To the editor:

My first political memory is the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and the message of peace that he communicated created a justice streak in me that is 10 miles wide. No one can deny that events on Sept. 11 were horrific, but I hoped we would respond with justice and embrace the Bill of Rights for the world’s population, because we are all created equal. Instead I see the growth of a McCarthy Era attitude of suspicion, with the Office of Homeland Security as its lesion, where intolerance and paranoia are funded with our tax dollars. I hope the residents of this country do not allow the fear pressure that is the trumpet of the Bush administration to lull us into intolerant complacency.

I believe we live in the most wonderful country in the world for many reasons, including my right to submit this letter. I also feel world leaders should bring Osama bin Laden to justice. But a “war on terror” is incredibly contradictory. The best “war” on terror that the United States could champion is one of peace and integration into a cultural world instead of alienating ourselves from it. One glance at the “war on terror” between Israel and Palestine painfully illustrates the fruitlessness of such a path. I will not support a war on terror in the name of peace or justice. We can all exercise our First Amendment rights and loudly oppose that path, and instead embrace true justice.

Christina Bolas,

Baldwin