Letters and Emails

Foreign policy creates debate

Since the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, all I hve been hearing on television is that it is probably the work of Osamabin Laden. Why? The number of people aorund the world that are angry over the U.S. foreign policy is extremely large. Iraqis are angry over the continual bombings, the sanctions which have killed over a million people, and the depleted Uranium used in bombing that has cause Leukemia and other cancers. Yugoslavs are angy over the bombing and dismemberment of their country. Palestinians are angry over the U.S. supported coups, death squads, torture, disappeared people and ruthless dictators. Africans are angry over the U.S. support for apartheid and the proxy wars by Renamo and UNITA in Mozambique and Angola that have caused the deaths of millions of poeple. Indonesians are angry over the bloody dictatorship of Suharto. I could go on and on.

Now, President George W. Bush will undoubtedly bumb another country, probably Afghanistan, causing the loss of more innocent lives and possibly commit U.S. ground forces in a search for Osama bin Laden. Incidentally, the CIA was responsible for bringing the Taliban to power by financing the fight against the Russians. This policy will only exacerbate the situation and bring more terrorist attacks.

I am appalled at the suffering and loss of life in New York and Washington, D.C. It is a terrible tragedy and could lead to the loss of civil liberties and will result in a headlong rush to Star Wars and militarization to the detriment of Social Security, education, the infrastructure, the environment, etc.

The difficult task for the American people is to change U.S. foreign policy from one based on imperial might, designed to foster the interests and profits of multinational corporations, to one based on peace, justice and the interest of the common people everywhere. The terrorism will cease.

Gary Sudborough

Students battle with Anorexia

We are fighting two wars right now, one against terrorism, and the other against eating disorders. I am unsure which is worse.

Moments ago a friend stopped me on campus. I listened in disbelief to what had happened the other night as she overheard a conversation that left her feeling less than human. Fellow students were trying to identify which of their classmates had declared anorexia as their major. It pains me that students would ever engage in such heartless dialogue. What psins me more is that they are students at a Jesuit University, where conscience, competence and compassion are the foundations of students' education.

Suddenly, a disease has become a pursuit, an achievement, and a course of study. Students struggling with eating disorders now share the same major or dying, of looking thin. To declare the major of anorexia, what must students do to fulfill the requirements? Stop eating? Lost 20 pounds? or worse yet, die?

I was left speechless as this student struggled to explain what had happened. I am appalled. My fingers are shaking as I try to understand what would comel someone to see their own peers in this light. I wonder what has gone so amiss that students struggling with an oftentimes-fatal disease have become the targets of attack. What they need is support and love. What they do not need is to hear words so cruel that they bring someone to tears and to question their own value. As a result of a few students' thoughtlessness, we may lose a member of our community.

I beg you to condemn this behavior.

andnbspandnbspandnbsp Alistair Grant,

andnbspandnbspandnbsp English, '00