‘Letter to the Editor’ Archives
The “Laws of War” are the worst idea ever
Just like the “Iraq War”, Obama is now putting a projected “deadline” to end the “Afghan War”, is this even possible? How can he say that the 2014 deadline will mean that “the Afghan War as we understand it is over” --it appears he doesn”'t understand “war”. If he is in a real “war”, then the “war” decides when it is over. If he can “end” the “war” whenever he wants to, and just walk away””what he is partaking in is equal to a video game. And if he does have the power to “end the war” whenever he wants, why not just “end it” now and save a lot of lives and money? They give themselves way too much freedom once they have defined their actions as a “war”. Let”'s say bin Laden attacked New York City and Washington with a military and Bush attacked Baghdad with commercial passenger jets slamming into [...]
War cannot be created
“War” cannot not be created like a basketball game”¦meaning you can create a basketball game by doing basketball things, but you cannot create “war”, which is the freedom to kill and destroy, by doing warlike things. You cannot get “war” from doing “war”, “war” cannot create itself. The problem is, we believe “war” can be started like a basketball game, that once you have soldiers, bombers, battleships, things being blown up, you”'ve got yourself a “war”. The “war” starters in 2003 knew this-that even though they did not have any real reasons to attack Iraq, that once they got the visual appearance of a “war” going-they were good, they had themselves a “war”, they had themselves a “war zone” they had themselves the freedom to kill and destroy within the “war zone”, but all they had was a fight that they picked. With [...]
COMMENTARY Saving the Phillips Pool to Save Lives
By State Senator Jeff Hayden Minneapolis “The City of Lakes.” Minnesota “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” Behind all those images of sky blue sparkling waters, there is a startling fact: Minnesota has the highest drowning rate among African-Americans in U.S. The drowning rate for Native Americans is third highest in U.S. One reason is the lack of opportunities for inner city youth and adults to learn how to swim. In fact, the only free indoor public swimming pool in the city of Mpls. is at the Phillips Community Center and the only pool in the Phillips community. Unfortunately, the pool has been closed since Boys and Girls Clubs lease ended in 2008. The Mpls. Park and Rec. Dept. planned to infill with dirt and cap with concrete in 2010. Thanks to an outpouring of support from the community and advocacy from interested organizations, the pool was saved from demolition. However, before the pool can be reopened to the public, it needs extensive [...]
