chinese workers for Nestle have been subjected to electric shock to maintain productivity.
· Factories in Indonesia manufacturing clothing and shoes for Adidas, the GAP, and Nike subject workers to forced overtime at a poverty wage.
· Factories in El Salvador producing clothing and shoes for Adidas, Ann Taylor, the GAP, Liz Claiborne and Nike pay their female employees about US$30/week for a 60-80 hour week; subject their female workers to forced pregnancy tests; fire their female workers if they become pregnant; and force some employees to work overtime without pay, up to 11 hours a day.
· Factories in Haiti producing clothing and toys for the Walt Disney Company pay their workers an average of US$2.40 per day, and charge them for transportation ($.66/day), breakfast (cornmeal and fruit juice--$.53/day), and lunch (rice and beans--$.66/day).
· Factories in Russia producing clothing for the GAP pay their employees US$.11/hour.
If terrorism is evil-and it is-this is terror's recruiting station.
But, we're told, what they really hate about America is "our freedom."

Americans know nothing of these things, all in the public record, because our "liberal" media are giving us not what we need to know, but what we want to know. This is the "free-market" approach to journalism.

Americans know nothing about the Project for a New American Century, even though they have their own website, and all their position papers are public record. Have YOU read any of their stuff?

Howie, I realize and appreciate why you're saying this. You're trying (very sincerely, I'm sure) to be conciliatory and reassuring. You're very comfortable with the results of this election, and you'd like me to be too. But that's not going to happen.

You think I'm a pain in the ass (I am), you think I'm a crank (I am), you think I'm "holier-than-thou" (you're wrong about that--again, what I'm looking for in a politician is the exact opposite of certainty, the exact opposite of this GOP, the exact opposite of PNAC), but you seem to think, I think, that I lack conviction, or that--like other Americans--I look at all of this as a game or a sporting event where, well, this time my team wins, and that time your team wins. Or you think that I think "winning" is important at all. I don't.

You talked about the "global society." Yet this administration flouts international opinion. It flouts human standards of decency in its economic policies, in its energy policies, in its environmental policies, and--worst of all--in its foreign policies. And in flouting these things, we turn our backs on the very values that defines America, at least in the past. F**k the rest of the world? Yeah, we can do that. But not for long. Because it IS a global society that is evolving. But it's not a "global society" the PNAC is interested in, it's a global economy.

The global society is becoming a reality. How we approach that reality will determine whether democracy survives, not just in the United States, but in the world.