Letter Of The Day

On war and mind control:

I have found myself very disturbed as I watch the Olympics by the ad from “Progress for America.” It runs repeatedly and offers the contention that we must support the war in Iraq and continue sending more people there to die so that those already dead will not have died in vain.

Does anyone remember the same logic used for staying in Vietnam? To me, this is faulty thinking, and for love of our country and people, we need to speak back.

The other component of this ad that disturbs me is the attempt to teach us to hate and fear our enemies.

We have a long history of this. I can remember the “Japs” and Germans of World War II, followed by the terrors that soulless communism would unleash against us.

Post-USSR, there was a failed attempt to label secular humanists the enemy; this was followed by an entire summer of Congress trying to figure out a way to punish desecrators of the flag.

Finally, homosexuality was raised to an exalted level of threat to our way of life. Now it seems to me, we are to believe that we must put Islam, Muslims and Arabs on the highest podium.

I do not deny that there are serious problems in our world, and I love my people and my country. But one of my “core religious values” is the belief that all are children of God. This is the strongest influence on my outlook on the world. In this context, I feel that we should not demonize our enemies, and we should call ourselves, our government and any group who would have us hate and fear to task.

--ANNE GANNETT, Mason City

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