"A New Beginning for America"
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. -2 Chronicles 7:14
September 18, 2002
The Honorable George Bush
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
Greetings in the spirit of the Creator who gives to all men, both male and female, inalienable rights and of his Christ who commands us to love one another. Let me first apologize to you and ask for your forgiveness for not receiving you in my heart as a brother nor giving you the love and compassion that you need in order to give correct constitutional leadership to America and the community of nations.
It was the extension of my love and compassion during the Voting Rights Movement that allowed President Lyndon Baines Johnson to overcome the evil of disenfranchisement by implementing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It is for this very reason that I implore you to briefly reason with me as we embark on a new beginning for America one year after the devastating attacks of September 11, 2001. Although the authors of the attacks meant it for evil, God meant it for good, because as William Cullen Bryant once said, "Truth crushed to earth will rise again."
During the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, I served as the Director of Direct Action and Nonviolent Education for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As one who had to attain justice while being true to Christ and the Constitution, it was my responsibility to develop strategies of nonviolent direct action that would dismantle legal segregation and disenfranchisement without violating the constitutional rights of other citizens, causing physical harm, or destroying property.
Although African Americans had suffered terror attacks by racist white Americans since coming to this land, we decided to bless those that cursed us rather than to respond to evil with evil. Every campaign of the nonviolent movement that followed this principle was successful in overturning unconstitutional public policy that was designed to destroy the dignity and civil rights of African Americans. Although the guarantees of the U.S. Constitution for African Americans had been crushed to earth by Jim Crow, the nonviolent movement was able to restore the blessings of liberty simply by standing for our constitutional rights against the enemies of freedom. We discovered that when we stood for the Constitution, the Constitution stood for us.
Thus my experience of having overcome terrorism with love and the application of constitutional law is the reason why I was shocked and dismayed with your administration when I read the headline of the June 17,2002, edition of the Chicago Sun-Times: "CIA Gets License to Kill." Then, as I was returning from a peace mission in the Middle East and Africa, I read this byline in the July 15, 2002, edition of the International Herald Tribune: "UN Grants US a One-year Exemption on War Crimes Court." Having grown up in the Mississippi Delta during the 1930s and 1940s, these headlines reminded me of the conduct of the Ku Klux Klan in the South when almost 3,500 African Americans were lynched.
The Klan had the license to kill, and of course the Klan did not have to go to court as long as they used the code words, "He raped a white woman." The accused African Americans never had their day in court, which would have proven that the charges were unfounded. If you do your research, you would discover that during the period of slavery and the Civil War, court records show no history of African American men raping European American women. However, after the war and during Reconstruction, as African American men began educational, economic and political initiatives, they were targeted for destruction. This practice destroyed both African Americans and European Americans in the South and stagnated their educational and economic development. The scars and consequences of that policy can still be seen reflected in packed prisons and cities crowded with uneducated, nonproductive people.
Giving the CIA a license to kill while simultaneously asking to be exempt from prosecution is an attempt to impose on the nations of the world the same policy that was imposed on African American people in the southern part of the United States from Reconstruction until 1965, when African Americans gained the right to vote through nonviolent struggle. I am prayerfully asking you to recant, repent and atone for your position giving the CIA a license to kill heads of state-or anyone else for that matter, for the nonviolent movement taught us how to constitutionally redress grievances without the shedding of human blood. I also prayerfully ask you to join me in asking the United Nations Security Council to rescind their edict giving our nation privileges at the expense of other people's and nation's rights.
For the president of the United States to assassinate the elected leader of another nation, or to involve the nation in war without the consent of Congress, or without proving beyond reasonable doubt that there is a de facto violation of the sovereignty of our nation or a de facto violation of the constitutional rights of the American people, or to deny another nation the right to due process in an international court of law prior to a military attack would be tantamount to declaring war against the citizens of the United States of America and the people of the world.
One of the bulwarks of freedom is justice under the law and the right to a fair trial. When the Office of the President of the United States of America is used to advocate Ku Klux Klan-style vigilante justice, every responsible citizen must question the motive of the one who occupies that sacred office. Is this the conduct of the President of the United States,or is this the conduct of the President of the White Citizen's Council of the World?
The Chicago Sun-Times recently reported that you intend to complete the mission of your father-to oust Saddam Hussein. The president of this nation has two primary functions: to uphold and protect the sovereignty of the nation and to protect the lives and constitutional rights of the citizens. It is important to remember that the American people rejected your father's policies when they elected President Clinton.
