The Downing Street Memo and The American People

My UPC colleague PSoTD has an open letter to the American people which I am going to reproduce in full - simply because he says what needs said and says it well.

"Dear Americans of Every Political Stripe,

I hope we can talk in America, liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat, in the days ahead about the issues involving the Downing Street Memo, and a real debate as to what role, if any, Congress should have in investigating it. I'm not talking about the typical he said/she said of partisan politics, the name-calling, the labeling, the maligning. I'm talking about a real debate about how this country should operate when something like the Downing Street Memo comes to light - how do we determine what is fact and what is not, who provides the venue and judgement for making such determinations, how our country should determine what issues go in front of such a judging body, etc. Yes, there's 200 plus years of history in this country that can provide us guidance. Yes, there are 200 plus years of laws that are worth following.

But we still have a choice. We can work together, listen to each other, talk with each other, and accept that we may not agree without assigning enemy status to each other, and that will serve as a bridge as this country recovers from the experiences of the Iraq War, both internally and externally.

Or, we can fight, demonize, ignore each other, and the Downing Street Memo will serve as a cleaver that chops some of the remaining sinew holding political America together.

We can be children of the political parties, or we can be parents of the government. It's our choice. It's time to choose. But realize this - we can no longer act like both are options."

Yup, yes, Jah, Da, Amen and way to go PSoTD.