LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Bush-Hitler connection unfair

In his September 16th letter to the editor entitled "Guns needed to check government" (p. 12), Steve Miran suggests gun ownership in America be encouraged in order to protect liberty and also asserts a connection between Bush and Hitler, as so many "left-wing nut jobs" love to do.

Many liberals would argue that Bush's war in Iraq was a violent solution to a problem that could have been solved peacefully. How then, would picking up a gun in order to protect your liberties make you any different than Bush? This isn't a world full of daisies for the plucking and sometimes war, fighting and bloodshed are necessary in order to preserve freedom and democracy. After all, "freedom isn't free," right? But let us look at your reason for taking up arms. You have taken the liberty of quoting Wendell Phillips as saying, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." I will now take the liberty of proving your position wrong with your own quote. The USA Patriot Act allows the government to be more vigilant, so that the liberties, freedoms and lives of honest, hard-working American citizens may be protected. So yes, increased vigilance is indeed good for liberty.

Now to Miran's comment about a "Bush-Hitler" connection. Bush is nothing like Hitler, and Miran's claim that he is is most definitely a ludicrous one. I am spending the semester abroad here in Dresden, Germany. Yes, they all hate Bush. But, if I asked any German if they thought Bush was like Hitler, they would look at me with complete surprise, and then answer that he is assuredly not like Hitler. If you want to know about Hitler, ask a German. If you want to actually discuss American politics in an intelligent way, don't go around spouting propaganda you read off some left wing "zine." Yes, the right has propaganda, too (Fox News is certainly not fair and balanced), but we have to be more intelligent than that. So are we going to sit here and shoot at each other with the guns you claim we should all own, or are we going to discuss politics in America like adults? I think you and I would both agree that the only way to help America is if we end the extreme bi-partisanship by sitting down to discuss, not argue, so that a better understanding can be reached.

Adam Shoneck CAS '06