Ashamed to be a Badger
There may have been 100 schools involved in the anti-war protest, but none more visible than UW. In this unprecedented time of national unity, UW has isolated itself and spit on the rest of America.
This recent protest was terribly disrespectful and hurtful to the survivors of the horrible tragedy. How do I know this? My wife is in New York as we speak. Believe me, I wish she weren’t, especially since she is nearly eight months pregnant. But what she wishes is that we were not living in Madison now and that I had already finished graduate school.
Until recently we were proud to be living here. That all changed last week. When New Yorkers saw reports on national news about the protests in Madison, they asked her how could they feel that way?
The protesters don’t understand you can’t let terrorists dictate our policies. Terrorists won’t stop just because we remove our bases or Western influence from their countries. We can’t just change our foreign policies to appease the terrorist. If we do that, we will be slaves to them forever.
This is about nothing less than the survival of not just our way of life but the human race itself.
Support this campaign. We are not going to indiscriminately attack Afghanistan or Muslims. Keep in mind, we are the largest humanitarian supporters of the Afghan people, and we will be able to do even more to support them after the Taliban is removed from their oppressive rule. How can these students at a prestigious institute of higher learning support a government that doesn’t even allow women to learn to read? Talk about a double standard. But this isn’t surprising in a place where protests are more of a social activity then a social statement.
Michael Byers
UW graduate student
Re: No moral equivalence
In response to Sean Ingham’s editorial, I want to join him in his call for justice. But it was frightening to me that he still suggested war, even if it was only as a possibility. He was correct that no one deserves the attack the United States suffered. However, to suggest we fund militant fundamentalists and war-lords, arm right-wing para-militaries with chemicals, arms and training, pave the way for multi-nationals and markets to acculturate and control whatever they find profitable, systematically destroy a nation’s water supply knowing innocent people will die of thirst, or bomb a country because it is politically popular is not objectively moral. Yet the United States has been doing such things for years. These examples are subjectively rationalized means of violent control. Military or otherwise, these are morally reprehensible acts of terror.
We can no longer rationalize mass murder in any form. Our bombs hit their buildings, structures crumble, and loved ones are lost to the political and militant games of powerful men and hawkish ideology. After feeling this pain with your fellow Americans, how can you call for this cycle of violence to continue? The only ground that can be morally unequivocal now and forever is a call for peace. The change from now on must be in our personal responsibility for our actions and the power in our diverse world. We must be responsible for the agenda of our government and how that agenda is promoted.
Tony Schultz
Secondary education student
Freedom more important than pacifism
As I opened the pages of the newspapers Friday morning, I could do little but shake my head at the headlines stating there are already anti-war protests going on here and on campuses across the nation. I, along with everyone else, don’t want to see more bloodshed, but there is a time and a place for military action. This is one of those times.
Our very way of life is threatened by the horrible acts of a few individuals and the countries that have allowed terrorism to breed within their borders. These groups need to be punished. Period. I don’t want war, but it is a necessary thing in a situation such as this.
Those 400-plus people out in Library Mall protesting are using the rights defended by our military during wars. And now these people are trying to stop our government and military from continuing to defend their right to whine and complain about not having a war. They must realize that their freedom was won with war and at times must also be defended by war. I am proud to see people exercising their right to say what they want to say, but what makes them think that if we sitting idly by with pacifism will allow us to keep that freedom?
Please, don’t let the fear of war and the desire for pacifism make me and everyone else lose something that is more important than anything in this country: freedom.
Brian Marquardt
UW junior
