It has always amazed me how single-minded liberal elites are so quick to claim moral high ground in arenas that are obviously entirely out of their league. No better example seems available than our bellicose, if not entirely elegant, Joseph Bechard. Really now, editorial staff of the Emerald, the least you could do for those of us who actually can read past a third-grade level — and I realize that this is a rarity here at the University — is utilize the spell-check on your iMac, or at the very least hire competent copy staff who doesn’t epitomize the insatiable incompetence that has radiated from your publication. Or has the accepted English lexicon evolved to include the word “costed” now? (“To Angry Peacemaker,” ODE, Nov. 5).
To answer your more pressing question, Mr. Bechard, the American public is really not what is considered the Willamette Valley “norm,” i.e., hippies and flower babies. Most Americans feel like singer Toby Keith does: angry and vengeful at a group of hateful, ignorant and despicable people who are bent on the destruction of this country not because of some abstract objection to imperialism, but rather because of the freedom and liberty that we enjoy each and every day. Not because we have slaughtered innocent women and children by the millions (and, of course we know that countries like Libya, guilty of the worst human rights violations imaginable, are applauded by ignoramuses like Mr. Bechard when they take leadership of the United Nations Council on Human Rights), but because we support the only representative democracy in the Middle East. These are people that believe killing Muslims who do not agree with their particular vision of Islam and the Koran is the only moral thing to do. After all, heretics, according to these self-proclaimed protectors of the Islamic faith, are not deserving of life and liberty. And these, sir, are people that deserve “understanding”? No, these are people that deserve harsh actions and unmerciful reprisal.
So no, Mr. Bechard, I have no loss of love for such people as these. They are backward, uncivilized brutes, and barbarians who deserve nothing more than an iron fist and a boot, respectfully, in their posterior. Viva Keith and the millions of Americans who patriotically purchase his music!