The following is an open letter to President Barack Obama, and the Congress of the United States.
Mr. President, Speaker Boehner, and other esteemed members of Congress,
I'd like to call your attention to something that I'm sure you're already aware of. If you take a look to the East, you'll see a democratic state in unrest. It is one of our allies, and its name is Turkey.
Since 2003 when the current Prime Minister Erdogan took office, the democratic rights of Turkey's citizens have slowly, but steadily, vanished. And all of this work has culminated into what we are, and have been seeing these last four days. When a group of peaceful protesters staged a sit-in to show their displeasure of the razing of Taksim Square, one of Istanbul's last refuge of nature. The protesters were blatantly and brutally attacked by the police, and protests have now spiraled out of control in one of the largest anti-government protests in years.
The infancy of these riots reminds me a lot of the way the "Occupy," protests in the United States were handled. Especially the one in Oakland, CA. And the way Erdogan and the political machine in Turkey has slowly been stripping the rights of Turkey's citizens reminds me greatly of what appears to be happening here today. And if the political machine in the United States continues to careen headlong down the path it's on now, I fear that our future holds nothing less than what Turkey experiences right now.
From the gridlock-causing bickering between Republicans and Democrats, to the most recent scandals of the IRS and the FBI, this nation is in a crisis of doubt. Not doubt in the system of government itself, but in the people that were elected to that government. It's not growing pains, it's not simple restlessness, and for heaven's sake it certainly isn't just Twitter, as Mr. Erdogan says it is. The more you appear to use smoke screens to obfuscate the American people, the more angry and disillusioned the American people will become.
Mr. Obama, you pledged in your first presidential campaign that yours would be the most transparent administration in history. You have failed, sir. Mr. Boehner, you claim to want nothing more than to uphold the Constitution and support the Bill of Rights. With you and your party's support of bills like CISPA and DOMA, you fail as well.
I plead with you both, open your eyes and do what is right for America and the world. Uphold human and civil liberties, like you both swore an oath to do. Bring attention to what is going on in Turkey, and here at home. Stop taking away our rights as provided for us in the Constitution.
Don't stand for it anymore, stand against it. Or you may well suffer the same consequences as that place to the east of us.
