writings

stories, poems, essays, letters...

stories

poems

essays

Alan Keyes Wants Three Freedoms for the American People

The Culmination of Domestic Conflict over the Vietnam War in the Kent State University Tragedy (a high school writing assignment - relevant today though)

letters to editors

to the Durham Herald-Sun, January 30, 2003

With Americans currently dying in our war in Afghanistan, why are we in a hurry to start another (unprecedented) war in Iraq? If our soldiers are dying in Afghanistan, a nation that has been utterly devastated and unstable for nearly two decades, why would anyone believe that we will fare any better in a war against a nation that is rich and remarkably stable by comparison?

The few people who staged a counterprotest against us in D.C. on January 18 were saying, "We support our troops". Well, I support our troops by not wanting them to die. I am not exactly a pacifist; I would be in the Air Force right now if medical issues had not kept me out. I am a patriot; I stand with my hand on my heart during the national anthem, and I always tear up. I fully supported our strike in Afghanistan and regret that it came so late. I honestly feel that we liberated millions of Afghan women from the horror of the Taliban. What will we be liberating in Iraq? Oil.

Everyone driving a fuel-inefficient automobile needs to think about whether that luxury is worth the lives of our service men and women.

to the Durham Herald-Sun, March 12, 2003

I desperately want the proponents of war in Iraq to explain exactly how 1) supporting our troops means sending them to die needlessly and 2) liberating the Iraqi people means bombing them to oblivion. It is easy to pontificate about such things in our comfortable living rooms, when it is someone else's life and death. Patriotism does not require bloodlust, however.

There are some very unfair and illogical insults being hurled at the anti-war protestors and it needs to stop. Furthermore, this trend of renaming "French fries" to "freedom fries" is an outrageous embarrassment. This coming war has nothing to do with the freedom of the American people. The Revolutionary War was fought from 1775 to 1783.

Our brave men and women in the military OUGHT to be protecting us, but instead they are being shipped around the world, by a buffoon with tunnel vision, to slaughter civilians. A buffoon who, incidentally, dodged military service during the Vietnam war.

It is going to be a long, hard journey for America to rebuild what the Bush administration is destroying, both domestically and abroad.

to the Durham Herald-Sun, April 12, 2003

In response to Shirley Brosnan's April 12th letter (Fix the roads first), in which she states, "Taxpayers should not have their tax money going for something God teaches us is wrong!": I couldn't agree more. God tells me it is wrong to commit murder, and yet my tax dollars are being spent to drop bombs on innocents. I am just as outraged as she is. These dollars could be used to fix our schools, provide healthcare to hard-working Americans, create jobs, or to reach any number of productive domestic goals. I wonder where Ms. Brosnan stands on the war issue.

(this is the letter I am responding to)

Fix the roads first

I hope our County Commissioners and other elected officials who may be involved in trying to get medical benefits for “domestic partners” refuse to pass this for several reasons. For one thing, it is morally wrong according to my beliefs and many others (even though they will not speak out on the subject). Taxpayers should not have their tax money going for something God teaches us is wrong! Let the partners pay their own insurance. If they choose that lifestyle, that is their responsibility and not mine or the other taxpayers’. Use that money to fix our horrendous roads and streets.

SHIRLEY BROSNAN
Durham
April 12, 2003

to the Chronicle (Duke University), April 14, 2003

I did not witness the protest last Thursday at the traffic circle, and so I do not have a solid opinion about it. However, I am blown away by the assertion in today's editorial that the war has ended. By what standards? Are our troops all home? Has a treaty been signed? Are Iraqi civilians not being bombed? If these things have happened, and I somehow missed it, then Hallelujah! If these things haven't happened, then someone please fill me in on what constitutes the end of a war.

