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Sunday, March 09, 2003 Page: 7A
Should we send our massive military machine into the very small country of
Iraq and teach those people a lesson? Or should we not?
This is the question of the year, and I feel obligated to have an answer.
Friends have been saying, “Jack, what do you think? Should we or not?”
I keep saying, “Jeez! I don’t kno~w.”
See, I tell them: “All my life I have proclaimed that I hate war … war is
stupid. There must be a better way than war. Now I don’t know. If we start
dropping bombs and shooting bullets around Iraq, a lot of girls, ladies,
mothers, grandmas and little kids are going to get in the way and get killed.
Nobody around here is going to like that. On the other hand, we seem to be
facing another Hitler or Stalin who would like to wipe us out. See the
problem?”
Violence has always been a problem for me. I recall vividly an early taste
of violence when I was in about fifth grade, living on Diamond Avenue in
Hazleton. I was playing sandlot football on an empty lot right next to our
house.
One of the kids was a stranger to me; and something must have happened to
make the stranger and me decide to clarify the pecking order.
So I handed my glasses to one of the guys and we went dukes up.
There we stood looking at each other each waiting for the other to start.
Clearly neither of us wanted to start punching.
Punching someone in the face is something one does not often do.
But we got started and I suspect we looked like two windmills in a heavy
storm. And suddenly I stopped and backed up.
“Hey,” I said, “your nose is bleeding.”
The stranger stopped, put his finger to his upper lip.
“Aw, jeez!” he said.
To my great relief, the stranger seemed to think the fight was over. He
walked away dabbing at his nose with his handkerchief.
I was smart enough to recognize good luck when I saw it.
The pecking order? Let’s leave it for the birds.
But will this work with the Muslims? Jeez, I don’t know.