As a staunch liberal (and thus a minority on this campus), I often find The Observer's Viewpoint section highly amusing. But in the Viewpoint for Tuesday the 15th, Christie Pesavento crossed the line from amusing to downright vile and disturbing ("Politicizing 9/11"). How dare the right accuse President Obama of politicizing Sept. 11? The entirety of the Bush administration was defined by the politicizing of one of the most tragic events in American history. Our military is currently bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq because former President Bush and his cronies were able to capitalize on the fear and confusion of the aftermath of the attacks on New York and Washington D.C.
You demand we remain in mourning, Ms. Pesavento? No, you and the other neo-conservatives care little for mourning. You demand we stay in fear. Fear of the outside world is what allowed President Bush to convince the American public that war in Iraq was a necessary course. Fear is what allowed the Bush administration to violate Constitutional and international law by spying on American citizens, profiling Arabs and torturing prisoners. Fear is the reason Bush, despite being incompetent and corrupt (which is now apparent to anybody with hindsight and a brain), was able to grab himself a second term in the White House. Now President Obama has forsaken the politics of fear for the politics of hope and service, and the right wing comes up swinging.
The Republicans' stance against community service is one I'll never comprehend. During the campaign, Republicans made a mockery of Obama's service as a community organizer and now that he has the presidency and is attempting to use it to make us all community organizers in our own way, the hypocritical right accuses him of political motives. I will never forget the 9/11 attacks. Nobody will. But when it comes to politicizing the tragedy, nobody could beat the Republicans, no matter how hard they might try.
Tim Ryan
sophomore
Keenan Hall
Sept. 15
