10
Wednesday, September 19, 2001
Opinion
Sty My (Mr Mfri
Established 1893 • 108 Years of Editorial freedom
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Katie Hunter
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Readers' Forum =
Local American Red
Cross Director Thanks
Community for Support
TO THE EDITOR:
Thank you all very much for your sup
port of the victims of last week’s horrible
tragedy through Red Cross blood drive
program.
So many of you have wanted to help, but
we did not have the resources to accom
modate all of you. But we recognize each
and every one of your efforts.
To all of those who donated blood or
time, were deferred from donating or lined
up and were turned away, we do not know
how to thank you enough.
If anything positive can come out of this
horror, it is the publicity that the impor
tance of donating blood has received.
For many Americans, the best way to
fight back against the people who attacked
our nation is to donate blood or help at a
blood drive. But every day, thousands of
people nationwide need blood transfusions
for operations, trauma, terminal illness and
other ailments.
The blood you donate now can only be
used for a short time before it expires.
UNC Hospitals needs blood year-round,
and the UNC-Chapel Hill campus is a
GAVE PROOP THROUGH THE NIGHT THAT OURFLAG WAS STILL THERE...
Board Editorials
True Tolerance
The University and the community known for their acceptance of others need to maintain that reputation
Seldom has the adage “united we stand,
divided we fall” carried more weight than it
does now for America.
Last week as the media rushed to call the
attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon an “attack on America” and as
President Bush declared a war on terror
ism, some misguided Americans misinter
preted the calls and retaliated with violence
and hate toward their own brothers.
A man in Huntington, N.Y., attempted to
run over a Pakistani woman in a parking lot
with his car.
An armed man set fire to a mosque in
Seattle. A man in Mesa, Ariz., opened fire
on the home of a family of Afghani
descents and shot at a Lebanese-American
store clerk.
The same man is also suspected of killing
an Indian immigrant gas station owner.
When he was arrested for his crimes he
exclaimed, “I stand for America all the
way.”
Some members of the University com
Just Pure Luck
Last Tuesday's tragedy left many feeling lucky to be alive —but for some "luck” was more like grace
America faces some daunting challenges
in the wake of last week’s national tragedy.
The search for meaning and hope amid the
confusion and fear will not be easy during
the coming months and the
inevitable conflict escalating
throughout the world.
Perhaps the most encourag
ing and inspirational aspect of
this real-life drama has been the incredible
rescue effort and the outpouring of support
from ordinary citizens who choose to ful
fill a moral obligation much larger than
everyday life.
In a true test of the theory of “six degrees
of separation,” it seems that every individ
ual is connected to someone who has been
personally affected by the terrorist attacks.
There are also stories that seem to test the
resolve of individuals who are forced to,
burden more than their fair share of pain
and doubt. These stories help to ground a
people who need a certain amount of reas-
main provider and lifesaver for it.
Pain is felt daily by families who are los
ing relatives to cancer, car accidents and
heart attacks.
Their pain is no weaker than the pain
felt now by all of us, especially those of us
who have friends or relatives who were lost
or seriously injured in these attacks. We
must strive to remember that.
Blood drives are held constandy on cam
pus, and you are eligible to donate every
eight weeks. Please take advantage of this
opportunity to save lives and help others.
In this way, we can show the terrorists that
Americans sacrifice for each other all the
time and cannot kill the spirit.
Once again, our heartfelt thanks go out
to those who helped in this desperate time,
and will continue to help in the future.
Casey Copp
Director of Blood Services
Orange County Chapter of the American
Red Cross
Student Urges Nation to
Recognize Long-Term
Consequences of War
TO THE EDITOR:
In the aftermath of last Tuesday’s grue
munity -a community that prides itself on
tolerance - are quick to dismiss the idea
that such things would ever happen here -
but they already have.
An Arab woman wearing traditional
dress was spit on at N.C. State University,
while another woman had pebbles thrown
at her.
A mosque in Raleigh had 14 bomb
threats in the days following the terrorist
attack.
A peace vigil outside the Franklin Street
Post Office was interrupted by a passing
motorist screaming epithets of hate direct
ed at Muslims.
We as members of this university com
munity must cope with our grief in a pos
itive manner and work through this
tragedy hand-in-hand with our fellow
Americans.
We must not let hate and vengeance con
sume us and allow ourselves to rally behind
those who do.
