From: Jean
Date: 11/2/01
Time: 12:42:17 PM
I spend a lot of my time reading the foreign press and I like to read the letters and forums, just because I might get to hear what someone from another country might have to say. they have a different perspective and that is a good thing. If we just stay with what is comfortable we can not understand different view points, and that stifles our own personal growth. I only wish that I could read a lot of different languages cause I am limited to those people who have learned to write in English. Lots of times there opinion may differ greatly from mine, but then I can understand where they are coming from. When I worked with emotionally disturbed kids, the first thing that we did was to get as many differing opions as possible. Some we may not have thought valid, some we may not have liked. But it took this to make a complete picture. And of course we asked the kid themselves just what the problem might be. But so often they really did not know. But the shcool teacher,etc, and might not even know the importance of it, but might just have that clue that gave us the insight that we could make a plan that in time could turn a kid that was headed to an institution, into a productive happy citizen. This is what I see needs to be done in this conflict. It is time now to do what needs to be done to correct the problem at the root, instead of haveing a similar thing to happen in the future. This conflict is much more like the war on drugs than anything else. What I mean here is that you can take out X number of drug dealers, but that many and more will take their place. and just like the drug business when something is not working then a new plan must be made or it is just a waste of taxes and man power. Unfortunately the mind set of the majority are not into long term planning and so the politicians are not going to bother. Now so many thinks that this means to lie down and roll over, but it does not. It just means to be a bit smarter in the future.