EDITOR: I'm fed up with the pervasiveness of violence in our society today. One of my pet peeves is the reference to campaign contribution funds as war chests. I saw it again this morning in the lead story on the front page of the Tracy Press. War is hell, I'm told. The pictures I've seen certainly don't look pretty. While politicians are no angels, most wouldn't qualify as soldiers either. Some campaigns can get downright nasty, but rarely is violence involved.
Language is a powerful tool. The way it is used can have a measurable affect on society. With references everywhere to 'the war on this' and 'the war on that' the ease by which one switches frames of reference to a mindset including violence is frightening. Just last week some misguided individual on this very page ludicrously concluded that the dropping of a nuclear bomb on the people of Iraq would save lives. Does that mean that all of the innocent people who would die in such an attack are nothing more than casualties of war? Let me tell you, if anyone ever had the mindless audacity to refer to a lost loved one of mine as merely a casualty of war, I will have more than a few words for that individual.
After the horrific events of last September, people of this country and around the world are scared - to the core. I can understand resulting reactions that would display a mentality that is not our true nature. But, we must rise above those reactions, and get hold of ourselves. Mass killing and destruction is not the answer. Most Iraqis love the American ideal, but most are very afraid of America right now. Keep in mind that the Iraqi people are made up of families and communities very much like we are.
Imagine a bomb being dropped on the school your child attends, and the Iraqi government says "Oops - sorry! We were aiming for the nuclear weapons lab down the road. My bad!"
Any attack other than a covert, special operation against Iraqi leadership would be an attack on innocent people. The loss of one innocent life is an unacceptable margin of error. Unless you are prepared to be that innocent lost soul, I'd cool the rhetoric that encourages violence against innocence.
Dan Wells
Tracy