US Home Grown Terrorists
I am reminded that I must write the Newspapers and my elected
officials. Ashcroft & Bush are no friends of Roe v. Wade and seem to
just want to look for a certain type of terrorist (anyone from the
middle east). We have them here as well, in the US.
-Oct 17: -An open letter to:
George W. Bush, President of the United States of America
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. President:
I wish to both applaud and thank you for your response to the September
11,
2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the
Pentagon
in Virginia.
But I now must ask a question. Can you help the nation's abortion
providers
and their staffs who have been the victims of repeated acts of fringe,
radical religious terrorists during the past twenty-five years? They
have
burnt and bombed our homes and businesses. They have kidnapped and held
hostage our members, and, without regard to age or sex they have
murdered
our unarmed men and women.
In the last quarter of a century, over twenty percent of our buildings
have
been destroyed by arson and bombs. Terrorists have murdered our
policemen
and guards, as they tried to come to the aid of the innocent victims of
their attacks. They have murdered nearly 0.2% of our community, in
their
homes, in front of their children and friends and at their places of
work.
Like the terrorists that struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon,
some
mainstream religious groups support our domestic terrorists. While
their
religious leaders preach salvation, they fund terrorists to commit arson
and
murder. Like the September 11th terrorists, domestic terrorists live
and
work amongst us, as "sleepers," in our communities. They send their
children to our schools, they work out in our gyms and they live a
"normal"
life while awaiting their assignments.
For over twenty-five years, abortion providers have gone to work each
day
fearing intimidation, property damage, personal injury and even death at
the
hands of those wishing to force their personal beliefs upon all of us.
Despite this terror, many leaders of our state governments continue to
grant
these assailants asylum and immunity from prosecution. In the face of
all
this, our members have done as you asked all Americans to do: "try to
continue our normal lives and not to let the terrorists win by causing
us to
stop our normal activities."
The terrorists that pursue us do not respect the laws of our country.
They
also blaspheme the doctrines of the very religions they claim to
represent,
while they carry out their atrocities protected by a blind eye of their
religious leaders. Our Constitution, and the laws of our land, have
defined
their actions as both unconstitutional and illegal, yet the terror
continues. Too often, law enforcement and judicial officials treat them
only as a nuisance and do too little to prevent, stop or prosecute their
atrocities.
In your speech to Congress and the nation on September 20th, you stated,
"We
are not deceived by their (the terrorists) pretenses to piety. We have
seen
their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies
of
the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical
visions
-- by abandoning every value except the will to power -- they follow in
the
path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism. And they will follow
that
path all the way, to where it ends: in history's unmarked grave of
discarded lies."
The Federal and State Courts of the United States and most religious
leaders
consider the right of a woman to choose abortion to be both moral and
legal.
Yet some politicians and law enforcement officials have decided to allow
these rights and freedoms to be taken away from our society by these
terrorists who wish only to achieve their own personal religious agenda.
Just as the 6,000 deaths at the hands of terrorists are wrong, I ask
you,
"Are not the murders of our leaders and workers equally wrong?" I
assure
you that the mothers, wives, children, relatives and friends of Dr.
Slepian,
Dr. Gunn and Dr. Britton have grieved no less at their deaths at the
hands
of terrorists than have the mothers, wives, children, relatives and
friends
of those who were murdered on September 11th. The family and friends of
the
police officer slain in cold blood in Birmingham, Alabama miss him no
less
nor suffer no less of a loss than do the families that lost their loved
ones
as they came to the rescue of the innocents in New York. The horror,
shock
and fear experienced by the co-workers of each of the two women shot
dead at
work in the Planned Parenthood Clinics in Boston was no different from
the
horror, shock and fear that each of us felt as we watched planes crash
into
the World Trade Center.
Let me review with you the losses suffered by abortion providers and
their
staffs at the hands of American terrorists over the past 24 years.
Since
1977, we have suffered as a group of only 4,500 Americans the following:
* 7 murders
* 17 attempted murders
* 41 bombings
* 165 arsons
* 82 additional failed bombing and arson attempts
* 370 physical invasions of our personal and business
properties
* 942 acts of vandalism
* 100 butyric acid attacks
* 207 anthrax threats, of which 130 happened this week
* 122 assaults
* 340 death threats
* 3 kidnappings
Yesterday, we heard US Attorney General John Ashcroft say, "Any time
someone
sends anthrax through the mail, it's an act of terror. It's terrorism,
and
we treat it as an act of terror and terrorism.'' He then stated that he
intended to prosecute all anthrax threats. I only hope this will also
include the 130 threats received at abortion clinics this week, as well
as
all those received in the past.
Terrorism is terrorism. Terrorists are terrorists. It should not
matter
whether they are supported and granted asylum in Afghanistan or that
they
are supported and granted asylum within the United States. All
terrorism
must be stopped.
Please take a stand against domestic terrorism directed against
America's
Abortion providers.
Sincerely,
LeRoy H. Carhart, M.D.
Lt. Col., USAF, MC, (Ret)
BACK