Voices in the Wilderness appeal:

“Above all, love little children, for they are here to arouse our tenderness, to purify our hearts, and in a sense to guide us.”
-Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

March 13 2001

Dear Friends,

Millions of Iraqi children have already lost their childhood to a decade of sanctions and bombing. The lives of these children continue to arouse our tenderness, our outrage and our sense of urgency as we work to bring an end to their suffering.

Young people in Iraq today will pay a price long after the sanctions are gone because of the damage done to the social infrastructure, particularly the educational system. Re-packaging the current sanctions policy or tinkering with the edges of a policy that has proven to be unworkable will never fully address the humanitarian disaster which many Iraqis presently face.

If Iraqi people are to enjoy the fundamental human rights to education, housing, health care, employment, adequate food, recreation, and culture, we must look toward allowing and facilitating investments of public and private monies desperately needed to rehabilitate Iraq’s shattered economy.

Bush has said he wants to work with faith-based groups. Let us make sure he hears from hundreds of faith-based groups regarding their belief that the SANCTIONS MUST END.