Dear editor:
I have felt the blood boiling in my veins and the desire for revenge over the loss of all the innocent people on Sept. 11. I have applauded President Bush's efforts to put a stop to terrorist acts and bring justice upon the guilty ones for such an atrocious act. But even so, I have mourned over the fact that it means the loss of more lives. I hate war. I have always felt it is wrong. I am angry at a world that engages in such an immature act, when we should be mature enough, and civilized enough, to find better ways of addressing conflict.
Immature? Yes, as adults, should we not know better? Don't we realize that when we lash out we are only proving to the victims and the bystanders what immature tyrants we are? Won't the natural reaction of the victims be to hate us all that much more and desire revenge? All we end up doing is perpetuating hate and further acts of violence. We aren't learning to get along.
Why, as adults with matured cognitive skills, are we unable to sit down and work out our differences? We don't have to like each other or be like each other or even conform to one way or another. If we can't compromise, then why not say, "As long as you mind your business, we'll mind ours?" What we do in the privacy of our own homes should not be the concern of anyone else -- as long as no one is getting hurt. The same should hold true within the borders of our countries.
Anyway, what prompted me to write all of this was Peter Taverna's commentary on Mar. 27. He said something that simply astounded me with the sheer eloquence in which he said it:
"Let us as a world community say any single human life is exponentially more important than any way of life, any government or any religious affiliation. War, on all sides, is the devaluation of human life, the changing of people into casualties and accidental fatalities. It is the ultimate human extravagance, the most wasteful and decadent act can [commit]."
I am touched by the intelligence and compassion of his words and they deserve to appear on their own as a quote. Do Peter and I live in an idealistic but impossible world? Idealistic maybe, but why should it be impossible? I still struggle over my basic belief in human life and the respect we should have for all, versus my rage over all the senseless acts of terrorism that the world has felt over time. Is is possible to find justice without war? Perhaps, but I think we as a world still have a lot of growing up to do before we find it -- I only hope we start now.
Katherine Rubie
graduate student
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