An Open Letter to George W. Bush

Dear Mr. President,

I supported your father and I have up until now supported you. I always considered myself a Middle Class American. You profess to speak for Middle American Values, and therefore profess to speak for my values, I therefore have to question your values.

I am proud to say I still support the war effort. I believe our soldiers deserve the very best. I spent most of my career making F-5s, F-18s and other weapons of mass destruction we call bomber and fighter airplanes. I still believe in the deterrent value and the need for such technology. However, Mr. President, when you tell the world that God is helping you run the country it is reminiscent of a few others. A couple of names among others, the Ayatollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein claimed Ala was on their side. History has taught us that more war is fought in the name of religion than for any other reason. I don’t want a religious fanatic in the White House any more than I want a religious fanatic running any other government.

Speaking of governments, Cuba is our neighbor. The cold war is over and Castro is the longest serving head of state. He isn’t going away in the near future. It is time to open up free trade as well as diplomatic channels with the Cubans.

Getting back to the war. When you as president of the United States invoke “the moral high ground” you had better make sure our morals as a country are higher than the ground we stand on. Although Americans condemn ethnic cleansing in other countries, America refuses to acknowledge it’s own responsibility for the genocide perpetrated upon the Native American. Our history is pock marked with our own atrocities. We sanctioned witch burning in Salem. We trafficked in Native American, African and Chinese slavery. We failed to acknowledge the intentional contamination with smallpox of blankets given to starving Native American, our own history of biological warfare. We hid the corruption of the BIA and the starvation of the Native Peoples. We barely acknowledge the Japanese internment or our own human/civil rights violations at Kent State. The United States government signed treaties guaranteeing sovereignty to Native American Nations until gold, oil, coal, uranium or casino money is found on sovereign tribal lands. After taking the Native American form of government, taking our holidays, taking our land and our culture, now Americans extort money out of Sovereign Native American (Indian) Nations under a racially inflammatory campaign to make them “Pay their fair share”. Hasn’t the Native American already paid their fair share and then some? I have requested June 25^th be declared Native American Pride Day, however that request goes ignored while you find time to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to actors, religious leaders and sports figures.

But then why should the Native American expect anything different. I have requested return of my husband’s great-great-great Uncle Geronimo as guaranteed under the Repatriation Act. We want to return Geronimo’s remains to the Apache Stronghold as per his wishes. Until then his spirit remains a Prisoner of War at Fort Sills, Oklahoma. This request has gone ignored. But then treaties made with and promises made to the sovereign Native American Nations have only been honored at the convenience of the United States Government. How can I, as a Native American believe the Unites States Government will keep it’s treaty with Iraq when it has yet to keep one treaty to the Native American. When you negotiate a treaty you should include the caveat “as long as we agree with your ideology and it is convenient for us”. How many governments has the United States participated in overthrowing, either overtly as in Iraq or covertly as in Chili?

We don’t even keep our promises to our Veterans. My husband a disabled former Viet Nam Theater POW spent thirty-two years appealing his claim before getting Democratic US Senator Barbara Boxer to intercede on his behalf. He was finally awarded his 100% disability rating but the Veteran’s Administration refuses to acknowledge his captivity while on a covert mission for the Unites States Government. How many Veterans fall through the bureaucracy ending up homeless or die before receiving their earned award for combat related disabilities? How many Veterans and active duty soldiers suffer from PTSD because they were not psychologically prepared for combat? We teach these men and women the most horrific form of violence, to kill people then expect them to return to re-assimilate into a supposedly non-violent society then we condemn them when they turn to alcohol and drugs to cope. How much counseling do we afford these courageous men and women before they go into combat? How much counseling after they leave combat?

