The Visor
North Carolina reporter disagrees with columnistThursday, December 18, 2003 By Sean Kretchun
To the Visor: I write for the Cougar Clause staff in Wentworth, N.C. I was just browsing the national edition of the my.highschool journalism.org newspaper from Sept. 15, and I noticed Chris Arko's column ("Enemies of the U.S. not entitled to civil liberties afforded Americans"). I was very shocked while reading it, and understandably so. What you suggest in the column is completely ludicrous. How can you possibly suggest that something guaranteed in our Constitution be blatantly ignored, even when dealing of enemies of the United States? Even though its not necessarily a right guaranteed to foreign terrorists, why deny them a fair trial? Our country was founded on democracy, and to offer anything less, even to our own enemies, would demean our own Constitution. Giving terrorists like Zacarias Moussaoui the right to a fair trail helps strengthen our policies and enables the structure of our democracy to remain firm, as it should be, even during times of crisis. Although I disagree with Chris's opinion, I enjoyed the column and found it to be very well written. Keep up the good work, Chris, and I hope to get a response from you. --Sean Kretchun, via e-mail |