We must love our neighbors and educate
surance that is achieved through a sigh of
relief and a “thank God it wasn’t me”
moment of selfish indulgence in the impor
tance of pure luck.
But luck is a sliding scale.
Some people felt lucky
Tuesday afternoon after a few
phone calls revealed that
everyone they knew was safe.
JOSEPH FORMISANO
Editorial Notebook
Other people didn’t get those calls until
much later, but for them good news did
arrive, eventually.
The story of Rudy Marisa proves that
hope is a valuable thing and that luck
knows no quota for personal relief.
Marisa is the head basketball coach at
Waynesburg College (Pa.). He is also the
athletic director and the namesake of the
school’s basketball arena. He is the father of
two sons and lives with his wife just outside
his college town. Before last week, he prob
ably thought his life was more than a little
charmed. But Tuesday’s attacks left his life,
some attacks, while the entire nation is
mourning the loss of thousands of innocent
civilian lives, Bush says the United States
will wage a “long war.”
We have to realize that the action that
the United States decides to take will have
significant and long-lasting implications.
The United States says it will bomb
Afghanistan if it refuses to give up Osama
bin Laden.
India and Pakistan have offered the
United States their airspace and ground
support should the United States decide to
attack Afghanistan.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, has
pledged to declare war against any country
that decides to side with the United States,
including Pakistan, which is one of the very
few countries that recognizes the Taliban as
the official government of Afghanistan.
Moreover, the Islamic militant groups in
Pakistan are geared to initiate a civil war if
the government decides to help the United
States in any way.
The question is: Are we going to avenge
the loss of thousands of innocent civilian
lives by killing even more civilians who
stand nowhere at fault?
Is that going to make us feel better? Is
that what we as humans want?
Going to war is also bound to have
severe economic implications.
ourselves about the beliefs of others.
We must remember that just because
someone practices Islam or is of Arabic
descent, that doesn’t mean they are a ter
rorist or condone the actions of those who
endeavor to destroy the United States.
This terrorist action stems not from reli
gion, but from evil deep within the perpe
trators.
America is not a homogeneous nation
that one people can claim. It is a tapestry
sewn with the threads of different of races,
ethnicities, ideas, religions and back
grounds.
It is this intricate design that makes
America the great nation that it is.
University students have a responsibili
ty to make sure that no person feels
uncomfortable on this campus all
Americans have the responsibility to do
the same with their brothers and sisters in
this nation.
When we fulfill this responsibility, we
can break the chains that bind this nation.
for a few hours at least, in total turmoil.
Kent Marisa, Rudy’s younger son, was at
work in the World Trade Complex when
terror struck. Rudy’s other son, Kurt, called
home just after 9 a.m. to see if they had any
information about Kent. They shared tears
and prayers, promising to be in contact
when word came in. At about 9:30 a.m.,
Kurt returned to his desk at his office in the
Pentagon. Minutes later the building was
rocked by an explosion.
Both Kent and Kurt survived, but their
calls home were also made in fear. The
fourth plane involved in the terrorists’
attacks crashed in Somerset, Pa., less then
90 minutes from their father’s home.
Today, the Marisa family is intact and
physically unharmed. Their world was
turned upside-down and shaken before
being returned to them. As unlucky as that
seems, the Marisas probably consider
themselves among the luckiest people in
the world.
With globalization, most economies of
the world are interconnected so strongly
that a strain on the already reeling U.S.
economy will inevitably result in econom
ic crises in numerous other countries.
In light of these issues, we can just hope
that whatever action Bush and his men take
is contemplated well and involves minimal
loss of innocent human lives.
Aishwarya Kumar
Senior
Economics, Management and Society
UNC Graduate Highlights
That Flier About Islam
Contains Some Validity
TO THE EDITOR:
I would like to write with regard to the
fliers which have been posted up around
campus entitled, “A Frank Word About
Islam” and the responses in The Daily Tar
Heel about this literature.
I’ve noticed that people are quick to say
that posting this flier is some terrible, hor
rible act.
But one question I want answered is:
What exactly on this flier is not true?
The flier contained direct quotations
from the Koran - quotations that called for
Still Raging
And Trying to
Find Answers
I wanted to write about football. I wanted to write some
college student piece, full of sweetness and light, about
a random element of UNC life -one of the incidentals
that we give grand importance to here.
