[Winona Online Democracy]
To Paul's comments on Dwayne's comments on Ruth's comments:
Paul, the reason we have developed our sophisticated justice system is precisely because our Founding Fathers knew how easy it is to accuse, try, and punish people in an emotional outburst, rather than after calm and reasoned deliberation. It is understandable to all us the urge to simply "hunt down and destroy" the "animals" who commit horrific acts. But what sets us apart as a civilized society under the rule of law is that we take the accused carefully and methodically (and humanely) through the process, THEN we punish them. Are you seriously suggesting that we set aside this process in favor something more immediately delicious to our savage side? The Americans who were dragged through the streets of Mogadishu and the four who were burned and hung up on the bridge in Falluja were the result of just this kind of emotional justice. There are enough people and governments in the world clamoring to be the lowest in the gutter. Let's please not go there. Phil Carlson, Mpls -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 8:49 AM To: Online Democracy Subject: FW: [Winona] Free Speech, Democracy, and War And when the other side brushes off a filmed slitting of a throat of a reporter, persuading a kid to carry a bomb to his or her death or the chopping off a head of a business man it is easy for me to say they are not solders entitled to the Geneva Convention Rules but carnivorous animals who need to be hunted and destroyed. Paul Double -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dwayne Voegeli Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 8:49 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Winona] Free Speech, Democracy, and War [Winona Online Democracy] Ruth, In your last e-mail you said, "We are in this war, now let us support our troops." Is it possible to: 1. Support our troops and 2. Be concerned about the mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, grandmothers, grandfathers, cousins, etc. of Iraq and 3. Question the decisions, honesty, and effectiveness of our elected officials? Dwayne Voegeli May 21, 2004 =================== >From: "Ruth Marg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "Winona Forum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 23:22:37 -0500 > >[Winona Online Democracy] > > >I have read all your letters on the military person that was given a >sentence and discharged from service. Our son, who is a colonel in the >Air Force, is wondering why the fact that most of the people who are >being charged in the case of the prisoner mistreatment are either >Reserve or National guard people and some of them are even cops in >civilian life. He said they have never been trained on how to handle >prisoners. Don't blame all the military people for the actions of a few. We are in this war, now >let us support our troops. No one likes to be in a war, but remember >these are all people who elected to defend our nation. Some of the >weekend people are now complaining that they didn't stay in reserves or >National Guard to really fight a war, but the pay was good. Every >military person that is killed or injured is sad, but why don't some of >these people running around with signs talk about all the people that >get killed every week in the United States in some sort of accident. >These people are also missed by their families. Anyone that had people >in the second world war sometimes didn't hear from their people for >months and many of the service people from that time were gone 2 or 3 >years without coming home. We have too many reporters in Iraq. I for >one don't have to see every dead body. Someone once said, "War is >Hell" Just be thankful you live in the U.S and can still express >your view without being censored. Ruth ><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> ><HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; >charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1400" >name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> ></HEAD> ><BODY bgColor=#ffffff> ><DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have read all your letters on the military >person >that was given a sentence and discharged from service. Our son, who is a >colonel in the Air Force, is wondering why the fact that most of the >people who >are being charged in the case of the prisoner mistreatment are either >Reserve or >National guard people and some of them are even cops in civilian >life. He >said they have never been trained on how to handle prisoners. Don't >blame all the military people for the actions of a few. We are in this >war, now let us support our troops. No one likes to be in a >war, but >remember these are all people who elected to defend our nation. Some of >the weekend people are now complaining that they didn't stay in reserves or >National Guard to really fight a war, but the pay was good. Every >military >person that is killed or injured is sad, but why don't some of these people >running around with signs talk about all the people that get killed every week >in the United States in some sort of accident. These people are also >missed by their families.</FONT></DIV> ><DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Anyone that had people in the second world war >sometimes didn't hear from their people for months and many of the service >people from that time were gone 2 or 3 years without coming home. We >have >too many reporters in Iraq. I for one don't have to see every dead >body. Someone once said, "War is Hell" Just be thankful you >live in >the U.S and can still express your view without being censored. >Ruth</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML> > >_______________________________________________ >This message was posted to Winona Online Democracy >All messages must be signed by the senders actual name. >No commercial solicitations are allowed on this list. >To manage your subscription or view the message archives, please visit >http://mapnp.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/winona >Any problems or suggestions can be directed to >mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you want help on how to contact >elected officials, go to the Contact page at >http://www.winonaonlinedemocracy.org > _______________________________________________ This message was posted to Winona Online Democracy All messages must be signed by the senders actual name. No commercial solicitations are allowed on this list. To manage your subscription or view the message archives, please visit http://mapnp.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/winona Any problems or suggestions can be directed to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you want help on how to contact elected officials, go to the Contact page at http://www.winonaonlinedemocracy.org
<<attachment: winmail.dat>>
_______________________________________________ This message was posted to Winona Online Democracy All messages must be signed by the senders actual name. No commercial solicitations are allowed on this list. To manage your subscription or view the message archives, please visit http://mapnp.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/winona Any problems or suggestions can be directed to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you want help on how to contact elected officials, go to the Contact page at http://www.winonaonlinedemocracy.org
