4202 Calle Real #224 Santa Barbara, CA 93110
An Open Letter on July 3, 2024
To President Joseph Biden & Vice President Kamala Harris
To President Joseph Biden,
2024 is likely to be the most critical election in America since 1860. A large majority of American voters would like to vote for a good candidate other than the two oldest candidates in American history. Many people are afraid that Donald Trump may be re-elected and that his second term will be much worse than the first. I have a suggestion how you can assure that Trump will be defeated. Like Lyndon Johnson, your administration has implemented productive policies in the domestic area. Johnson also perpetrated the horrible Vietnam War. Yet he had the good sense to decline to run for re-election when peace candidates emerged. Your foreign policy has also been a disaster of massive proportion, and thousands of university students have started a campaign to correct the errors that have supported the illegal, immoral and genocidal war by Israel against the Palestinian people.
You, Mr. President, have committed crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and even genocide by sending massive amounts of weapons and munitions to Israel’s War. Benjamin Netanyahu has played you for a fool with one false promise after another. Like Trump, he is trying to avoid going to prison by maintaining his power. Netanyahu also lies about many things. Many people believe that Israel has a right to defend itself. Defense was successful against the Iranian attack, and that was effective. Retaliation against Hamas is not defense; it is escalation. Israel’s offensive attacks against two million innocent civilians have extended into genocide, and blocking aid is creating an increasing famine. Nuremberg Principles define crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Israelis have perpetrated the falsehood that any criticism of Israel is “Anti-Semitism,” even if it is criticizing illegal and immoral policies on a massive scale.
You too may face prosecution for your war crimes. As a devoted Catholic you should repent and do the right thing. Our country needs to stop killing people. More than 37,000 innocent Palestinian civilians have already been killed, and their land has been devastated including their homes, hospitals, schools and universities. Hundreds of journalists, doctors, nurses and aid workers have also been murdered. I offer you a way out of this mess that could also help defeat Trump in November. I believe that many people will support a change of policy. Thomas Jefferson, who founded the Democratic Party, wrote on June 30, 1803, “Peace is our passion, and the wrongs might drive us from it. We prefer trying every other just principles, right and safety, before we would recur to war.” In 1808 when legislators for 8 states wanted him to continue as President, Jefferson wrote to them,
“That I should lay down my charge at a proper period is as much a duty as to have borne it faithfully. Truth also requires me to add that I am sensible of that decline which advancing years bring on; and feeling their physical, I ought not to doubt their mental effect. Happy if I am the first to perceive and to obey this admonition of nature, and to solicit a retreat from cares too great for the wearied faculties of age.”
I met you at a Stop the Arms Race (STAR) forum in Des Moines on July 13, 1987. I said that massive civil disobedience may be needed to achieve disarmament. When I said that the best I could hope for is a Dukakis-Jackson ticket, you replied, “When I am elected, you will be in trouble.” Then you realized what you had said and responded, “No, you’ll be fine.”
I ask you to resign the presidency so that Kamala Harris can be President and become the candidate for re-election. You could resign and then ask your delegates to nominate President Kamala Harris for re-election at the Democratic Convention in August. By doing this you could retire in dignity. I believe that people then will be likely to forgive you for your war crimes so that prosecution for them would not be needed. Your large increases in military spending are in the wrong direction. To try to win a war against Russia led by Vladimir Putin, who has threatened to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine and NATO allies who support the Ukrainian war effort, is insane because of Russia’s advanced nuclear arsenal that could cause World War III. The Biden foreign policy has become more imperialistic by increasing “entangling alliances” that Presidents Washington and Jefferson warned about.
Militaristic policies of the United States are threatening to trigger World War III against the alliance of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. The universal law of karma will hold you to account. You can make it easy on yourself by following the example of Richard Nixon and resign. If you do not resign, you could end up being considered one of the worst presidents in the history of the United States, especially if Trump is elected. Please, Mr. President, pass the responsibility on to a younger generation with an excellent candidate you know so well. She will win and could be one of the best presidents.
To Vice President Kamala Harris,
This plan I propose is based on the assumption that you would stop sending weapons and munitions to Israel and would promote a cease fire and reparations for Palestinians. Of course you would choose your running mate. I recommend that you choose a progressive who would work for peace instead of wasting money on colossal military spending. I suggest AOC or Jay Inslee. In an article on 5 March 2024 you called for a ceasefire in the Gaza War. You are the person who can help the people of the world save our civilization by reversing the escalation of violence on Earth.
Love & Light,
Sanderson Beck san.beck.org
Copies of these letters have been sent to these 33 major newspapers and news outlets.
