There is something terribly wrong with the world today, and I’m not just referring to the war. Instead, I am referring to the people around you who support the war, and even some of those that don’t.

The problem is a good percentage of people are either responding in a way that is dictated to them by authority figures or are reacting without any rational thought. For example, the nation is told to buy duct tape and plastic wrap; so many people go out and purchase these items. However, I am far more worried about a related issue than people buying the world’s most versatile tools.

On Wednesday, March 19, the Gallup Organization released the results of a poll that showed 65 percent of people were in favor of the war. But, on closer examination you see that only 44 percent think the war is right, the other 21 percent “approve, not sure if right, but support president.” On a Yahoo! message board on the same day someone wrote, “Our Congress may not agree with the decision but they must support it. If Byrd cannot support it let him show it by doing what the Brits are doing and step down. I served for 30 years and am proud of my country and support the decisions of its leaders. They know much more than us, the common citizen.”

These seem to point to the idea that at least some people in this country think we live in an elitist society, with the superior politicians telling us what to do. Since when did we become sheep? We were a democracy, governed by the people. Instead now the people are just governed.

I can only speculate how this happened, but I think it has a lot to do with the scare tactics the Homeland Security Council keeps using. Any time they would want to get people to go along with their plan, they would raise the alert status to orange or red. Scared people abandon reason, and will do anything to be safe again. So they will allow our military to wipe out small countries, random searches at airports and approve of mass paranoia all in the name of national security, and ultimately, personal safety.

And finally, I hear a lot of people talking about how we need to eliminate Saddam because he gassed his own people. Instead of just taking this at face value like so many of you are, I went and researched this little bit of history. Check “Iraqi Power and U.S. Security in the Middle East ,” Chapter 5 — U.S. Security and Iraqi Power. This report was put out by the Pentagon in 1990 outlining how there is no evidence of Saddam gassing the Kurds, and that the only incident of the Kurds being gassed was during the Iraq/Iran war when the Iranians used poison gas.

Or check Stephen Pelletiere ’s article in the New York Times on Jan. 31, 2003 titled “A War Crime or an Act of War.” Stephen was the CIA’s senior political analyst during the Iraq/Iran war. In his article he outlines how it was Iran ’s gas, not Iraq ’s. But instead people would like their sound bites and Reader’s Digest reports without having to research anything themselves. So in the end people would rather be ignorant of the well-researched truth and be “passionate” about some “cause,” whatever it is, however wrong that “cause” is, because the T.V. told them to.

In the end, I am only reminded of a quote from The Day the Earth Stood Still, with the overall message of the movie so applicable today, “I suppose you’re just as scared as the rest of us?”

“In a different way, perhaps. I am fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason.”

Robert Lusian

Physics/Senior

I see Jake LaRow is still plagiarizing ideas from his favorite, racist, Zionist Web site sponsored by the Israeli government.

His premise that Iraqis will benefit from Saddam’s ouster is absurd. Look at Haiti for one minute to see what our 1994 invasion did to those people. I wonder if Jake even knows about DU and high cancer rates in Iraq since our last war. Or, if it’s citizens suffer from Gulf War Syndrome like our veterans do? He makes the massive assumption that Saddam won’t dump chemical and biological weapons on Baghdad itself. This war is just an offshoot of the U.S. policy that made Saddam what he is. To say that our policies benefit Iraq is a disgrace.

Bush was not elected by the majority of voters, but by an electoral college system that allows oil companies, Zionists and Florida ’s fanatic Cuban exiles to exert undue pressure on anyone who wants to become president.

His claim that this war is protecting Americans is an outright lie. Every major newspaper in the United States has reported on the anger against United States in the Muslim world this fiasco is causing. There has never been any proof that Saddam threatened the United States . The last war led to numerous attacks on Americans including the 9/11 Attacks.

Jake wants names of the Jews who are pressuring Bush into this war? Well here are just a few.

Henry Kissinger, the war criminal who bombed Cambodia and Laos in violation of international law, abandoned U.S. POWs/MIA and had to resign from the 9/11 Commission because he didn’t want to expose his ties to businesses that support terrorism. Don Rumsfeld (Sec. of Defense who shafts our POW/MIAs), Paul Wolfawitz (Deputy Sec. of Defense who transferred nuclear technology to China), Dov Zakheim (Under Secretary of Defense-Comptroller who spends his time trying to take money from U.S. veteran so Israel has enough money to kill Palestinians), Richard Perle (chairman of the Defense Policy Board who is using the war to get rich), Leslie Gelb (President Council on Foreign Relations) Ari Fleischer, Rep. Lantos, Sen. Lieberman (whom Al Gore chose as his VP candidate in the 2000 “election” specifically to woo the Zionist media and Florida’s Jewish voters).

