Mr. Hiatt, No Gun Ri was a tragedy, no one is disputing that, but for you to say that you are going to withhold the title of “American” for yourself is ludicrous. If you ever get the courage to expand your limited knowledge of the world, your passport will say “American” whether you like it or not.

As for walking down the Vietnam Wall and hating the idea of being an American, I feel sorry for you. Some may see the Vietnam War as pointless, and I’m not going to get into that since it was debated enough while it was happening, but regardless of what it accomplished, men and women lost their lives in the name of this country. Maybe they did it because they wanted to or because they were told to. Either way, I can guarantee that it took a lot more courage to disembark that plane in a strange land not knowing if they were ever coming back, than it did to sit at home and say, “I’m not going because I think it’s crap.”

As for Kosovo, it’s still not too late. Enlist big man! My brother is a Marine in the USMC and went to Kosovo. I have never been more afraid for or more proud of anyone in my life.

You tell a good story, like the one in the Tuesday, Oct. 19 edition of the Daily. It isn’t hard to shock or disgust people who haven’t had contact like what you described in your letter. What in the world did telling that vicious story do to prove your point?

You tell Dave that, “You don’t fight wars because you’re told, you fight them because you believe in something.” I wish every American soldier had that luxury. “It takes passion to spill the blood of an enemy?” How much would you know about it Mr. Hiatt? I don’t know anything about it; I wouldn’t presume. I’ve never been in a situation that would require it.

If you believe that America doesn’t deserve the title of “Land of the Free,” trot on down to the ocean and meet the boatloads of refugees risking life and limb to get here to just be told, “Go ahead and turn around. You’re better off where you came from. We’re a nation of rapists and baby-killers.”

I’m sure all the bedraggled refugees will nod their heads and say, “Yes, our gutted houses, dying children and government persecution is much better.”

The fact that you feel the right to voice your opinion, however unpalatable, is something you need to really think about. Do you think a 20-year-old in old Russia’s communist regime felt that same freedom?

Do you think a 20-year-old born to poverty and filth in Somalia feels that he has the right to a college education?

Yes, Mr. Hiatt, you have it terribly hard: A country that defends your rights to the death, the certainty of a warm bed and a supportive environment and the knowledge that you can rise to become more than you were born to.

These are certainly things to be ashamed of. More propaganda right? You say you are proud of certain things in America, but yet you refuse to call yourself an American until the things that disappoint you are fixed.

Well, sorry to tell you, but you’re going to have a pretty long wait. You take the bad with the good Mr. Hiatt, that’s how it works. Nothing will ever be just the way you want it, no matter how many tantrums you throw.

There are some terrible things wrong with this country, but I have never ONCE deluded myself into thinking they outweigh the great and inspiring things.

There is much that can be improved in the United States, but don’t you DARE try to convince me that it is a terrible thing to live here.

I am damn proud to call myself an American. Most of my male relatives have served in one branch of the military or another, and all have been in a war.

War is hell, and it’s never pretty, but when I look around at my family, I can say that they stepped up and did their duty, so people like you have the freedom to demean and demoralize their efforts.

Yes, Mr. Hiatt, “Ahhhh…..Freedom” indeed.

---

Katie McLallen

Senior

Psychology