On alcohol and drugs. Frankly I don’t care what Rush Limbaugh, Robert Downing Jr. or Courtney Love put in their bodies. I don’t even care what President John F Kennedy put into his body. Nor do I care what US Senator Edward Kennedy, Betty Ford or for that matter, what you, Mr. President put into your body. As long as you do the job you are paid to do and don’t physically injure anyone else. And you can afford to pay for whatever you consume. I don’t even care if you are a sugar addict. Freedom is about choice. Ten states have passed compassionate marijuana use laws yet you think your opinion should supersede the votes of the citizens of twenty percent of the United States and you had the audacity to take it to the Supreme Court. Is this really democracy in action? Our prisons and our judicial system is clogged with people who’s only crime was to exercise their Constitutional Right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. An economic burden to the taxpayer. Why, because the moral high ground says we must save these poor souls from themselves and these insidious drugs. What happened to the right to choose one’s own destiny? Who am I to say what tortures any person can endure? Who are you to say what they should endure? Doctors who prescribe the use of medical marijuana are prosecuted as criminals while other doctors are allowed to continue practicing medicine after committing medical malpractice. Ignorant doctors prescribe mind altering substances for clinical depression when the patient is really suffering from situational depression. Ill people are forced to do without needed medicine while pharmaceutical companies line their pocketbooks on the latest must have drug. The only thing the government does is succeed in alienating people who are already ill.

Billions of taxpayer dollars are spent on a failed war on drugs while Americans are conned into spending billions for potentially deadly drugs that are considered legal by the FDA. Side effects such as death, seizures and lymphomas are acceptable under guidelines established by the FDA and enforced by the DEA and ATF. Agencies who’s sole purpose is to justify it’s own existence. We need to divert the money spent on this prohibition to true education. Education must be fact based, not opinion based and tell the reality about chemicals and their use. All chemicals, not just the ones that are on the government’s list. We are a chemically dependant society and we need to change this. An enlightened society sees through the propaganda. Propaganda such as all drug money is going for terrorism. If only the terrorist are growing then why does the DEA waste money flying over my house? This upsets my husbands PTSD.

We as a nation would be billions of dollars ahead to release all prisoners convicted of nonviolent marijuana law violations from our overcrowded prisons. Addiction is a personality problem not a legal one. The same people who are addicted to tobacco, food, alcohol and drugs will make the same choices regardless of legality. Prohibition didn’t work nor did it stop alcoholism. The pharmaceutical companies hack their snake oil on television touting the latest treatment for erectile dysfunction and social anxiety like pushers on the street corner while patients who prefer a natural remedy and the doctors who prescribe those medicines are treated as criminals? The same politicians and doctors who condemn medical marijuana are popping Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft with martini chasers. All of these drugs are known to cause seizures. I know, Paxil gave me black out spells and then a full blown seizure. But it is acceptable for doctors to pass these drugs out like candy. Where is the justice in this? Who are we protecting? The only one I can see is it protects the pharmaceutical drug pushing companies and the fools that buy into their snake oil pitch. Just ask your friends, family and acquaintances how many of them are taking mind altering chemicals. I did. I didn’t like what I discovered. Elder Americans are often forced to choose between food and medicine to fund advertisement that allows pharmaceutical companies to line their pockets. Many of the same diseases could be treated with medical marijuana, including high blood pressure and diabetes. But the government refuses to even consider the possibility of medical benefits because of coercion from the same people that are pushing their prescription drugs. The Creator put everything on this earth we need to survive. For some people pharmaceuticals have too many side effects. What a person puts in his or her own body should be a freedom of choice. Recently my husband began manifesting signs of dementia after multiple surgeries resulting from a misdiagnosed ruptured appendix. They put him on several drugs including Aricept. He began showing signs of improvement then he took a major turn downward. His blood pressure dropped too low so I had him discontinue his blood pressure medicine until we could get in touch with the doctor. In forty-eight hours, he went from showing major signs of Alzheimer’s to almost back to normal. He became more animate in his speech and mannerisms. Just from discontinuing Hydrochlorothiazide. How much disease are we allowing the pharmaceutical companies to create? Premerin increased my blood pressure from a normal of 114/70 to 145/98 in six weeks. The doctor wanted to put me on blood pressure medicine. I discontinued the Premerin and my blood pressure returned to normal. I also changed doctors.