How ‘bout the media’s Zionist Jews? ABC “News” alone includes Ted Koppel , Diane Sawyer , Barbara Walters and John Miller . ABC has a distinct lack of Black, Asian and Hispanic reporters in its ranks. ABC is owned by Disney corp. which once sparked anti-American protests by advocating Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel . Disney is run by a Jew named Michael Eisner (which is not necessarily bad but he happens to be a Zionist). How ‘bout Fox “News” (another LaRow favorite) founded by racist, Zionist Jew Ruppert Murdoch, which just happens to support the war and defame its opponents. Ever, hear of the Anne Rand Institute? ARI makes the racist KKK look rational.

Moran’s only mistake was that he was not specific and didn’t differentiate between the good Jews of this world and the Zionist ones. He also failed to note the role of racist gentile-Zionists like Condoleeza Rice , John Ashcroft and George Bush who routinely sell us out. (Whether they do it because of bribery, religious belief or intimidation is anyone’s guess.) VP Dick Cheney got a hefty salary to sit on the board of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs which, guess what, wants to get rid of Saddam.

A former Georgia Rep. , Cynthia McKinney , made one comment about how Israel provokes anger against the United States . So Zionist organizations funded her opponent and now we have another Zionist stooge in Congress.

And, of course Jake failed to mention his own Zionist beliefs. Jake has previously advocated the ouster of Saddam because he gave $$$ to Palestinian “terrorists.” He willingly took part in an effort to falsify information about anti-war protesters that was started by a racist, Zionist Web log sponsored by the Israeli goverment. He has sent out fraudulent e-mails spreading obvious lies about me. Yet, he then dares to claim that there is not a conspiracy to get America into a war for the sake of Israel .

One must wonder why Nick Ridge and the rest of the student senate allow this student activity fee-subsidized paper to continue printing the Zionist lies (Hint: Nick and Jake are drinking buddies).

Jake is free to accuse me of anti-Semitism. I don’t care, as he didn’t even know what a “POW” an “ MIA ” and a “token black” were until I told him. He didn’t even know where the term “peace in our time” came from, until “ Charles Johnson ” who runs a racist, Zionist Web log sponsored by the Israeli government told him.

If Jake spent one-tenth as much time going to bat for our POW/MIAs as he does crying for Zion he would have learned just what a corrupting influence Zionism is on all aspects of govt. and society. This newspaper routinely discriminates against Muslims like Ieva Kalvane and Ahmed Fazly . Zionists, whether they are black, white gentile or Jew, of course, aren’t the only force behind this war. Oil abuse, censorship, gun runners and gross stupidity are also major factors.

Todd Ouellette

Mass Communications/Sophomore

I am writing in response to the Senate hearing on March 18. I am very proud to be a first-year student at Winona State and be represented by such intelligent administrators, professors and students.Everyone that spoke made great points in favor of WSU. I couldn’t have said it better myself, but if I did have the chance to speak with the Senators, this is what I would like to let them know.

I am not from Minnesota . I am from a Chicago suburb five hours away. There are plenty of good schools for education majors in Illinois . None of them offered me what I wanted, but WSU did. I wanted a school with a good education program with a fairly low population, that didn’t cost an extreme amount of money. At first, I wasn’t sure I wanted to deal with a five-hour drive. Then I came to my senses and realized this was where I was meant to go to school. Winona State was the first teacher’s college west of the Mississippi , and it has maintained a great education program since then. Because the program has been very popular, classes tend to fill up quickly, and many education majors have needed more than four years to complete their requirements. If WSU has to cut professors, class sizes will increase, if the classes are available at all. Large classes were not something I wanted; I could have gotten that from an Illinois school. Also, WSU has been such a great school that it has gained popularity, and reducing class sections and increasing sizes of the remaining sections as the population increases would just cause even more problems. Even though the population has seen increases, bringing more revenue to WSU, tuition has also gone up.

At the hearing, President Krueger made a valid point that students pay for most of the operating costs of this school, and the state only covers 29 percent. If Governor Pawlenty ’s cuts go through, tuition will have to go up as much as 27 percent to make up the difference. As I said before, another reason I came to WSU was that out of state tuition here is comparative to in state tuition in Illinois, and this is part of the reason WSU has been the only MnSCU school voted one of America’s Best Buys seven years in a row. If tuition and class sizes go up, we might not see an eighth year. As students, we need to do our part to make sure we see that eighth year. Our motto is, “A community of learners dedicated to improving our world.” I believe this school lives up to that, but our ability to improve the world may change if we don’t do anything about it.

Winona State University must be doing something right if people from around the country and world have picked this institution over all the other ones in the country. If we don’t want to change the value and quality of our education here, we need to step up and let ourselves be heard. Despite what people might think, we can make a difference, as cliche as it may sound. Winona State is worth fighting for. Dr. Krueger , Student Senate, and plenty of others are representing us in the legislature, but I think it’s time we start representing our selves.  

Andrea Gertz