(this is the EDITORIAL (!!!!) I am responding to)

Editorial: Pointless, as usual

Staff Editorial
April 14, 2003

Last Thursday, a group of protesters blocked traffic at the intersection of the traffic circle and Chapel Drive, preventing buses and other vehicles from reaching or leaving Main West Campus. Ostensibly, this protest was against the war in Iraq; however, in practice, this demonstration accomplished almost nothing, because the protesters did not have a well-defined purpose for blocking traffic, because it is unclear whom or what they were trying to influence by protesting and because the war in Iraq essentially ended Wednesday, a day before the protest was staged.
These protesters should be criticized for several reasons. First, this protest served no intellectual purpose and did not foster either debate or discussion about the war; rather, by preventing students from getting to class, this protest was directly at odds with an informed campus debate. Second, this protest gives a bad name to students who may have legitimate reasons for being against the war, people who have real questions about what the United States is doing in Iraq, and people interested in genuine consideration of the issues at hand. Third, this protest was a waste of time for those inconvenienced by the protest’Äîwithout choice’Äîand for the protesters themselves, who should have found a much better use for that half hour.

While the protesters should shoulder most of the blame for the events of last Thursday, the administration and the Duke University Police Department abdicated their responsibility to enforce the rules of this University by standing idly by and letting this wholesale disruption of campus continue.

The chief of the DUPD seems not to understand that the role of the police is not to protect the safety of protesters but rather to enforce the laws and rules. Consequently, the proper response to this protest from the police would have been either to arrest the protesters for violating the law or, at the very least, to stop them from violating the law by removing them from the middle of the street.

Some--including the chief of police--might argue that these protesters have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. However, since Duke University is a private institution, protesters do not have these rights, and, even if they did, forming a human shield in the middle of the road goes beyond speech and assembly and crosses the line into illegal behavior that should be punished.

What is particularly disturbing about this incident is that the University is discriminating based on the content of speech by allowing this protest to go on when it has not allowed less-disruptive demonstrations in the past. In the fall, the DUPD removed Christian fundamentalists who were spouting anti-homosexual rhetoric in front of the West Union Building from campus--and these individuals were not even blocking traffic, just talking, unlike Thursday's protesters. Or, if a student wanted to protest the parking policy by illegally parking his or her car in the middle of the road blocking traffic, the police would surely get involved and stop the incident. It is disgusting that the University would allow these demonstrators to break the law without consequence when it would stridently enforce the law against other types of demonstrations.

The protesters should be condemned for their illegal actions and the administration and DUPD should be condemned for their cowardly response to this flagrant violation of the law.

http://www.chronicle.duke.edu/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/04/14/3e9a65c7f3a03

to the Durham Herald-Sun, November 8, 2004

Many folks on both sides are saying that this past election was decided on "moral values", including the "pro-life" constituency. Many folks on both sides are also talking of building bridges between the two starkly divided halves of this country. I'd like to start.

I want anyone who voted for Bush because of "moral values" or because they are "pro-life" to explain to me just why a 5-year-old child in Iraq deserves less protection than a five-week-old fetus in America?

I would love to see a "pro-life" march that focuses not only on abortion but also on war and capital punishment. I might even join such a march.

I learned in Sunday School as a child that "Jesus loves the little children of the world" in all their various colors. Seems that some people were taught a less inclusive version of that song. They were taught that it is alright to drop bombs onto the brown kids and to strap the black kids into electric chairs. I'd like to file a lawsuit to make such people cease and desist from calling themselves "pro-life".

to the Durham Herald-Sun, March 16, 2005

The cartoon in the Opinion pages of Wednesday's paper, where the driver of the mammoth SUV wonders why gas prices are so high, made me laugh and then want to cry. I've read and heard stories of how Americans across the board made tremendous sacrifices during World War II. They gave up meat so the soldiers could have it. They conserved resources and bought war bonds. Women played baseball!

Today, we have our soldiers dying in a desert in a war that is undeniably, to some extent, about oil. Yet, here at home, are we conserving anything? No, the Americans most likely to be pro-Iraq war are the ones most likely to be driving gas guzzling SUVs. This generation is comprised largely of people who only look out for themselves. Their unbridled desire to do just what they please has them oblivious to the fact that their children suffer from the smog created by their fuel-inefficient vehicles. Gas will be $3 a gallon before long, and then $4, and it does boil down to supply versus demand. Recession will follow as people can no longer afford leisurely drives to the mall, the theaters, the baseball park.

Oh, how I wish that the American way could go back to conservation and sacrifice for the common good rather than nihilism and destruction for the individual joyride.