Iraq was one of the most developed Arab nations prior to the Gulf War-an example of how a non-white people invested their natural resources into national infrastructure development, citizenship education, and political transformation from subjugation to democracy. This is the same path that America traveled when she broke free of British rule. This was the same journey attempted by the Freedmen after the demise of slavery. In fact,no people can become economically independent and institutionally sovereign without traveling this path. Why, then do white Americans feel threatened when non-white people ascend into independence? Could it be that the national consciousness of America fears retribution for her crimes against humanity? Can the nation with the world's largest store of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons-the only nation in the world that has dropped a nuclear bomb on another nation-be altruistically concerned about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction among developing nations? Would not a genuinely concerned nation lead by example?
Does America fear the development of the world's people as Pharaoh feared the rise of the Hebrew nation or King Herod feared the birth of the Messiah? This irrational fear has been the basis of genocide for all of human history. Cain first exhibited this paranoia when, after murdering his brother, he said to the Lord, "whoever finds me will slay me." This fear need not become the basis for irrational conduct, but it should be the catalyst for internal examination and correction. As it is written, "When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him."
There is a threat, but it is not Saddam Hussein. It is our racist attitudes and sins not addressed that is causing the threat. What this great threat requires is not another lynching, but an atonement. Let us follow the example of the Prophet Nehemiah who proclaimed that "Yea, I and my father's house have sinned." Let us follow the direction of the Prophet Jonah who took the message of atonement to Ninevah(modern-day Baghdad) to save the people from the wrath of God. As the last remaining superpower, we have that choice. The nations of the world are weary of the doctrine of "might makes right." It is time for a new revolution as we turn in our superior force for supreme power. America, from this day forward, should never be found using the weapons of death as our enemies have used against us. September 11, 2001, and Timothy McVeigh's attack in Oklahoma City taught us that. Let us instead make our enemies to be at peace with us by repenting of the evil that is in our history and in our hearts.
The creation of the United Nations gives to nations the same legislative, judicial and executive cooperativeness that is shared by the 50 states in our nation. It would be ridiculous for the governor of any state to be threatening the life of another governor. It is your administrative duty to give leadership in creating those institutional safeguards for peace, freedom and justice in the United Nations. As the last president from Texas said, "These are the enemies: poverty, ignorance, disease. They are the enemies and not our fellow man, not our neighbor."
Sir, where is your Constitutional Development Act that puts scientific,constitutional, democratic republics in the hand of every child and citizen? Where is your education bill that protects the scientific educational rights of every child and citizen to be institutionally sovereign and economically independent, which allows them to create and generate legitimate wealth? Where is your foreign policy that aids other nations who pursue a policy of constitutional development and citizenship education? These policies not being advanced, implemented and enforced are the real threat to the sovereignty of our nation, as their nonexistence robs the people of their civil and human rights.
As I experienced your speech before the United Nations on September 12,2002, my heart was broken as I saw my president trying to organize a lynch mob and threatening to do wrong alone if he could not get others to do his criminal bidding. Please, sir, take the road of peace and justice, and carry out the hopes and aspirations of former President Johnson when, in his March 15, 1965, speech before the nation, he cried, "I want to be the president who ended war among the brothers on the earth." If you take this path, God, Wisdom, Christ, the American people, and the nations of the world will walk with you. Then when I see you on television,I will not have to quietly go out to weep, but instead I can call my children and grandchildren and say, "Come! Come! Our president, a redeemed man of God, is speaking!"
If you do not take this path, you will bring the same curse to yourself and the American people that Hitler brought to himself and the German people. It is your duty to help save civilization, to help save America, to give leadership to the nations-and out of the great evil of September 11, 2001, to give the world an even greater good.
I am at your service as a fellow citizen to secure the sovereignty of this nation and to protect the life and rights of the citizens without the shedding of blood. You may reach me at JamesBevel@hotmail.com at any time.
Yours for a more perfect union,
Rev. James Luther Bevel
Pastor, Hebraic-Christian-Islamic Assembly
Chicago, Illinois
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. -2 Chronicles 7:14
September 18, 2002
The Honorable George Bush
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
Greetings in the spirit of the Creator who gives to all men, both male and female, inalienable rights and of his Christ who commands us to love one another. Let me first apologize to you and ask for your forgiveness for not receiving you in my heart as a brother nor giving you the love and compassion that you need in order to give correct constitutional leadership to America and the community of nations.
