There is much that could be said in response to Michael McKnight's Sept. 10 "Right of Way" column. Among other things, it is a bit disturbing that a journalism student should have such a deep, instinctual aversion to the exercise of free speech and the articulation of dissenting views.
But I would like to focus on one assertion of McKnight's, which is that "the so-called 'alternative' views expressed in the 'teach-ins' (that took place last fall) were unnecessary and utterly disrespectful to the thousands of people who lost their lives that day."
Many people have concluded that respect for the victims of Sept. 11 requires us to view the tragedy in some sort of historical context and that we should attempt to go beyond the simplistic view, often expressed by President Bush, of "good" (America) vs. the "evil-doers." Some relatives of the Sept. 11 victims have joined others in saying, "not in our name -- vengeance is not the answer."
Michael Albert, a noted political commentator who will be speaking at UNC on Oct. 25 as part of a conference organized by SURGE, recently wrote: "If a stressed-out employee or student takes over a workplace or a public school and kills innocents, we don't ignore (much less aggravate) the root causes of anxiety, anger and pain in those venues, but instead we try to address them. We also don't bomb the workplace or school into dust, much less annihilate the surrounding neighborhoods, much less assault whole states where the perpetrators were born, grew up or learned how to shoot. We instead try to reduce the causes of future violence."
For anyone who agrees that these issues should be discussed openly, on Sept. 23 there will be a teach-in on Iraq, which seems to be the next target of the "War on Terror," despite the fact that Iraq had nothing to do with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks or with Osama bin Laden. The teach-in will be in 209 Manning Hall at 7 p.m.
John Cox
Graduate Student
History
