Open Letter to President George W. Bush
By Addison L. Sherman
The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
October 28, 2002
Sunday, October 27, 2002
President George W. Bush, Jr.
United States of America
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20001
Dear President George W. Bush, Jr.,
It is a moral obligation to reiterate the unrelenting civil crisis within the borders of Liberia since the genesis of a rebel attack on December 24, 1989. It produced one of the worst bloodlettings in the history of mankind. Excruciatingly, over 150,000 Liberians were exterminated. The people of Liberia remains displaced, hopeless and vulnerable to ongoing humiliation.
Moreover, the democratic integrity, political, social and economic self-esteem of Liberia have been hijacked and isolated from the civilized world. It is marked by reports of total breakdown in law and order, destruction of infrastructures and the country's precious human resources.
So-called nations of the civilized world continue to observe Liberia's assets, especially the population, change from students, farmers, professionals, civil servants, business men and women, Christians, Moslems, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, friends and visitors to mass murderers, desperados, refugees, hoodlums and a state of dehumanizing servitude without any achievable action(s).
President Bush, since your ascendancy to the helm of the United States' White House, we have followed with keen interest and high esteem your unflinching support for the cause of democracy, freedom, human values and universal tranquility. For this reason, Mr. President, I would like to implore the lenience of your administration to initiate direct actions aim at alleviating the current Liberian turmoil.
The United States of America and Liberia have enjoyed mutually respectable correlation. In the eighteen century, Liberia made available land for settlement of blacks suffering from the degraded virtues of slavery. Subsequently, Liberia was created as a symbol of sovereignty and hope for "Freed Men of Color" in the United States of America. The creation of Liberia was and continues to be guided by Jewish-Christian principles.
Liberia has habitually delivered votes in the United Nations and other international organizations with America's interest in mind. Furthermore, when your nation took the decision to oppose, confront and defeat the evil of Adolf Hitler of Germany, strategic locations in Liberia became bases in support of the United States military. For the duration of the cold war, the West African Nation of Liberia facilitated the achievement of America's national security aspirations. Today, "THE IRON CURTAIN" can't fly anymore. Candidly, when America needed unique positions for the Voice of America and Omega Navigation Stations in Africa, Liberia offered one of the seven sites around the world at the time.
Mr. President, please bring about political, social and economic maturity to Liberia. Your assistance in this premises will, without doubt, subsist as an investment for America to an extensive longevity. Liberians everywhere are counting on you for emancipation?
Former President James Monroe and other distinguished personalities of this United States have helped Liberia.
In view of the long and closed affinity of cultural, bilateral and political ties between the two nations, the time is now for you to forcefully articulate the case of Liberia. America facilitated the founding of Liberia. It holds true that the U.S. has always upheld the doctrine of protecting her interest and friends around the world. America continues to aid the propagation of democracy. This has inter-played in Latin America, Eastern Europe and the gulf. The decline of the Soviet Union and the dawn of this millennium created a new world order. This all-embracing makeover has crowned the United States as the undisputed superpower with global pre-eminence for justice, human dignity, peace and democracy.
President Bush, practical engagement, instead of isolation, will certainly set up the transformation process for a new democratic Liberia.
President George W Bush, Jr., please consider the following recommendations for useful engagement in Liberia for security, peace, political, social and economic vibrancy:
President George W Bush, Jr., enough is enough. The chronic dehumanizing conditions Liberians continue to experience at home and in refugee camps around the world much not endure. It is my ardent hope that your administration will consider an enabling environment of full support and financial assistance to address the issues of national security, law and order, free and fair election, reconciliation, resettlement, reconstruction and development, and respect for human rights. Lastly, the children are getting older without schools, homes, parents, food, medicine, doctors and hope.
The dream of global democracy will not be completed without love, peace, happiness and democracy in Liberia.
Sincerely yours,
Addison L. Sherman
Chairman
Coalition for Restoration of Peace in Liberia
P.O. Box 54550
Washington, Dc 20032