Editor,
Melissa Schooley wrote a letter to the Daily Lobo criticizing the reactions of UNM students regarding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and our government's response.
While I too was disgusted on the 11th to hear a couple of students celebrating leaving school early, I must take issue with Schooley's comments. Having served 10 years in the military, Schooley is obviously older and more experienced than many UNM students.
Younger students are dealing with a new, terrible reality that their relatively sheltered lives have protected them from up until now. They are learning to cope in there own ways.
Judging them based on the "appropriateness" of their reactions is condescending.
Furthermore, I was dismayed to find that Schooley believes that people opposed to this war "condone" bin Laden's actions because we think Americans "deserved it."
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Like most of the people I know who oppose our government's military strikes in Afghanistan, I was horrified and angered by the Sept. 11 attacks. No one deserves that, not America or anyone else.
I am equally horrified by civilian casualties in Afghanistan, and that the United States bombed a Red Cross building. I am horrified that thousands of Iraqis are starving under United States-led U.N. sanctions.
Schooley states that "taking action now will prevent innocent deaths later." Perhaps she hasn't noticed, but innocent lives are being lost, and will continue to be lost, until the bombing stops.
Schooley and others may call me un-American, "cowardly," even, because I believe that all lives are equally sacred. As Americans we enjoy a high standard of living, safety, and relative freedoms that many world citizens unfortunately do not.
Does that mean our lives have higher intrinsic value?
Some Americans may think it does and that is there right. It is my right to value all human lives equally and criticize my government and its foreign policies.
Contrary to Schooley's righteous belief that I "congratulate the aggressors ... all in the name of free speech," I despise the aggressors, as I despise all aggressors who take innocent lives. That includes those aggressors within our government.
Amanda Jane Veile
Anthropology student