Amy Goodman Democracy Now 207 West 25th Street 11th floor New York, NY 10001
PBS News Hour Productions 3939 Campbell Avenue Arlington, VA 22206
Senator Bernie Sanders 332 Dirksen Building, Washington, DC 20510
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 250 Cannon House Office Building, Washington DC 20515-3214
Governor Jay Inslee Office of the Governor PO Box 40002 Olympia, WA 98504-0002
Governor Gavin Newsom 1021 O Street, Suite 9000: Sacramento, CA 95814
MSNBC, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112
John Oliver Last Week Tonight 1100 Avenue of the Americas. New York, NY 10036
Fareed Zakaria Global Public Square 30 Hudson Yards, New York, NY 10001
National News Desk The New York Times 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018
The Washington Post News Desk 1301 K St. NW Washington, DC 20071
New York Daily News 4 New York Plaza New York, NY 10004
National News Los Angeles Times 2300 E. Imperial Highway El Segundo, CA 90245
News Desk CNN CNN Center 190 Marietta St. NW Atlanta, GA 30303
NBC News Headquarters: National News Desk Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10112
CBS News Headquarters: 51 W 52nd St. New York, NY 10019
ABC News National News: 47 W 66th St. New York, NY 10023
Reuters USA News 3 Times Square New York, NY 10036
Bloomberg News Headquarters: 731 Lexington Ave New York, NY 10022
Associated Press (AP) Headquarters: 200 Liberty St. New York, NY 10281
USA Today Headquarters: 7950 Jones Branch Dr. McLean, VA 22108
The Santa Barbara Independent 1715 State Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Chicago Tribune: 160 N. Stetson Ave. Chicago, IL 60601
Boston Globe: 53 State St. Boston, MA 02109 USA
The Philadelphia Inquirer: 801 Market St. Philadelphia, PA 19107
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 223 Perimeter Center Pkwy NE Atlanta, GA 30346
Houston Chronicle: 4747 Southwest Fwy. Houston, TX 77027
The Denver Post: 5990 Washington St. Denver, CO 80216
The Miami Herald: 3511 NW 91st Ave. Miami, FL 33172
The Seattle Times: 1000 Denny Way Seattle, WA 98109
TIME Principal office: 3 Bryant Park. New York, NY 10036
AARP Magazine 601 E Street, NW Washington DC 20049
Sanderson Beck was born on 5 March, 1947 and is the author of 45 books that can be read for free on his website san.beck.org. For the past 44 years he has dedicated his life to serving God and humanity. He has written about and recommends the peace philosophy of the following people: Isaiah, Lao-zi, Confucius, Mencius, Mahavira, Gautama the Buddha, Pythagoras, Socrates, Apollonius of Tyana, Seneca, Epictetus, Jesus the Christ, Rumi, Kabir, Nanak, Hildegard, Francesco of Assisi, Bonaventure, Dante, Marsilius, Chelcicky, Erasmus, Menno Simons, Crucé, Vattel, George Fox, William Penn, Rousseau, Bentham, Kant, Emerson, Thoreau, Bahá'u'lláh,
'Abdu'l-Bahá, Tolstoy, Grimké Sisters, Mrs. Stanton, Susan Anthony, Lucy Stone, Pankhursts, Carrie Catt, Alice Paul, Bertha Suttner, Jane Addams, Mahatma Gandhi, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Albert Einstein, Dr. Schweitzer, Bertrand Russell, A. J. Muste, Dr. Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Dorothy Day, Gorbachev, Medea Benjamin, Daniel Ellsberg, Brian Willson, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Kathy Kelly.
Beck’s Benchmarks for Evaluating Progressive Candidates:
1. Single-payer Medicare for all with no deductibles or co-pays.
2. Removing the cap on income for the Social Security tax and increasing the tax rate to help cover health care.
3. Women’s rights: the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and health care covering ending a pregnancy.
4. Election reforms: universal registration age 16 and over, commercial-free debates, regulating money, election day a holiday, ranked voting, and National Popular Vote for President.
5. Expanding the social safety net to make sure that every person in the United States has access to adequate food, housing, education, and health care.
6. $20 per hour minimum wage.
7. Progressive personal income tax that includes capital gains and with a 70% maximum bracket.
8. Increasing the corporate income tax to 50% and removing loopholes that allow large corporations to pay little.
9. An annual tax on assets until the US debt is paid off with 1% on more than $1 million, 2% over $10 million, 3% over $100 million, 4% over $1 billion, and 5 % over 10 billion.
10. 1% sales tax on stock and bond transactions equally divided by the federal and state governments to help finance free public education from pre-K through college.
11. An estate tax with a $1 million exemption in addition to the progressive rates proposed by Sanders above $3.5 million.
12. Reducing US military spending 25% per year.
13. Stopping all US arms sales and transferring this money to humanitarian aid for suffering nations.
14. Removing all US military bases from foreign countries.
15. Negotiating the disarmament of all nuclear weapons in the world fulfilling the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty and the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
16. Stopping covert operations and negotiating an end to all military conflicts.
17. United States acceptance of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
18. Greatly increasing support for United Nations peacekeeping.
19. Negotiating reduction of military forces worldwide.
20. Funding clean energy and efficiency and the Green New Deal.
21. $20 per ton tax on carbon emissions.
22. Taxing livestock to pay for emissions and water costs.
23. Taxing unsustainable industrial agriculture.
24. Subsidizing organic agriculture, carbon sequestration, and land restoration and soil rehydration.
25. Criminal justice reform to implement restorative justice that compensates victims of crime and emphasizes rehabilitation rather than punishment.
26. Banning all automatic and semi-automatic weapons, registering and licensing guns, and limiting ammunition.
27. Protecting free expression of ideas; increasing funding for public broadcasting; establishing a free search service online for all websites that do not have paid advertisements; and taxing commercials that appear on public airwaves.
28. Increasing humanitarian aid to poor countries to help them become self-supporting and sustainable.
29. Welcoming refugees and allowing the undocumented to become citizens.
30. Getting money out of politics by greatly reducing how much anyone can donate to politicians.