Editor,
I condemn the Sept. 11 atrocity in New York and Washington, D.C.
I condemn the atrocities the U.S. Empire has committed against many nations during the past century.
During the Gulf War, millions of Americans cheered the U.S.-led slaughter of more than 100,000 Iraqis - 20 times the number of Americans the hijackers killed Sept. 11.
President Truman murdered thousands of children in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Presidents Nixon and Johnson murdered thousands of children in Southeast Asia. President Reagan murdered thousands of children in Central America. President Bush, the first, murdered thousands of children in Iraq and Latin America. President Clinton murdered thousands of children in Iraq through bombings and U.S.-led economic sanctions.
None of these presidents have repented and apologized for their atrocities. These presidents show as little conscience toward their victims as the hijackers did toward their victims.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The U.S. Empire routinely and deliberately robs, tortures, cripples, blinds, paralyzes, makes homeless, terrorizes and murders millions worldwide - just as precious, just as human, just as helpless as the massacred victims in New York and Washington, D.C.
Sandia and Los Alamos Weapons Labs daily for decades have prepared to commit massacres thousands of times larger than this tragedy.
Most Americans are abominably ignorant and duped about the global horrors their tax dollars pay for. Many Americans care far more about sports, movies, religion, cars, making money, fashion, traveling, partying, shopping and getting a degree.
As a nation when we sow violence, we reap the harvest of violence. We have no right to do to other nations what we do not want them to do to us.
Many U.S. politicians and U.S. citizens rage now for revenge and war. Many of them falsely claim to serve Jesus as Lord. Jesus taught and lived the concept of "Love your enemies. Do good to them." Jesus prayed forgiveness for his enemies who tortured and murdered him. Jesus warned that those who take the sword shall perish by the sword.
How many U.S. preachers and priests trumpet these strong truths today?
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Revenge bleeds revenge. Evil never conquers evil. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence.
Never forget the horrifying scenes and anguished faces of Sept. 11. Your federal income tax pays for the same misery and brutality continuously toward our sisters and brothers worldwide.
How can anyone with a conscience pay a dime?
I damn all violence and war by the United States and all other terrorist gangs. For 22 years I have paid no federal income tax because I refuse to finance U.S. atrocities - not with my silence, not with my money and not with my name!
Don Schrader
UNM Nude Art Model
