Letters to the editor: 02/06/03

Country needs to find better way than war

To the Editor:

The greatest victory the Bush Administration could achieve is to stop and think of better ways to solve conflicts than warfare. Killing one's fellow human beings cannot bring real peace. And war is killing, killing and more killing - and billions of dollars of debt passed on to the next generation.

Our stated objective is to disarm Iraq of all weapons of mass destruction. Yet America is the most formidable nuclear power in the world and is continually upgrading bomb parts in violation of international non-proliferation treaties. America is the only nation ever to use nuclear weapons on another nation.

For 12 years our sanctions and bombings of Iraq have caused suffering and death of tens of thousands. The question might be asked: "Who's harming whom?" If we attack Iraq, we can be reasonably sure of more 9/11-type tragedies. Who knows what forces this "pre-emptive" war might unleash. It could well ignite a worldwide conflict.

Yes, Saddam Hussein is a ruthless leader. But are we to answer his violence with more violence? Iraqis do not want war. Nor do we.

Perhaps one day the world will learn that bombs are not the answer - that only the example of goodness and love can win the real battles.

Judy Ross

Balsam

Saddam Hussein's elimination is a must

To the Editor:

I feel the need to respond to a recent Letter to the editor by my good friend the Rev. John Reid. (Jan. 16, "Citizens urged to speak out against war in Iraq") My response should not be taken as any kind of personal attack against Reverend Reid, who is a fine person and fine minister.

With Sadaam at the helm and having already used this horrible type of weaponry against his own people, the Kurds, we know that with Israel as his probably first target, the world would be in chaos immediately. His close ties with Bin Ladin also indicates the worldwide danger as long as he has his hands on the red buttons there in Iraq for germ warfare, as well as nuclear weapons.

I agree with John that we must speak out and have dialogue on the war, but with George W. Bush, we have a fine, Christian man who is thinking of lives saved, not lives destroyed by our military. The power we possess in America is designed to prevent warfare, and thereby allow people to live as opposed to Sadaam's poison gas sprayed into the nostrils of hundred of thousands of innocent men, women and children.

Monday's headlines in Raleigh "Iraq still not cooperating" and the "U.S. to declassify evidence" both indicate the dilemma and action being pursued by the president.

My three older brothers all saw action in World War II, and I was stationed in Pensacola, Fla., for my last leg of Marine fighter pilot training when the war ended. Today I have 19 grandchildren, including one in the U.S. Air Force in Japan, plus many of the age to be involved in fighting.

But, as much as I love John Reid and his family, I disagree with the contents of his letter. We're both patriotic Americans, but I feel we must stand up and eliminate this rascal Sadaam's attempt to kill or maim our democracy and many more similar governments of the world. He is ready to explode on all of us.

Bob Carpenter

N.C. Senator

Franklin

A man can't own a river

To the Editor:

Another piece of America was lost today.

It wasn't really all that large

But still I think someone must miss it

Yet what's never enough for some is

Always too much for the rest

And somewhere, somehow a tear was shed.

Pappaw loved to hunt and fish. He'd walk half a day over or around a mountain just to find the perfect spot. For him standing in the middle of a cold river casting a line and waiting patiently for a response was more than a hobby or a diversion. It was prayer time. He believed that the time he spent in the woods or on the river was a gift and a blessing from God, and though he never said very much he was never shy or quiet about being thankful.

Pappaw didn't believe much in rules. He figured there were only really two: Love God and Love your neighbor. If you could do those two things, he would say, everything will pretty much work itself out from there.

Pappaw didn't believe much in ownership. He believed that everything he had, no matter how hard he had worked for it, was still a gift from God and only his for a little while. When it was his time to go, he would say he wasn't taking anything with him but his soul, and that was God's too.

He didn't believe much in fences or locked gates. He figured that a man who put up a gate for any purpose other than keeping the animals in or out was probably trying to hide something or hold something that really wasn't his to hold.

Another piece of America was lost again today

And one has to wonder if the face of a clock

Doesn't lie just a little

For can time ever come full circle when so much of it

Has been lost without recognition.

Times have changed a lot since Pappaw's day. Pappaw wouldn't recognize things much. We have progress. We have modern conveniences. We have more things. We can go more places faster. The television brings us more kinds of entertainment than we ever dreamed possible, and the Internet puts all the information of the world at our fingertips.

Yet in our culture of more and bigger and better, we have more of some things that may not be so good. We have more fear. We have more desire. We have more rules. We have more gates and fences.

Another piece of America was lost again today

And the more obvious it becomes

The less noticeable it all seems to get

And no one ever seems to care about running out.

There was one thing Pappaw had more of than we have today. Faith. Pappaw's two rules were enough because he had faith. This was enough because it gave him peace, and if you have peace there is nothing else you need.

There was a time when our greatest entertainment was visiting our neighbors. Sitting on the porch just visiting was considered a highlight. It was easier to love your neighbor because you knew your neighbor.

Now we have gated communities, and we complain that there isn't enough time. But in our age of expanded knowledge and our age of acquisition, there is one thing we haven't learned to acquire. More time.

Pappaw didn't need more time. Pappaw had peace, and with peace came eternity.

Another piece of America was lost again today

The Human Beings are all gone now

"I will fight no more forever" has finally come true.

Whenever there was trouble or a problem, Pappaw would say, "I'm a winner either way." When the cancer came and the pain got worse, he still smiled. "I'm a winner either way." And when the end came, he didn't fight. He smiled. And he wasn't shy or quiet about being thankful - for what had been and what was to come. He took nothing with him but the soul God gave him. And I think he left a lot behind.

Another piece of America was lost again today

Brothers all the good days to die have faded.

I read where a man says he can buy the river. He can buy the Tuckaseigee. He's from Atlanta, and he and his lawyer say that he can own creation itself. And for the sake of something he can never take with him, for the sake of money he can say who can use the part of the river he owns.

And I can't understand this because all I can think of is Pappaw standing in the river fishing. And praying.

And another piece of America was lost again today.

Mark Jamison

Cullowhee

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