I’d like to address the somewhat disturbing viewpoint of Danielle Sharp. First and foremost, I take serious issue with her viewpoint that Americans should blindly support our country’s policies and administration and that dissent to said policies and administration is “anti-US”. By her logic, one could make the argument that the Germans supporting Hitler and Nazism in the 1940s, when Germany was at war and decidedly unpopular with most of Europe and North America, was not only acceptable but their moral and national duty. I disagree, as did the United States after the war.

I also question whether she truly understands the Constitution and its amendments. She apparently believes these rights should only apply when support is being given to our country and government figures. We have a constitutional, if not moral, right to voice our opinions on how our country is run.

Why should the views of one political party or administration decide the policies of this country while the American people just sit and accept what is dictated to them? Is this democracy? Also, I’m sick of the idea that it is impossible to support the troops while at the same time protesting the War.

I have two family members in Iraq and I certainly have respect for them and their duty. However, I feel that this administration rushed us into war with Iraq using faulty intelligence and without properly devising a reconstruction plan for post-war Iraq. And probably to Ms. Sharp’s disgust, I do not feel that my family members’ lives are worth sacrificing for this war started by this irresponsible and dividing administration. I do not support, and likely never will, blind nationalism. I would advise Ms. Sharp to read a history book and see what blind nationalism did for the Germans.

Clark Danderson

graduate student