But on Tuesday our American world was tom apart and
the things we are concerned with- the daily minutiae we
have the luxury of worrying about -
became instantly insignificant.
And we are still reeling.
There has been some talk of how
we must seek peace: peace in the
world, peace within ourselves.
But I am raging.
1 am raging because it is so damn
difficult to love one’s enemies. I am
raging because I feel so litde faith in
the leader of my country. I am raging
because I can find so few lessons in
all of this.
And I am raging because a search for peace goes against
every initial human reaction to the attacks - we are deeply
hurt and frustrated, our grief has quickly coalesced into
anger, and we are aching to have a target.
True, we must take some sort of action in response. But
it is utterly terrifying to see how our country seems so des
perate to go to war.
One of the more unsettling moments of last week
occurred when the headline graphic on CNN changed
from “America Under Attack” to “America’s New War.”
It seemed so abrupt and so final.
We have been so quick to declare war on an enemy we
cannot point out on a map. Resident Bush has pledged to
“eradicate terrorism from the face of the earth.” This is a
laudable goal, but it is impossible to truly eradicate terror
ism unless we eradicate the mentalities, the hatred and the
iniquities that cultivate it.
At what time has war ever decreased resentment and
hatred?
It’s upsetting to realize that, as of right now, it doesn’t
matter who did this. We are prepared to wage a war against
terrorism itself - not against one enemy but against all of
them.
It has been argued that the attacks were just like Pearl
Harbor, but these acts were not orchestrated by a country
but by a nameless group.
This is much different than Pearl Harbor, and it is just
that much worse. There is no national entity we can point
to as the “evil” that must be eradicated.
It is terribly frustrating for a country that knows the con
cept of massive retaliation very well, of knowing our ene
mies by name. If the World Trade Center and Pentagon
attacks parallel Pearl Harbor, then does that mean that our
future holds a parallel to Hiroshima? To Nagasaki?
Can our world stand another?
Can humanity stand another?
There have always been complaints in the past about the
American media’s habit of filling the pages of newspapers
with fluff -a movie star’s affair or the sexual dalliance of a
president.
1 once heard a woman who had just arrived in America
from a war-tom country respond to such complaints. She
said something to the effect of how nice it was to live in a
country, like the United States, where times are peaceful
enough that “fluff” news makes the front page. I think
we’ve begun .to understand her point, having had so many
years without tragedy in our nation.
Those who wonder whether rushing into war is the best
and only option are not any less angry about the attacks
than those who push for immediate retribution.
Questioning the wisdom in creating massive violence
does not dishonor those who have fallen. The attacks have
awakened in us a realization of just how fragile and pre
cious a human life is. Cultivating a war would utterly disre
gard that lesson and would absolutely guarantee further
American and foreign loss of life. Our generation has no
concept of war - we have grown up in an era of prosperity
and relative peace.
It is not a question with an easy answer. All we know is
that our nation has been grievously injured and that we
must do something. But this conflict has no solid enemy or
foreseeable end.
Before making a decision to send our country into fight
ing, we need to know more. So much is still unclear.
Rationality is being sacrificed for righteousness, and a
sense of confusion and moral conflict is prevalent. It is
unsettling that when truly tested our country turns to two
things.
Prayer and war.
Erin Fornoff can be reached at fornoff@email.unc.edu.
the killing and driving out of non-Muslims,
quotations which any true Muslim is
bound to abide by as commandments from
Allah.
The flier makes a good point also in not
ing that Christians, Jews and others are per
secuted even to death in some Muslim
countries.
Yet Muslims are not persecuted in
America and other Western countries
(except, I suppose, when Muslim terrorists
commit mass murder on our soil).
Letter writers and others, such as Jason
Idilbi and Mohamed Zayed, are quick to
decry this flier (in very general terms, it
might be added), but they seem unable to
refute any of the truthful statements made
by this flier.
We all are horrified by the terrible
tragedy which occurred on Tuesday, and
most Americans can certainly recognize
that most Muslims do not support the type
of fanaticism which fueled these attacks.
But on the other side of the coin, one
cannot forget the images of Muslims in
Palestine and Egypt celebrating the deaths
of thousands of die “enemies of Islam.” The
face of Islam in lands “where it does rule”
may very well have been shown.
Ttm Dunkin
Class of 'OO
Qltjp lailg Star Mwl
ERIN FORNOFF
SWEETNESS AND
LIGHT
©
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