Terrorism in America

[Editor's note: Thanks to the hundreds of readers who sent us e-mail about the September 11 attacks. To keep this letters section of managable size, we only are presenting a selection. As always, we are not reprinting open letters (which are always widely available elsewhere) or messages that appear to be mass-mailed.]

We are all saddened and angered by the recent terrorist attacks against the United States. Never before has such a violent and extensive act been committed against us, within our borders. So many people have died and the lives of so many will never again be the same.

Please remember, however, that the despicable acts of a few should not be used as an excuse to commit acts of hatred and violence. It is despicable to me -- a U.S.-born citizen with ancestors from Europe -- that the United States has witnessed violence committed by Americans against others because of their ethnicity or religion. Reports continue to come in of fights, shootings, and arsons committed against those of Middle-Eastern descent. This must stop immediately.

Please do not let the evil acts of an isolated group of terrorists push your readers to commit equally despicable acts of hatred and violence against their innocent neighbors. Your readers should open their arms and hearts to say a kind word to their neighbors of different ethnic backgrounds or religions next time they see them. They should intervene when they see others engaging in this type of hateful activity.

We can all get through this together so long as we do not let what has happened drive us to act against our neighbors within our communities.

William J. Elicson

If anyone in your family is suffering, this will affect all family members living under the same roof. If we consider human beings living all around the world as a part of the family, and treat them as such, the world will be much different than it is now. I believe 99 percent of the people in the world will agree with me. The question is: why cannot we achieve this?

Karahan Mete

I realized today that I am more afraid of our government's response than I am to the threat of the terrorists.

Terrorists are not rational people than can be dealt with by force. They are people who have caught an insidious disease which allows them to divorce themselves from the human and instead become a robotic individual seeking to destroy. Terrorists will always be among us. We cannot destroy them. We can, however, destroy ourselves in the act of trying to destroy them.

I am saddened when the Congress votes $40 billion to destroy the terrorists. I wish they had waited to see where our defense systems of detection, tracking etc need to be more adept. A blank check never stopped anything.

Instead our President has declared a state of War. By inference any nation in the world which harbors terrorists could be targeted for attack and that includes most of them. Of course our favorites tend to be those with Muslim constituencies: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, the Sudan.

It is not a time to separate the people of the world. It is time to bring us all together. All nations of the world suffer from terrorists. I am praying for wisdom among our leaders. I also am joining with people who are expressing that violence towards the world is not the solution we value. I am also connecting with my friends both by phone an by e mail.

We can make a difference but only if we raise our voices and our concerns. It is time to act out of the depth of our wisdom.

John Simmons

The recent terrorist attacks are the price we pay for ignoring the wisdom of the founders of this country as expressed by Thomas Jefferson: "Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliance with none." The international hegemony of the United States federal government has been irritating people throughout the world for decades. End all subsidies, particularly foreign aid, terminate all treaties, terminate the CIA, and end all trade restrictions except for military technology developed with federal funding. Stop making enemies and we won't have to worry about terrorism.

Bill Holmes

In his radio interview yesterday, Vice President Cheney stated that it would be "irresponsible" to abort attempts to build the missile shield. I would have thought it quite clear to the entire country by now that our number one priority is to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists. How will the billions to be spent on the so-called missile shield help in this area?

To quote from former Senator Nunn: "Early this year, a distinguished bipartisan task force declared loose weapons, materials and know-how in Russia 'the most urgent unmet national security threat to the United States,' and called for a fourfold funding increase to reduce these threats. We need to reflect this sound advice in our budget priorities. Keeping weapons of mass destruction out of terrorists' hands is either a priority or an afterthought. If it is an afterthought, after what?"

After what, indeed.

The Bush administration slashed funds earmarked to assist the Russians in safeguarding and destroying their nuclear stockpile early this year. Perhaps a better use of the funds requested for a missile shield would be to protect America from these weapons which already exist!

Ron Currens

America had it's Vietnam, and the Soviets had their Afghanistan. Now it looks like we will have our Afghanistan, too.

Leslie Cox

It now becomes clearer as to why President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell, among others, have told the American public to expect a prolonged and sustained military initiative. Afghanistan is the obvious geographic target, and we have all heard how desolate and difficult it is for foreign military forces to perform effectively there. Just ask the Soviets.

If the United States does capture or deal with Bin Ladin, there is sure to be some national swell of pride, vengeance and victory. However, another nation will be plotting its own response -- the nation of Al-Qaida. President Bush and Vice President Cheney are trying to warn us that the war against Al-Qaida will extend into several countries and could extend for many months or even years. We are forced as a nation to defend ourselves against an enemy that has proven itself capable of killing thousands of our citizens and destroying 110-story buildings. When at war, our objective must be to eliminate the threat. What we must hope for the interests of all concerned is that the enemy will surrender, but that is unlikely.