It was the extension of my love and compassion during the Voting Rights Movement that allowed President Lyndon Baines Johnson to overcome the evil of disenfranchisement by implementing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It is for this very reason that I implore you to briefly reason with me as we embark on a new beginning for America one year after the devastating attacks of September 11, 2001. Although the authors of the attacks meant it for evil, God meant it for good, because as William Cullen Bryant once said, "Truth crushed to earth will rise again."
During the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, I served as the Director of Direct Action and Nonviolent Education for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As one who had to attain justice while being true to Christ and the Constitution, it was my responsibility to develop strategies of nonviolent direct action that would dismantle legal segregation and disenfranchisement without violating the constitutional rights of other citizens, causing physical harm, or destroying property.
Although African Americans had suffered terror attacks by racist white Americans since coming to this land, we decided to bless those that cursed us rather than to respond to evil with evil. Every campaign of the nonviolent movement that followed this principle was successful in overturning unconstitutional public policy that was designed to destroy the dignity and civil rights of African Americans. Although the guarantees of the U.S. Constitution for African Americans had been crushed to earth by Jim Crow, the nonviolent movement was able to restore the blessings of liberty simply by standing for our constitutional rights against the enemies of freedom. We discovered that when we stood for the Constitution, the Constitution stood for us.
Thus my experience of having overcome terrorism with love and the application of constitutional law is the reason why I was shocked and dismayed with your administration when I read the headline of the June 17,2002, edition of the Chicago Sun-Times: "CIA Gets License to Kill." Then, as I was returning from a peace mission in the Middle East and Africa, I read this byline in the July 15, 2002, edition of the International Herald Tribune: "UN Grants US a One-year Exemption on War Crimes Court." Having grown up in the Mississippi Delta during the 1930s and 1940s, these headlines reminded me of the conduct of the Ku Klux Klan in the South when almost 3,500 African Americans were lynched.
The Klan had the license to kill, and of course the Klan did not have to go to court as long as they used the code words, "He raped a white woman." The accused African Americans never had their day in court, which would have proven that the charges were unfounded. If you do your research, you would discover that during the period of slavery and the Civil War, court records show no history of African American men raping European American women. However, after the war and during Reconstruction, as African American men began educational, economic and political initiatives, they were targeted for destruction. This practice destroyed both African Americans and European Americans in the South and stagnated their educational and economic development. The scars and consequences of that policy can still be seen reflected in packed prisons and cities crowded with uneducated, nonproductive people.
Giving the CIA a license to kill while simultaneously asking to be exempt from prosecution is an attempt to impose on the nations of the world the same policy that was imposed on African American people in the southern part of the United States from Reconstruction until 1965, when African Americans gained the right to vote through nonviolent struggle. I am prayerfully asking you to recant, repent and atone for your position giving the CIA a license to kill heads of state-or anyone else for that matter, for the nonviolent movement taught us how to constitutionally redress grievances without the shedding of human blood. I also prayerfully ask you to join me in asking the United Nations Security Council to rescind their edict giving our nation privileges at the expense of other people's and nation's rights.
For the president of the United States to assassinate the elected leader of another nation, or to involve the nation in war without the consent of Congress, or without proving beyond reasonable doubt that there is a de facto violation of the sovereignty of our nation or a de facto violation of the constitutional rights of the American people, or to deny another nation the right to due process in an international court of law prior to a military attack would be tantamount to declaring war against the citizens of the United States of America and the people of the world.
One of the bulwarks of freedom is justice under the law and the right to a fair trial. When the Office of the President of the United States of America is used to advocate Ku Klux Klan-style vigilante justice, every responsible citizen must question the motive of the one who occupies that sacred office. Is this the conduct of the President of the United States,or is this the conduct of the President of the White Citizen's Council of the World?
The Chicago Sun-Times recently reported that you intend to complete the mission of your father-to oust Saddam Hussein. The president of this nation has two primary functions: to uphold and protect the sovereignty of the nation and to protect the lives and constitutional rights of the citizens. It is important to remember that the American people rejected your father's policies when they elected President Clinton.
