As all of you know I am just a simple
country boy (at least I've written it often enough, you should know it by
know), but here's my two cents worth on the war and Winona. Or perhaps I
should say, here's my perspective on how it is playing out locally.
GS: Does growing up on a Wisconsin dairy farm during the 50s and
60s qualify me as a simple country
boy?
I'll preface my remarks by saying that my
family is certainly in this hook, line, and sinker. My brother is a
colonel attached to the J3 in Tampa...they're the folks running the war.
My nephew (his son) is a 1LT in South Korea whose tour ends in about fourteen
weeks. Having said that, rumor has it that they may be pulling troops
out of Seoul and redeploying them to Iraq this summer...regardless of how
close you are to getting out. This is not an abstract argument to
me.
GS: I appreciate the service of your family
members.
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Second observation: As schools of
thought on the war have crystallized locally, and nationally, there is a
certain self-righteousness to the tone of the statements coming from, for lack
of a better word, "the right." On her radio show on KWNO on Friday,
Linda Chavez essentially said that you cannot support our troops and oppose
our foreign policy at the same time. I see this argument as jingoistic,
oversimplifying matters greatly, and really insulting the loyal opposition,
those on "the left." Ruthie made a similar statement, and I just don't
think it is right.
GS: I happen to agree with Ms Chavez. I do
not understand how one can really be supporting the troops while opposed
to their misssion.
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Fourth observation: For us to be
willing to dehumanize the enemy, by using the term animals, does put us a
little too close to the fascist column for my taste. These people
are 12th century low life scum, but they are people. I'm disappointed
that my friends in this community would so easily disavow that fact.
That's why Abu Ghraib happened. We should resist such temptation, no
matter how appealing or personally satisfying it might be. By dismissing
these individuals as animals, we may also underestimate their ability to
undermine our national goals.
GS: Is scum higher on the life scale than animal?
Animals have some worth; scum is defined as "worthless" in my American
Heritage dictionary. Maybe I'm just being stubborn and obtuse, but I
don't see a real difference.
I remember back to the morning of September
11, 2001. I was just finishing up my morning show when the first AP
stories started coming in (amazingly it took more than 20 minutes, the
bureau people must not have believed it either). I remember how I felt
when I realized they weren't saying a small general aviation aircraft was
involved in the first of the two New York crashes, and then the Pentagon, and
then Pennsylvania. When I knew these were attacks, and feared that the
dead could number in the tens of thousands, my taste for blood was as strong
as anyone else's. I remember first hearing months later that bombs were
being dropped in Afghanistan, and I was glad to know that we were responding
against those responsible for 9/11. To say, nearly three years later,
that one is not a patriotic American if one does not lock step
with every word coming out of the current administration...I say those are not
the words of a true American patriot. He or she would know that
democracy, freedom of speech, and intellectual freedom, is every bit as
important during wartime as during peacetime. Every past effort to stamp
out the free exchange of ideas and debate in our society has produced bad
decisions. Our strength is our diversity, and its ability to shape a
cogent and effective public policy for this nation, regardless of the issues
involved.
GS: The right to dissent
is quintessentially American. I would never accuse one
dissenting of being un-patriotic. Dissent is different than "giving
aid and comfort to the enemy". I am not aware
of anyone locally doing that, but I have heard reports of instances on college
campuses where some were advocating for failure of our mission in Iraq.
THAT is un-patriotic and borders on treason in my
opinion.
I too remember what I was doing and where that
morning. It ranks up there with the Kennedy
assination.
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