Steve Skutnik’s Dec. 10 column is an insult to those Americans who still have enough pride and determination to try to keep our country alive. What is your point, Mr. Skutnik? Are you trying to destroy our nation’s unity at the time at which we need it most? First, you mention that we have detained people under suspicion of terrorist involvement. Conspiracy is a federal offense, Mr. Skutnik. It is not anything to be taken lightly.

How many times must our country sit back and wait for 5,000 people to be ruthlessly murdered before our eyes on national television before we do anything about it? How many times, Mr. Skutnik? How many times?

These acts of terrorism occurred as an attempt to break the unity of our nation. You, Mr. Skutnik, are attempting to break the unity of our nation by trying to get our people to oppose the very government we trust to keep us together, just what the terrorists wanted. You are aiding the terrorists.

Finally, Mr. Skutnik, please realize that trying to destroy our nation’s unity aids in “giving ammunition to America’s enemies.” We are not creating a lockdown on the nation, we are still the grandest and most free of all nations. We just want to protect our nation from another massacre.

If you have the nerve to tell me that my nation is not the best nation in the world, go somewhere else. But while our nation tries to heal its wounds, you do nothing but pour salt in them. While our nation has never been more in agreement to actions taken, you want people to swing to your blown-out-of-proportion and out-of-context ideas.

It is clear that Mr. Skutnik has only one intention – to destroy the unity of the nation I love, to rip apart the threads of a nation that has thrived for 225 years by misreading and misinterpreting Attorney General Ashcroft’s quote, mocking our nation’s leaders, and by yet again misleading readers. How many times, Comrade Skutnik? How many times?

Erik Johnson

Freshman

Mechanical engineering