Jordan River Forum

World not a shiny, happy place\nWell, lads, I've finally figured out just what is wrong in today's society. Dead serious, folks. We have reached political impasse and this just cannot do.\nI say political impasse because of the nation's position to no longer agree to disagree. Everything has become too polarized. Let's take, for example, Sept. 11 -- bombs or no bombs, patriotic or unpatriotic, peace or no peace, but always the inability for us, as a nation, to accept the validity of other people just being other people.\nStrangely enough, this truth came to me as I finished reading Mr. Mark Price's column Nov. 1 ("Hoosier hysteria, HIV style"), which caught me by surprise. This individual is someone I disagree with on almost every occasion, yet I've never had a problem with him writing.\nThis is where George Patton comes in. We need to realize that most people are just a variety of gray. If you don't know who he is, let me introduce you: he defeated Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox; he saved the U.S. defenders in the Battle of the Bulge; he consistently noted his hatred for communists; his expectations for his men were so high as to be called brutal by many. He was without question a superb military commander, but, perhaps, not the greatest guy in the world.\nThis should show many of you that the world is not a shiny happy place where we hold hands, frolic through the foliage and sing showtunes. That is merely absurd. We should allow people to be who they are and to shine when they do. We shouldn't have to surround ourselves with politically correct speech, pro-nothing sentiment (just because you are against something doesn't mean you're for something else), and intolerance for people being people.\nI hate to break this, but it's just not that big in the grand scheme of things. Patton was a military genius -- that's BIG. Whether he got there by being a mean SOB is irrelevant. It's the same with Bobby Knight. No one on this earth will get along with everyone. Let's let people be who they are. We aren't all perfect, which makes this world a place worth living in.\nRobert L. Oprisko\nSenior\nStaff editorial wrong to condone bombings\nI am responding to the IDS' Oct. 31 staff editorial arguing that bombing of the "Taliban" should continue ("Afghanistan strikes should continue").\nAstoundingly, your editorial ignores the noncombatants -- oppressed by a succession of tyrannical regimes -- who are dying because of the attacks. Bombs and famine kill indiscriminately. 7.5 million people (United Nations estimate) may die because aid agencies are, understandably, unwilling to send workers into a bombing zone. (U.S. food drops do not feed one-one-hundredth of the starving, compared with the half fed prior to the bombing). The majority of the millions who will die because of what you sterilely term "strikes" have been oppressed most of the last century. They have no more responsibility for the Taliban than African-Americans had for their enslavement by Europeans. Please try to understand the distinction between a people and their oppressors!\nAs a radical feminist, I opposed the Taliban long before the United States justified bombing Afghanistan to "free the people." However, it is untenable to claim that the price of freeing a people is to massacre those same people without their consent or participation. Likewise untenable is the assertion that the Northern Alliance is different: in areas they control, they are known as rapists and genocidal butchers.\nYou contend that the Taliban could "stop the attacks today by handing over bin Laden." This is untrue. The Taliban offered to extradite bin Laden if the United States presented evidence of his involvement in Sept. 11. Such is not an unreasonable demand, however unsavory its claimants. It is the same standard we expect when arrested. Justice exists nowhere when the law is incongruently applied.\nYou assert that "they disrupted our peace." Actually, the Afghans (and even the Taliban) had nothing to do with Sept. 11. If Mayor Fernandez welcomed a terrorist into Bloomington, would you applaud bombing of your homes and hospitals for "harboring a terrorist?" Furthermore, none of the hijackers were Afghani, and even al-Qaeda is predominantly Saudi Arabian.\nFinally, you claim "it is a war on their political actions." War cannot be justified by mere political dissent. Bombing everyone who disagrees with you politically would leave most of the world dead.\nRebecca Riall\nSenior