Teachers' comments were inappropriate
I was totally shocked when I read the editorial from David Keyes and the letter from Brian Zimmerman describing statements made to a young soldier by two teachers from Boundary County.
I think these teachers need to move farther north if they aren't going to support our troops. No one is required to believe in everything that this country does, but to try to take away a young man's patriotism and give him a feeling that he is not doing what needs to be done, is criminal.
If we had no young men in this country willing to do whatever they can to keep it safe for the rest of us, where would we be now? We would be speaking German at the very least, and possibly Japanese.
I had five uncles and my dad who fought in World War II, I had one uncle who fought in Korea, I had a cousin who fought in Vietnam, and my husband is a retired Air Force officer. So yes, I do come from a family of fighters, and we are proud of it. None of us wanted any of the wars but when they happened, my family did what needed to be done. I stood and watched my grandma cry as she waved yet another son off to battle, but she never once went up to him and told him what he was doing was wrong.
What do they think would have happened if 3,000 Russian citizens had been killed in Moscow; 3,000 Germans in Berlin; 3,000 British in London? Do they think these countries would just have sat there wringing their hands and saying nothing, doing nothing, just waited for it to happen again? I think 3,000 American lives are worth fighting for.
How would the Boundary County teachers have felt if their parents, brothers and sisters, or even their children were in the towers the day they fell? Would they still be standing there saying we don't need to do anything to keep this from happening again.
Mr. Zimmerman, you tell your son Luke that there are many, many of us up here in North Idaho and all over the United States that do support what he is doing and thank God every night for his spirit and pray for his safety.
There are always going to be some mean-spirited people in the world, and I feel saddened that these two happen to be in a position to be exerting influence over young people.
BARBARA COPLEY
Sagle