Innocent people don’t deserve rage

I strongly disagree with government leaders who are declaring war on any country that supports any suspected terrorist. Venting our rage toward a whole group of people or a country because of the actions of some individuals is retaliatory, no matter how you cloak it in flag-waving. And revenge tends to get out of hand. It’s not careful about looking for solid evidence.

Remember the Western vigilantes or the southerners who hung anyone they remotely suspected of a wrongful act? Let’s not get all churned up and go after the wrong people. We aren’t going to be able to “weed out” hatred and fanaticism with soldiers and bombs anyway. And I am not willing to use military violence on innocent people to gain an illusion of greater security.

Of course we feel vulnerable. Let’s face it; we’re sitting ducks. And we need to protect ourselves as best we can with defensive measures at home. But we believe in judging situations by well-considered law. Let’s not throw to the winds one of our basic cultural beliefs because of the size of our loss and because the perpetrators may come from outside our borders. If we’re not careful, within a short time span, we can become the monstrous, barbaric, evil people we’ve been accused of being. Remember what Lord Acton said: “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” And we hold great military power in our hands. We mustn’t use it just because we have it and we’re mad as hell with grief and fear.

Mill Creek