Dear New Yorkers,
I have a potentially treasonous confession to make: I have never had a personal connection to 9/11. Never felt anything about it, and for a long time didn’t really care. I’m not trying to be irreverent, just frank, but I understand how those two adjectives aren’t mutually exclusive.
I feel terrible that I have never really felt terrible about 9/11, and it makes me curious about how common my dilemma is. Those who were young and in high school at the time, I assume, must have felt a sort of detachment from the events. Most had no clue what had actually happened or why, and don’t for a second entertain the thought that our schools properly educated us about the complexities of the issue. Most of us just did what we were told, which was to don numerous flags of...
Politics
Dear Secretary Kerry,
I am writing to you veteran-to-veteran, man-to-man. However, I have decided to write to you publicly. The issue that I am writing about is too important, too many lives depend on it, and I cannot take the chance that this letter and the linked petition will only reach the eyes of one of your aides.
Like you, I felt betrayed that my country sent me to fight an unjust war, though my war was several decades after yours, and in Iraq. I have spoken out against that war to the best of my ability, as you once did against your war before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In recent years you have found yourself on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but your attitudes towards war have changed drastically.
You supported the war in Iraq, the war that I was...
3,119
Ambassador Richard H. Jones
71 Hayarkon Street
Tel Aviv 63903
4 November 2006
Your Excellency:
As a Palestinian organisation dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights, Al-Haq is extremely alarmed by the current intensification of Israeli military operations in Gaza. This operation, codenamed “Autumn Clouds”, which is exerting a heavy toll on the civilian population of Gaza, is disturbingly reminiscent of operation “Defensive Shield” of 2002. Further, the ongoing military assault is effectively contributing to the destabilisation of the entire region. We hereby call upon you and the international community as a whole to take immediate and concrete steps to halt the indiscriminate attacks being carried out in Gaza.
Over the last four days, Israel has stepped up...
3,370
Dear Mr. President,
We, the African civil society leaders of Publish What You Pay - a global coalition campaigning for an open and accountable gas, oil and mining sector - are addressing you on the eve of the US - Africa Leaders’ Summit.
We are addressing you as concerned citizens, forced to see their countries cheated out of revenues as illicit financial flows drain Africa of its resources. Because of trade mispricing, opacity and secrecy jurisdictions our continent has lost out on more than $1 trillion over the last 30 years. Africa is generating revenues, but many of these flow to the pockets of rich corporations and individuals rather than back to citizens. It shouldn’t be this way.
We are addressing you as worried parents, who fear that by the time our grandchildren grow up...
2,590
Dear Michael Gove,
You will never read this, but I feel compelled to put it out there in the faint hope that more people will realise the repercussions of your latest initiative.
I am proud to work at a small school, on a small estate, in the most deprived ward in the county. The life expectancy in this ward is a full 20 years lower than the neighbouring village, which tells you a little bit about our intake. Add to this that within our 530 students, we have 36 different languages spoken and over 40 per cent of students do not count English as their first language.
Effectively, we are everything you hate and everything you would like to abolish. We are the skidmark on the sparkling underpants of your brave new world of academies and free schools. It is no secret that you would...
3,823
Hon. Mr. Al-Abadi,
I am pleased to write to you as the President of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), a global network of more than 1,100 parliamentarians from 140 countries with democratically-elected parliaments around the world who promote peace, democracy, the rule of law and human rights.
On behalf of PGA, I would like to welcome your designation as Prime Minister on 8 September 2014. We trust that you will successfully handle the extremely delicate situation in the country at the moment and that you will display leadership and resolve to bring about peace, stability, human rights, justice, sustainable development and the Rule of Law for the benefit of the people of Iraq. In this respect, we would be honoured if you would consider PGA, the largest global parliamentary...
2,621
Hon. Mr. Al-Abadi,
I am pleased to write to you as the President of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), a global network of more than 1,100 parliamentarians from 140 countries with democratically-elected parliaments around the world who promote peace, democracy, the rule of law and human rights.
On behalf of PGA, I would like to welcome your designation as Prime Minister on 8 September 2014. We trust that you will successfully handle the extremely delicate situation in the country at the moment and that you will display leadership and resolve to bring about peace, stability, human rights, justice, sustainable development and the Rule of Law for the benefit of the people of Iraq. In this respect, we would be honoured if you would consider PGA, the largest global parliamentary...
2,545
Dear senators:
Thank you for your letter of March 9 explaining your system of government. We were unfamiliar with the complexity of your laws. For three years we have been negotiating a nuclear energy agreement with your president. We now realize our mistake. As your letter makes clear, the authority to establish such agreements on behalf of your country rests with your Congress.
We are in your debt for this clarification. Moreover, your letter has prompted us to undertake a broader study of the American political system. What we have learned has opened our eyes. For 35 years, we have treated you as an adversary. Our intelligence agencies told us that your culture and your political system were radically different from ours. We now understand that we were misled. Your country is...
5,450
Dear Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez,
It was probably not your intention to be in the middle of this embarrassing political controversy. Clearly, all you wanted to do was visit your old friend Namal and distribute some spectacles in order to boost your charity. But, I must say, you two… the time you picked for this was just a little shortsighted.
It’s understandable that as you come from Mumbai (Jacqueline has been there for all of six years now…) you were ‘not aware of what was happening here.’ But by now you must know your friend Namal’s dad has been terribly busy trying to convince the people of Sri Lanka to re-elect him as president. And, well… things have not been going too well for him.
However, he must like you very, very much; because, just one week away from the...
3,027
Dear senators:
Thank you for your letter of March 9 explaining your system of government. We were unfamiliar with the complexity of your laws. For three years we have been negotiating a nuclear energy agreement with your president. We now realize our mistake. As your letter makes clear, the authority to establish such agreements on behalf of your country rests with your Congress.
We are in your debt for this clarification. Moreover, your letter has prompted us to undertake a broader study of the American political system. What we have learned has opened our eyes. For 35 years, we have treated you as an adversary. Our intelligence agencies told us that your culture and your political system were radically different from ours. We now understand that we were misled. Your country is...
5,352