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Letters to the Editor

Uganda issue much deeper

To the editor,

The multiple articles on the children of Uganda in today's Wildcat have prompted me to write you with an important question. Considering the political undertones with which the front page "Children of Uganda dance troupe presents authentic African style" article was written, I am curious why the Wildcat made no connection with the work Amnesty International is doing during the week for child soldiers - including those in Uganda. As advertised in Catcall's in Monday's Wildcat, Amnesty International at the University of Arizona showed a film "Soldier Child." The film was about the thousands Ugandan children who have been kidnapped from their villages, some of them forced to kill their own families and made soldiers or sex slaves in the Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA is a rebel group reigning terror within the borders of Uganda. Certainly, the enslavement of the Children of Uganda choir's peers is just as significant as the effect of the AIDS epidemic or mass religious slaughtering on Uganda.

The important human rights story Amnesty is telling this week greatly compliments the presence of the Children of Uganda on our campus. Amnesty has arranged to table at the choir's performance tonight at Centennial Hall with educational material. We will also hold a talk today, on child soldiers in South Africa by Carol A. Thompson, chair of the political science department at NAU at 4 p.m. in the Tucson Room of the Student Union, of which the Wildcat should have already been notified by a press release. Perhaps the Wildcat would like to attend these events to further expand the education I believe we are both trying to bring to this campus.

Rachael Moshman

UA Amnesty International co-coordinator

Flag more than cloth

To the editor,

How free is freedom? Should I be allowed to take someone else's property, destroy anything I want or not pay taxes simply because I am free? No! Society established rules for us to live by, and I believe that not burning the flag should be one of them. Some people believe that the flag is just a piece of cloth and that our freedom includes being able to burn it. Well, the burning of anything has its own symbolic annotations, the destruction of the substance by changing it into something other than its original form. The definition of burning: "to be injured, damaged or destroyed by fire ..." In history and as currently practiced in some countries, burning of the flag advocates the destruction of the government it stands for. In basic terms, it implies a declaration of war. If any American is dissatisfied with the way our country is being run, your voices can be heard at the polls, protests, lobbying groups and should not be done by burning the flag. Advocating the symbolic "burning" of the system shows a lack of respect for the ones who sacrificed and died to keep this country free.

I am a veteran and am sworn to protect the Constitution of the United States, which includes the rights of individuals. If the law allows the burning of the flag, then I will defend it. I will not like doing so, but that is part of the "freedom" the flag symbolizes. I was in the military for 20 years and have met fellow veterans who support the burning of the flag. Because there is no law against flag burning, (politically correct response), they support the right of others to burn the flag.

I admit that I am speaking mostly from my emotions, but the American flag involves a rise of emotions. Seeing the flag fly aloft and "free" gives hope to people coming to America (I am a naturalized citizen), and pride (in me and, I hope, in many others) in the symbol of the freedom it represents.

I believe that the statement by Santiago Canez that Facists and Nazis are the ones that highly regard and respect symbols is simple minded. Others who held the symbol of freedom quite high include our forefathers. In previous wars, individuals who carried the flag defended the flag from falling into enemy hands or from hitting the ground. The flag is held high to show that we are not defeated. That individual usually did not garnish a weapon but depended on his comrades close to him for defense. For those who died protecting the flag, the flag and its symbol are one and the same.

Santiago Canez also stated in his letter that the flag is a piece of cloth and nothing more. The clothes that you own and your linens (trivial, compared to the flag) are also pieces of cloth that you paid for with your hard-earned money, and you would be upset if someone else burned them. The American flag and her symbol were paid for by a lot more than money.

Robert G. Grant

Environmental science junior