Editor:
I found Jonathan Richardson’s Sept. 16 letter regarding tolerance and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, “Attackers Are Not Heroes” a little blind.
His example of a girl being raped is actually a good one, but in a different way. Switching the roles, representing the terrorists as the girl and the rapist as the United States?wouldn’t the response be different?
Imagine also that the girl struck back at the rapist, but that the response was not to understand why the girl attacked the rapist but instead to defend the rapist against the girl being raped. Most people would call that screwed logic, but to some extent, that is going on right now.
The current situation is more complicated than this example, but it emphasizes that the terrorists aren’t terrorizing the United States for no reason. Why would they? Why carry out suicide attacks for no good reason? It certainly doesn’t make life any better for the victim or the terrorist.
They feel terrorized by the United States and feel they have to strike back in some way because they have no political means to accomplish their task. Actions speak louder than words.
We can’t please everyone all the time, but if we learn to understand people?even the terrorists? better, we’ll have an easier time not pushing people to the point where they feel terrorism is their only option.
Christopher Condrat
Junior, Electrical Engineering