We must eliminate or neutralize the world's most organized terrorist organization, Al-Qaida, in order to resume our way of life and freedom to live our lives without looking over our collective shoulders.

Tom Mitsoff

For more than four days now, we've witnessed the devastation of Tuesday's terrorist attack on the U.S. We've heard from prominent leaders and ordinary citizens, but the Hollywood community remains silent. The same individuals who daily regaled us with tales of impending doom should we choose George W. Bush over Al Gore are now sitting on the sidelines during this event. You can bet that if this tragedy had occurred during the Clinton administration the scenario would not be the same. They would have been lined up at his side digging through the concrete. All over the country you would have witnessed our nation's TV and movie stars heading up blood drives and falling all over each other to make their financial contributions. I'm angry. Am I off the mark?

Marina Anna Baker
[Ed. note: This was received September 16, five days before the unprecedented fund-raising simulcast]

Those flight attendants on those four doomed jet liners should've been armed. From now on in, flight attendants are to be trained to use sidearms. With pistols that fire low-velocity bullets, the flight attendants on those doomed jets would've averted the destruction of the World Trade Center towers.

A. Stella

Why I Don't Like Dick Cheney

Mr. Jordan, I am sorry your mother in law died. I am concerned for your child who was sick. I am also very happy to have a man as qualified as Dick Cheney to be serving in the position he presently is. I am persuaded that he is the right man for the right hour. I am happy that he and President Bush and Colin Powell will lead this country out of the nightmare we have been through the last week. I hope you can forgive Mr. Cheney. Why not start by taking the article off the net? It would be good for you and good for the country.

Ron Neuenschwander

The Accomplices Of Andrea Yates

Not only do I fully agree with Cindy Hasz's commentary, I also feel Rusty Yates should be locked up with her. He insisted she quit her job, home school five children, kept her from her family, knowing full well his wife was sick. The bottom line is: Andrea Yates was a battered, depressed woman who killed her children out of revenge toward her husband.

Joyce Mitchell

I totally agree with the comments in the article and was very glad to see this opinion published. Good job!

Lori Williams

Screw Your Anti-American Sentiment

It is the U.S. government that lets you spew your conjecture and whining along with your informative reporting without fear of imprisonment or death. It is the U.S. government who aided these Muslim people in fighting the Soviet Union and now they want to return the favor with faceless terrorism. If we didn't stick our nose into every action that goes on in this world, the countries we didn't help would whine about that too.

Ben Norton

Whether your site is serious in what you write, or if you have a really dry sense of humor. I truely hope it is the latter, seeing as this is the most absurd garbage I have read, trying to be passed off as factual news.

Everything that I have read on your site, is nothing but a more left wing extremist version of the already left wing article in the Washington Post, New York Times and CNN had to offer. You offer no news that is not already in one of those three papers.

So as to your site, I live in America, so you are entitled to your own opinions no matter how anti-american they may be. I though will stick to real newspapers that are determined to deliver the news and not a bias such as the Washington Times, New York Post and The Wall Street Journal. Not the alternative rags you obviously pull your information from.

"Ryan"

If the "right-wing media" is successful, it's only because it's opponents in the vast left wing conspiracy (i.e. you) are boring cretins. Your tortured screeds have all the believability of the ramblings of a paranoid lunatic. I guess partisan hypocrisy and spin are the secrets of your "success."

William Drennen

We live in a nation that is in a sad state right now. And although I am a journalist and I believe in the First Amendment, it's people like you who cause so much unrest in Washington.

I hope that you will learn to live with the fact that Al "Hippy" Gore lost the election.

Thomas Collins

Thanks

Just wanted to drop a quick thanks to you and your crew for Albion. It's an excellent and much needed publication. keep up the wonderful work.

Jim Loughborough

I have recently discovererd your online paper. Thank you so much for digging where others are afraid to and for approaching the news with an old fashioned desire to report the news. As I hear NPR list deceased names and NBC argue over death totals and newsapapers show only personal grief and promises for revenge, I have wondered where the whole story is from Tuesday. Clearly there is much more to learn. I will from now on be a regular reader.

Gregory D. Peters

I considered myself to be a rather savvy out-of-the-box thinker, and then I saw your site, and I thought that I had been kept in the dark on everything. I am going to tell all my politically active friends about your site. Subscriptions to your magazine/newspaper (not sure what it is yet) are a great idea for gifts (that might sound cliche, but it's true -- to hell with Chia pets!)

Tim Wing

My God, this is a good newspaper! Thanks for putting it on the Web. I'll be getting my news from you folks from now on. By the way, what originally had me riveted was your story about why the Afghanis hate us so much. Have you seen the email that's been going around talking about bombing the Afghanis with butter instead of bombs?

Susan E. Cook

Thank you.

Charlotte Louise