AN OPEN LETTER TO CONGRESSMAN FLAKE

Dear Congressman Flake,

My name is Michael Miller and I would like to congratulate you on your wise vote against the Belarusian ReDemocracy Act. (HR5948)

I am writing to you because I care about the long term best interests of both the American people and the Belarusian people.

The Belarusian Democracy act was and is simply nothing more than a way for Washington to attack the legitimate presidency of Alexander Lukashenka by using trumped up issues such as Democracy, Human Rights and Religious Freedom.

The money this Act allocates for Democracy in Belarus is intended to do nothing more than insight conflict in this otherwise stable and potentially prosperous post soviet country.

This Bill amounts to nothing less than a US License to attack Belarus.

I am sorry to say that both you and Dennis Kucinich of Ohio have been harshly criticized by the magazine Transitions Online. This is an offshoot of Transitions Magazine, a publication funded by George Soros.

I have a small and new editorial blog called Mikes Vacation and I am frequently published on the Being Had times. The Being Had Times is an online news source published by my friend Adam Goodman.

HR 5948 is a dangerous bill on several levels, but allow me to share some of my viewpoints on this continued legislation.

This Bill hinders the constitional and civil rights of many American citizens because Belarus has recently authored a UN resolution calling multiple American problems to light. In this UN proposal, Belarus initiates discussion on the subjects of police brutality, the mistreatment of pows, the electoral system, the continued effacement of media liberties here in the United States.

These genre of critiques are important for US leaders to face and deal with, and Belarus is in a good position to bring these problem areas to global public light without fear of retribution or undue US pressure because of these concerns. Travel restrictions against Belarusian government officials make it impossible for these Same Belarusian leaders to come to America and meet with minority and underrepresented Americans to discuss creative and benevolent methods to improve their conditions and circumstances.

Regardless of whether or not our President likes or approves of the current Belarusian Government, I believe it benefits the downtroden in America for countries like Belarus to continue to illuminate American problems simply because some of these problems are perpetuated in part due to certain special interest groups and political forces that find it disadvantageous to attempt to discuss changing the status quo.

The fact is that Belarus voted Alexander Lukashenka back into office by a margin of 86% and the elections were fair and transparent.

Regardless of whether or not you approve of Lukashenkas economic plans and policies, it would be very difficult for any new president to do anything differently and simultaneously protect the assets of the people from the kinds of pillage and missapropriation that happenned to the rest of the Soviet Union after the breakup of the USSR.

I do not claim to be an expert about Belarus or her issues, but I have been studying Belarus for several years and I believe I have insights about Belarus and many of her problems and triumphs.

I also consider myself a member of the media and the arts, because I wrote, produced, and directed a small budget documentary film called " 500 VOICES FOR BELARUS" . The purpose of this film was to document the feelings and opinions of Americans regarding the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenka and the manner with which our government has been dealing with the same.

This film was made with essentially no money, ( under ten thousand dollars) and it is my first completed film to date. Its running time is 1hour42minutes.

I have not found a distributor for this product and I am considering offering it for free or at cost over the internet for any interested parties.

I feel that because of my film " 500 Voices for Belarus" and the very interesting and revealing opinions captured in it, I am qualified to speak about The Republic of Belarus and her President , Alexander Lukashenka.

One of the concerns voiced in the recent Belarusian UN proposal was the continued effacement of media freedoms here in the United States.

I did not personally endure any official governmental persecution during the making of my film, however you can understand that I was aware I could have been a target by unscrupulous , and or possibly rogue US government persons during its production.

It is a shame that any American should even feel vaguely threatened when they try to produce an important piece of journalism or art that disagrees with the official US government position.

The Belarusian ReDemocracy Act HR5948 makes it a little more diffcult for Belarusian Leaders to effectively speak out against what is potentially wrong in the United States. Unlucky, persecuted, and at risk persons here in America need the benefit of an outside party bringing their problems to the global public attention so they can be dealt with and discussed. Realtime appearances of Belarusian leaders could be very helpful to parties that have fallen through the cracks of our imperfect system.

Our most dear and beloved "allies" aren't very likely to author such UN resolutions and attempt to bring our problems out for public discussion.

Modern Belarus could play an important role in helping the persecuted and mistreated of our country to find the justice they have not yet received.

Congressman Flake, there is a terrible irony involved with the Belarusian Democracy Act, let me explain. I believe that the best way for the world to achieve true democracy is for the same true democracy to first be achieved here in America. The American population as a whole is not aggressive about monitoring finite details of our foreign policy. I believe that some of the reason for this is that the common man here in America feels distanced from his government and feels like his opinion doesn't matter. It is not unreasonable to say that we live in a state of broken or infirmed democracy here. For example, if I don't like my governments attitudes towards Belarus, there is really nothing short of making my own blog, or producing my own movie that I can do about it. The average person on the street isn't able to go to these extreme measures so they just give up and ignore matters abroad. If we want to increase democracy abroad, we must first achieve it here. We must first involve all of our countrymen in the political process by making sure their voices are heard, and their concerns and needs are somehow entered into our collective multiple political equations. We must take the time and expense to educate them about what we are doing abroad and allow the collective brain trust of our nation to begin to have an effect on our policies. So the irony in the Belarusian Democracy Act is that it in effect helps to squash the most important factor affecting global democracy, that would be the American perception of our own domestic democracy. If the Belarusians were to be able to help bring a voice and thus increased democracy to a few of our less fortunate ones, they would have in effect, assisted democracy in every country from Antigua to Zaire. Global democracy is regulated by the level of democracy we have here.

I believe that we as Americans need to begin discussion about our own future Glasnost, and our own future Peristroika. We need to move far beyond Cold War era prejudices and hazardous ideas.

The people of America and Belarus should come to know each other as brothers and sisters, not adversaries. This will be a slow and sometimes frusterating process, but I believe we can achieve it in our lifetime. But this process must not only be initiated by Politicians, I think that the general public can play a part in this also.



Thank you very much for your consideration in this matter,

Sincerely,

Michael G Miller