From: "David D. Eisenstein" To: "Father" Subject: Is this real? Date: Saturday, November 10, 2001 12:43 PM Dad and Mom, Looked at the College Republican website, from the University of Missouri-Columbia this afternoon. It is a group of student Republicans. (http://students.missouri.edu/~cr/). One of the windows of their website says this: "Pro-War Demonstration "Sick of seeing all the anti-war peace nuts on campus and around town? Show them your support for out [sic] nations [sic] efforts to destroy terrorism! "You can find us outside of the Walnut Avenue Post Office every Saturday around 10:00 a.m. Bring a sign, a friend, and your patriotism on down and put the nuts in their place! "It'll be fun! We recieve [sic] more honks, 25 honks to every 1 honk the peace freaks get!" I can only shake my head in silence. Horrified. Can this truly represent the goals and aims of the Republican Party?! Is this what Republicans are coming to, do you think? Is this the kind of Republican party you want? -David -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "David Eisenstein" To: "David D. Eisenstein" Subject: Re: Is this real? Date: Saturday, November 10, 2001 12:43 PM David D.: Aside from the MU college kids horrible grammar and spelling, I see nothing wrong with patriotism. We are in a war; again not of our choosing! Find the equivalent Democratic Students web pages - see if they differ much if at all with the Republican students? The Congress of the United States voted 4xx to 1 allowing President Bush to declare war. The one, a woman named Lee, is from Berkeley, CA, and is a reputed former communist. All the rest of Congress, regardless of party, voted to declare war. Some people ask us to sit down and negotiate. It is impossible to come to terms with persons who wish us dead and buried. Over 5,000 in New York City had no chance to negotiate. Just what do you say to a fanatic who wants to die? What do you say to a person who wants you dead? Dave, whether you like it or not, we are in a world-wide war against terrorism. I tried to enlist in 1941, before being drafted. I served almost five full years on active duty in WWII, and the Korean Situation. That war was started by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7, 1941) who bombed our ships and shore installations without any warning. This war was started by the Taliban led by Osama bin Laden without warning. President Bush asked the rulers of Afghanistan (The Taliban) to deliver to us the persons of Osama bin Laden and his crew, for 2 or 3 weeks before starting the bombing there. They refused. They harbored him and his gang. History should teach you of the Kamikaze pilots of Japan promised Paradise and 20 geisha girls for dying in their planes in suicide attacks on our naval ships. Do you see a parallel here? Peace is wonderful; but why does every nation in the world have a police force? Think about it. Why does every nation in the world have a standing army? Civilization is at stake; civilization does not mean only schools and churches; it means being able to imprison wrong-doers by catching them when criminal actions are done. Was the World Trade Center a criminal action? You bet it was. Should we seek those responsible for financing, aiding, abetting, and planning the attacks? Absolutely. Sure, poke fun at a university student's crude spelling; but applaud their patriotism in time of war. The U.S. is at War. Your gentle soul abhors killing anywhere and anytime by anyone for any reason. Your stand is admirable; but reaches too far when you might try to justify the World Trade Center deaths (if you do, and I really do not think you go that far). Face it: there are fanatics in this world. We must defend ourselves from them. Love, Dad. -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "David D. Eisenstein" To: "David Eisenstein" Subject: Re: Is this real? Date: Saturday, November 10, 2001 12:44 PM Dear Dad, Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and opinions. I highly respect you and your thoughts. I may not agree with all of them, but I respect them, and the lifetime that it took in their formation. I will say only this: Patriotism has many faces. One of them is support of efforts to have victories over evil as evil presents itself to the world. War is but one way of achieving such victory. But not a very good way, in my opinion. It calls for killing, enemy-thinking, and a lot of mindless adherence to slogans depicting inhumane actions of humans towards their brothers. "Imagine the vanity of thinking that your enemy can do you more damage than your enmity," said Saint Augustine. There is much more I could say, but I wish to leave it at that, as I wish to avoid getting into too heated or passionate of a disagreement with you. I already have had an "e-mail war" with one friend, the friendship of which may be lost, because of the damage I claim he did to my feelings and principles in front of a group of other friends, that I have been unable or unwilling to forgive. This loss of friendship, to me, brings a case-in-point: That war, and the hatred that comes with it, destroys. And destroys needlessly. My former friend employed polemics -- which is something one doesn't do: in writing, in front of a group of people (an email list), unless one doesn't value the friendship. And I in turn employed polemics, in the pain of hurting, in the petty desire for "get- ting back at" or waging retaliating on my former friend for having dared hurt me (by disagreeing with me in hurtful ways). And it was merely pride that was hurt. But that's enough. There is something to be said for discretion as part of valour, and diplomacy, even in interpersonal relationships. (Most especially in international relationships.) And the last thing I want to risk is that kind of enmity to develop between you and me, my dear Father. You are more mature than that, I am confident. But I am not yet that mature -- and I feel emotional pain too deeply to avoid, even as much as I may want to, the tendency to want to retaliate when hurt. I learn to depend more and more on God to help me forgive, and to forgive for me when I just don't have it within me to do so, relying on His grace to help me when my grace just isn't strong enough. It may be too much to ask a nation to do as Jesus asks, "Love thy enemy." But I remain convinced that spiritual thinking like that will eventually have to be a lynch-pin of what will help humanity become a more peaceful, respectful, and loving-kindly race of animal. I have done too many years of thinking on this kind of thing to know anything different. Loving enemies (not so they can vanquish and destroy, but so they can be overcome with something like love rather than something like bullets) must grow from individuals. We shall overcome -- with love and not war -- that surely is God's will. We humans merely have to be open to that. Oops. Sorry about this sermon. Meant to keep this letter short. Again, I highly respect you, and love you, Dad. Love, David ps: I do agree that huge crimes have been committed. And that there are criminals out there who need to be brought to justice. I agree that police are needed in societies of cooperating humans. And, unfortunately, at this time in history, armies as well. With regards to the young college men I complained about: It is the hubris of evidently being eager for war, a kind of blood-lust I sense in the words of those young college men (no doubt men, not women); it is the hubris of their summarily dismissing those who call for peace as "nuts"; it is the too-proud pride in the conviction of their rightness and the violence of their assertion to rightness, that leaves me cold and afraid. I become very wary of messages bereft of humility.