Iraq was one of the most developed Arab nations prior to the Gulf War-an example of how a non-white people invested their natural resources into national infrastructure development, citizenship education, and political transformation from subjugation to democracy. This is the same path that America traveled when she broke free of British rule. This was the same journey attempted by the Freedmen after the demise of slavery. In fact,no people can become economically independent and institutionally sovereign without traveling this path. Why, then do white Americans feel threatened when non-white people ascend into independence? Could it be that the national consciousness of America fears retribution for her crimes against humanity? Can the nation with the world's largest store of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons-the only nation in the world that has dropped a nuclear bomb on another nation-be altruistically concerned about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction among developing nations? Would not a genuinely concerned nation lead by example?
Does America fear the development of the world's people as Pharaoh feared the rise of the Hebrew nation or King Herod feared the birth of the Messiah? This irrational fear has been the basis of genocide for all of human history. Cain first exhibited this paranoia when, after murdering his brother, he said to the Lord, "whoever finds me will slay me." This fear need not become the basis for irrational conduct, but it should be the catalyst for internal examination and correction. As it is written, "When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him."
There is a threat, but it is not Saddam Hussein. It is our racist attitudes and sins not addressed that is causing the threat. What this great threat requires is not another lynching, but an atonement. Let us follow the example of the Prophet Nehemiah who proclaimed that "Yea, I and my father's house have sinned." Let us follow the direction of the Prophet Jonah who took the message of atonement to Ninevah(modern-day Baghdad) to save the people from the wrath of God. As the last remaining superpower, we have that choice. The nations of the world are weary of the doctrine of "might makes right." It is time for a new revolution as we turn in our superior force for supreme power. America, from this day forward, should never be found using the weapons of death as our enemies have used against us. September 11, 2001, and Timothy McVeigh's attack in Oklahoma City taught us that. Let us instead make our enemies to be at peace with us by repenting of the evil that is in our history and in our hearts.
The creation of the United Nations gives to nations the same legislative, judicial and executive cooperativeness that is shared by the 50 states in our nation. It would be ridiculous for the governor of any state to be threatening the life of another governor. It is your administrative duty to give leadership in creating those institutional safeguards for peace, freedom and justice in the United Nations. As the last president from Texas said, "These are the enemies: poverty, ignorance, disease. They are the enemies and not our fellow man, not our neighbor."
- Let us look at the mass murder that is taking place in our cities, in our worksites, and in our public schools.
- Let us look at the destruction of our national infrastructure.
- Let us look at the collapse of our economy due to the unstable economic practices of gambling and gaming that have replaced our physical production.
- Let us look at the destruction of our top soil, rivers and forests.
- Let us look at the diseased state of our people who suffer from preventable physical ailments, mental distress and addiction.
- Let us look at the mass abortion rates, divorces, broken homes, and abandoned children.
- Let us look at the tragedy in public education where no children in our public schools are being educated to be scholars, scientists and citizens,and none are being educated to be institutionally sovereign and economically independent.
Sir, where is your Constitutional Development Act that puts scientific,constitutional, democratic republics in the hand of every child and citizen? Where is your education bill that protects the scientific educational rights of every child and citizen to be institutionally sovereign and economically independent, which allows them to create and generate legitimate wealth? Where is your foreign policy that aids other nations who pursue a policy of constitutional development and citizenship education? These policies not being advanced, implemented and enforced are the real threat to the sovereignty of our nation, as their nonexistence robs the people of their civil and human rights.
As I experienced your speech before the United Nations on September 12,2002, my heart was broken as I saw my president trying to organize a lynch mob and threatening to do wrong alone if he could not get others to do his criminal bidding. Please, sir, take the road of peace and justice, and carry out the hopes and aspirations of former President Johnson when, in his March 15, 1965, speech before the nation, he cried, "I want to be the president who ended war among the brothers on the earth." If you take this path, God, Wisdom, Christ, the American people, and the nations of the world will walk with you. Then when I see you on television,I will not have to quietly go out to weep, but instead I can call my children and grandchildren and say, "Come! Come! Our president, a redeemed man of God, is speaking!"
If you do not take this path, you will bring the same curse to yourself and the American people that Hitler brought to himself and the German people. It is your duty to help save civilization, to help save America, to give leadership to the nations-and out of the great evil of September 11, 2001, to give the world an even greater good.
I am at your service as a fellow citizen to secure the sovereignty of this nation and to protect the life and rights of the citizens without the shedding of blood. You may reach me at JamesBevel@hotmail.com at any time.
Yours for a more perfect union,
Rev. James Luther Bevel
Pastor, Hebraic-Christian-Islamic Assembly
Chicago, Illinois