Our society and our politicians are more concerned with the rights of incompetent doctors and protecting the insurance companies than protecting victims of medical malpractice or injured workers. Workman’s Comp Insurance companies are allowed to deny all claims forcing victims to litigate every legitimate claim. This overcrowds our court system Victims are videotaped and tracked like criminals while the doctors are allowed to continue practicing. Good doctors are forced to pay the same high insurance rates as bad doctors. Our politicians demand better insurance instead of demanding better healthcare. Victims are forced onto welfare, Medicare/Social Security and into bankruptcy while insurance companies post record profits. Who are you kidding? When you cap liability settlements you deny the victims representation. Attorneys refuse to represent victims because “there is not enough money in it”. Stating you would be better off “if your husband died”. Courts refuse legal briefs presented by a victim acting as Pro Per. Not because there is not medical malpractice but because it is not in the proper legal format. Courts are more concerned with format than content or validity of the claim. All to protect the poor doctors and insurance companies from what they call an over litigious public. If doctors didn’t make so many blatant mistakes they wouldn’t be sued. Nobody likes dealing with the good old boy system we jokingly call a judicial system that can only be described as FUBR.

While I believe all life is valuable, I believe life begins at birth not conception. Too many unwanted children are being forced to endure a life of torture. Unwanted children are frequently abused and are often used for financial gains becoming pawns in legal struggles or weapons to get back at a spouse. Frequent victims of violence these children sometimes end up on the street but more often propagate violence on future generations by becoming abusers themselves. Violence begets violence. Is a few possible moments of pain to a fetus worse than a lifetime of abuse. The Bible alludes that God knows all including as I was taught the number of hairs on your head. Does he not then know the day you are born and the day you did? Many people believe we live many lives and pay for our sins in each subsequent life. In that brief moment of life/death we refer to as abortion not a life lived to God’s fullest? Are you not trying to play God?

Doctors do nothing more than treat symptoms with pills. Few doctors research new drugs further than the nearest pharmaceutical representative. We have an opportunity to alleviate suffering through stem cell research. But your moral high ground condemns this. I hope your wife or mother or father or daughters never suffer from any disease. You see the hardest job of all even harder than yours, is that of caregiver. Unless or until you experience your love one wasting away from either physical disease or mental deterioration you have no understanding. Without experience you have no right to condemn others to a life of misery. I HOPE YOU NEVER HAVE TO EXPERIENCE A LIFE AS A CAREGIVER. But wouldn’t it be nice to have some hope if you ever do? Just ask Nancy Regan.

Only when we afford freedom and equal protection for all is anyone free. Until then we are all enslaved. You can’t legislate morality any than you can force your beliefs on anyone. Homosexuals deserve the same protection and freedom as other Americans have. That should include the right to marry and spousal employment and Social Security benefits. Gays are born not created. I don’t know anyone who would choose a lifestyle that invites condemnation, ridicule and discrimination. Equal protection equal rights regardless of race, creed, or sexual orientation. Just a few short years ago interracial marriages were illegal in some states.

Only because of the freedom of my First Amendment rights am I free to write this letter yet our First Amendment rights are being eroded daily. I don’t understand why Janet Jackson’s breast is considered obscene when Tito’s are not. A nursing mother is free to expose her breast to feed her infant in public and this right is protected by law. Personally I don’t want to see anyone’s exposed breast. Male or female. But only when women are allowed the same freedom to expose their breast as men do, only then will women have equal rights. I don’t enjoy erectile dysfunction advertisements, feminine hygiene products or many other products that are freely advertised an television. I feel violated every time I see a advertisement for female sexual dysfunction. But I have the freedom to change the channel. That is what freedom is all about.

Your values, Mr. President, don’t represent my values any more than your hero’s represent mine. Americans must ensure our values do not destroy another’s culture or religion while we seek to liberate them the way we did the Native American. We must keep our treaties and afford our enemies the same protections we afford our allies. Only then can we call ourselves civilized.

September 11^th changed the world. We must not relinquish our freedom under the guise of Homeland Security. Economically America will survive regardless of who is Head of State. We will recover.

Freedom only exists when we have the right to make our own choices. Not when our government tells us what choices we can make.

I have a choice. Right now that choice is between Bush/Cheney and Kerry/Edwards. A vote for Bush/Cheney does not reflect my views or values but only reflects what I perceive the lesser of two evils.

Tiffany Montaño