Al Qaeda not worthy of diplomatic relations
Sarah Turner's article ('Bombs threaten hope of long term peace,' Oct. 10) has numerous problems. First of all, she seems to believe that al Qaeda is a civilized nation-state worthy of diplomatic relations. It is not. Al Qaeda is a group bent on murdering every American, military personnel or civilian. They are murderers. When someone in a civilized nation is murdered we don't ask the victim's family to make peace with the murderer. We bring the murderer to justice.
Secondly, her gross simplification of the state of Israeli/Palestinian relations is the same black-and-white view that has kept both sides from obtaining peace. She paints the Palestinians as nothing more than innocent victims, but they, like the Israelis, have blood on their hands. A solution to the problem comes not from blaming one side, but from forgiving the sins of both sides.
Thirdly, we do not fight out of intolerance. This is not America against minorities, this is not America against Islam, this is not America against Afghanistan. This is a fight against terrorists. We are fighting the intolerance of an organization that believes any civilian who is not a fundamentalist Muslim deserves to die.
Finally, the propaganda trash passed off as a political cartoon by Kara Hendershot is a disgrace to your paper.
Measurement system shows unique culture
I'm writing to sing the praises of Mike Murphy's article ('Don't budge an inch on metricism,' Oct. 10) regarding the metric system. The U.S. system of measurement is under attack and I commend Murphy for standing up to the current onslaught. The attempts made by certain metric mongers on this campus to standardize, globalize and sterilize our system of measurement is not just an assault on our ruler, but indeed, our culture. The U.S. system of measurement has a rich history, which Murphy eloquently outlined, that adds to our country's identity'shame on you metric mongers! 'Go metric,' you say? It's time we slow metric. Do you also propose a universal language, one in which cultures and countries are robbed of their history and identity for your convenience?
Understand there is beauty in translation, as there is in conversion. How we measure the world may be entirely different from how others measure it. It's time we start appreciating those differences rather than degrading them. I am reminded of the words from the Broadway musical 'Rent' that ask, 'How do you measure a year / in daylights, in sunsets, in midnights and cups of coffee / in inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife'? Well, 'how about love'? How about we start measuring the world in love? Love for the beautiful array of measuring systems that surround us. Though the human hands may be, the human heart is not based on the number 10. Remember that the next time you choose which side of the ruler to use.
