July 16, 2004

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Bush:

I am writing to ask you to please stop all further references to gay marriage. You occupy the Office of President, not the office of Preacher. No one appointed you our moral adjudicator. Your job as President is to make executive decisions regarding federal policies. It is not your job to dictate morality to the public. If marriage is "the most fundamental institution in all of civilization" as you say, then why are you trying to arbitrarily stop 10% of the population from entering into one? If you are trying to stop gay marriages on moral grounds then you need to stop immediately. Who made you the moral determiner of our time? I find it unseemly for the president to be preaching morality to the public regarding who can and can't marry. Shouldn't the decision to marry, a right so fundamental and so basic to civilization, be left to the individual and not the government? I cannot understand how someone who calls himself a conservative republican can run around the country seriously calling for government interference in such basic and fundamental rights. I thought republicans stood for less government not more.

I also find your repeated references of late to "activist" judges who upheld the Equal Protection Clause of the Massachusetts Constitution disingenuous, disgraceful, and hypocritical. You ought to be ashamed to run around the country talking about "activist" judges in Massachusetts when it was "activist" judges on the U.S. Supreme Court who appointed you president. So with all due respect, I also request that you please stop all further references to "activist" judges.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Michelle Brodie