20 December 2006

Subj: Open Letter to Congressman Virgil Goode, Representative, 5th District of Virginia

Dear Congressman Goode,

As a United States Marine and a patriot, I am saddened that members of our highest democratic institutions continue to cling to beliefs that went out of fashion after the Middle Ages and that contribute to what is already a tenuous social and political situation in our great nation today. You are certainly not alone in your state of moral corruption, but you are an excellent example of precisely what is wrong with so many of our elected leaders and, in this day and age, what constitutes perhaps the single greatest threat to our democracy from within.

I have sworn an oath to defend our constitution and to protect freedom and democracy from foreign enemies. Yet, in these past few years I have grown equally fearful of domestic enemies and now count you as one of them. In fact, I am so distressed by our domestic enemies and their paranoid babbling – and I’m not talking about all the immigrants inside our borders that you refer to in your outrageous letter – that I find it very difficult to believe in the sacredness of my oath and my mission abroad. I have always known about the deviant ideologues in front of me, but I never knew until these past few years how many I have at my back. Historically, acts of violence have never been far behind the kind of religious extremism you practice.

Congressman Goode, I believe your comments are sufficient to require your resignation. I also believe you do not have the honor and integrity to step aside and let a better person represent the good people of your district. I will grudgingly settle for a sincere public apology not just to Muslims, but to all Americans. It is unfortunate that we come to expect less and less of elected leaders. We abide your betrayals far too passively. This is yet one more sad moment for the United States, for religious tolerance, and especially for immigrants who have come here wishing to free themselves from the kind of thinking you exemplify only too well.

It is indeed time to wake up – but not for Americans. It is time for you and all those who believe as you do to wake up and repent to the people you represent before you all drive this great and good society to the brink. I believe that it was an act of God that sent your letter to John Cruickshank and I think we all owe a debt of thanks to him and to Providence herself, which have held you accountable when no one else would.

Sincerely,

Jason R. Schneider