As we approach the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq (March 19), we offer you this open letter
to President Bush from Rev. Olson, a chaplain at Boston University.

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT

I want to thank you for making my job so much harder.

I spent today counseling four students here at Boston University.

ONE has had his National Guard unit activated, and will be going to Iraq within two months. He has
just started his senior year here at Boston University, and would really liked to have finished his degree.
Now, he will be withdrawing from school and flying to Iraq to fight in a war that he does not support. It
is likely that he will return maimed, psychologically scarred, or in a box.

ONE just found out that her brother was killed in Iraq this week, just a few weeks before he was to
come home. His unit had been kept in Iraq for almost a year longer than they were supposed to have
been there.

ONE just found out that because of the budget cuts that you have proposed, her financial aid package
has been drastically cut, and she will be unable to afford to continue studying here at Boston University.
She has just started her junior year, just declared her major, and is a brilliant, articulate young woman
who now thinks that she will have to finish her college career at a local community college. You, as a
Yale graduate, should understand that graduating from Massachusetts Bay Community College will
certainly not give her the same opportunities as graduating from Boston University.

ONE student came to me so upset about the lies that you and your administration have told, that she is
withdrawing from Boston University to attend college in Canada. She spent this weekend with her
grandmother and was shocked at how obtuse and complicated the new Medicare prescription drug
plan is. She reports that her grandmother has stopped taking pills essential to her health because she
can now no longer afford them and can't figure out how to get the new
plan to pay for them.

This was a group of four students on one day here at one University. They are all voters. They are all
American Citizens. They are some of the brightest and best of our young people and through the direct
actions that you and your Administration have promoted, they are all now disenfranchised, disillusioned,
and disgusted with you, your politics, and the United States Government. It is no wonder that your
approval ratings are so low, and lower even still with this age group.

So you have put me in the position of having to spend time trying to explain to these students why this is
happening. How do I explain to these young people that their Government cares more about an illegal
war that kills, about federal spending priorities that favor military might over the development of the
mind? How do I explain to them that they need to look at the bigger picture about how all of this is
eventually going to make America stronger?

I don't actually expect, Mr. President, that you will see this email, since it is reported in the news that
you rarely look at information that does not fit with your world view. I hope you do see this. I want you
to know how you are affecting the American people. Do you realize that the profits from just one of the
oil companies over the past year would completely wipe out all student loan debt currently owed?
Think about how much stronger the economy would be if the brightest and best of our citizens were not
paying thousands of dollars every month in student loans? Or, think about how much stronger our
economy would be if we did not have to worry about how we were going to care for ourselves and our
parents as we got older?

I will not defend your policies or laws to my students. Your government is an utter failure. You had a
surplus going in, now we have a deficit, and defying every logical precept, you continue to cut taxes
when we are at war. We were at peace. Now, we have attacked a country that was not a threat, was
not involved in 9/11. Your policies are an utter failure. There are people in America today who are
more hungry, not less, who are making less money than five years ago, not more, who are worse off
now than when you took office and it is all your fault. You can no longer blame any of this on the
Democrats, this is all yours.

So, thank you, Mr. President. I will continue to see students for counseling who will need my services
as a direct result of the lies, warfare, budget cuts and disillusionment that you have perpetrated on the
American people. As for my students, I pray that they will be safe, will be able to finish college, and will
be able to take care of those they love. You should sit with me for an afternoon and listen....

Sincerely,

The Rev. James J. Olson, OCC
Associate Dean of Marsh Chapel
Boston University
617-358-3392

ACTIONS
1. Send Rev. Olson’s letter to President Bush by regular mail, or email if necessary.

President Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington DC 20500
president@whitehouse.gov

Include a short note saying that you want him to bring the troops home now.

2. Join or organize an event in your hometown. For help in doing so, visit
http://www.afsc.org/3years/default.php

3. Consider these additional Lenten Actions at
http://www.paxchristiusa.org/news_events_more.asp?id=1009