In proposing to remove images of soldiers with guns from the Veterans Memorial Park security fence Mayor Sissi Bruch displays profound confusion.
First, she conflates the use of guns by soldiers defending our country with the use of guns by miscreants inflicting tragic carnage in our schools.
One is a legitimate and necessary use of guns; the other (obviously) is not.
Second, the mayor implies that the image of soldiers with guns celebrates war.
It does not.
Rather, such depictions celebrate the role our soldiers have played in defending freedom here and abroad.
Finally, the mayor inexplicably refuses to recognize that wars are part of world history and that guns are part of war.
Sanitizing this fact would weaken our country’s understanding of what war entails and thereby undercut our ability to make sound, rational decisions about our participation in it.
The mayor’s proposal was wrong in many ways and is so unnecessarily divisive to this community.
Cheryl Nielson,
Port Angeles