Not willing to stay neutral, or silent about the war

Sgt. Jeremiah Waggoner, Simi soldier proudly serving in Afghanistan, wants me to "shut my mouth." With all due respect, sir, I cannot.

I am an American, too. I pay taxes. While the First Amendment is still somewhat intact, I will not sit silently while $500,000 a minute is flushed into the cesspool of, not a war, but an illegal occupation.

Almost 4,000 brave Americans are dead; millions of Iraqis have been killed or forced to flee from a decimated homeland; international terrorist attacks have increased; our national security has been compromised, and our economic structure is ready to implode.

How long will we continue to feed the grotesque appetites of the multinational corporate warprofiteers while our democracy crumbles?

According to the American Friends Service Committee website, www.afsc.org, we can pay for one day in Iraq or:

- 84 new elementary schools

- 12,478 elementary school teachers

- 34,904 fouryear scholarships for university students

- 1,153,846 children with free school lunches

- 423,529 children with healthcare

- 95,364 Head Start places for children

- 6,482 families with homes

Quoting Dante, Martin Luther King Jr. said, "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal . . ."

No, Sgt. Waggoner, I will not shut my mouth. Jody Kepple Simi Valley