Racial Profiling Makes Sense

Whoa, Ms. Pitocco, take a few deep breaths (RE: your 26 October response to my 10 October letter). My 10 October letter was in part a response to what I took as Ms. Bullamore's very ungracious and personal remarks towards me, in which she endorsed Mr. Lippman's designation of myself as a "hatemonger." For my part, I wrote: "So Ms. Bullamore, we welcome your concern and your participation, and I am sure that you and others equally concerned will participate actively in school board and other volunteer programs. Maybe you or someone else will even oppose us for election."

At no point in my reply to Ms. Bullamore did I make the sort of personal remarks and attacks based on negative assumptions that have been directed towards me. I see in her gracious apology to Alice and I (that immediately followed your 26 October letter) that she and I were equally ignorant of each other's background and both were guilty of not doing our homework.

Now that I know of her experience and qualifications, both Alice and I are especially eager to have her inputs and participation in School Board activities, and we appreciate her continuing efforts. Ms. Bullamore, we accept your apology, and I apologize to you for not knowing of your contributions to education in our community.

To Mr. Lippman, I apologize for my disjointed response titled "Hypocrisy." After comparing what survived the heavy hand of ICO editing ("... this letter was edited for brevity"), to what I wrote, I despair of ever being able to clearly state positions against the eight years of Clinton's inept handling of terrorism. Since the support for my conclusions and positions was excised by the ICO, all that came through were some very general imprecations against leftists. Nothing of real substance was left for you to react against, and for that I am truly sorry.

Now, concerning the racial profiling of terrorists, I support it more now than when I first brought up the subject, and I am not alone. In an October 24 Wall Street Journal column by Jason L. Riley, Mr. Riley reported that 71% of black respondents to a Gallup poll, and 54% in a Zogby poll, said they wanted Arab-looking travelers singled out for extra security at airports. A Detroit News survey found that even Arabs want Arab-looking persons looked at more closely; 61% said that "extra questioning or inspections are justified."

While leftists are not concerned about the thousands of innocent lives that are sacrificed on the altar of their "principles," it is encouraging to see that common sense has no racial bounds. Even most leftists support a form of it, when profiling is called "affirmative action" and is used to award benefits and for income redistribution.

I am appalled that many American citizens are not mad as Hell at the terrorists. The terrorists used our traditions of freedom and tolerance, which are totally lacking in their own countries, to viciously murder thousands of innocent civilians. As a retired military officer, I feel a hot flush of shame, because I feel that we let down our country by our lack of preparedness.

Along with my anger and shame, I am also angry with my fellow citizens who say that our foreign policy justifies the terrorists' attacks on our innocent civilians, or that we should not respond to their violence with violence. Violence worked quite well with Germany and Japan; just as with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, violence was all they understood.

Because of our trust in humanity, we did "give Peace a chance," but that trust was tragically betrayed September 11, and on every day since. Now we need to give a well-targeted sustained air and ground offensive a chance, first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq, and not stop until we restore our most basic right, "Freedom from Fear."