Letters to the Editor for Oct. 22

Poor pay the price of cycle of terror

Terrorized people react with terrorism and more generations are converted to terrorism.

The makers and brokers of the machinery of terrorism profit and the rest of mankind pays the price, with the poor paying to most.

We will have peace only when we learn to love peace more than we hate war.

Rick Matz, Springfield

MSU should pursue academic and athletic excellence

I am impressed by the conversation among the community about Clif Smart's replacement. I appreciate that we are taking this search seriously, considering this affects tens of thousands of people daily.

As a current student, I suggest we focus more on the student experience. We have over 300 student organizations on campus, but as others have mentioned, we lack educational and athletic excellence. It is laughable that we haven't played in the men's March Madness since the Clinton administration. At the same time, we offer eight doctorates. Eight.

I believe we can accomplish both athletic and academic excellence simultaneously, without having to prioritize one or the other.

We must do whatever it takes for us to stand out academically and athletically not just in Missouri, but also regionally and nationally. Therefore, we must make the campus attractive to prospective students and faculty. Our facilities are adequate but may need some attention. We also must lobby the state government to allow Missouri State to offer doctorates in more fields.

Whoever follows President Smart has big shoes to fill, and the committee must select a person committed to continuing the stability Smart has provided but must not be afraid to push the envelope by attempting to end Mizzou’s monopoly and achieving athletic excellence.

Let’s continue our Onward and Upward assent.

Colin Davis, Springfield, is a Missouri State University sophomore

Springfield should be proud of police department

Recently I enrolled in and completed a 10-week, 30-hour course with Springfield's Community Police Academy. The entire 10-week experience was eye-opening, educational and truly a pleasure to attend. The entire staff was professional, helpful and courteous from beginning to end. Each and every instructor conducted themselves in a most professional way and exemplified integrity each and every week.

I also participated in a third shift, 12-hour ride-along Saturday night. It began with the initial briefing with the sergeant and lieutenant. I was assigned to an officer and took part in approximately 10-12 calls. Nothing but 100% professionalism on that officer's part and with each and every other officer I interacted with during the evening. They treated every person they encountered with kindness, understanding and compassion throughout the shift.

Needless to say, I was very impressed.

Congratulations to Chief Paul Williams for leading a hardworking, professional, well-trained department that demonstrates character through and through. It starts at the top! It would be my wish that every citizen of Springfield would have the opportunity to participate in this excellent Community Police Academy.

Larry Holder, Springfield

Palestinian victims should not be ignored

The media have inundated us with the horror of 1,400 Israelis casualties in the October Hamas attacks. Israel’s defense minister has called Palestinians “human animals.” Indeed, the default position is that we should grieve for Israelis because they (as Noam Chomsky put it) are “worthy victims.” In contrast, the decades-long brutalities against Palestinians — those “human animals” — apparently shouldn’t trouble us.

Some cold statistics: From 2008 to September 2023 the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs counted 308 Israeli deaths in the conflict. Palestinian deaths? 6,407. There were 6,307 Israelis injured. Palestinian injuries? 152,560. Which side suffers more? When Israel demolishes villages or withholds food and water from entire areas (collective punishment is a war crime), when it breaks international law by expanding already illegal settlements, engages in massacres leading to grim outcomes far in excess of anything Israelis have suffered, does US media whip us into a frenzy

Some have called the conflict “complicated” or “age-old.” It is neither. It began after World War I when Britain demanded a “mandate” to control Palestine, breaking a promise to Arabs who had aided them during the war. In its 1917 Balfour Declaration, Britain decided it would establish a Jewish “homeland” in Palestine. It was like giving a gift of something that doesn’t belong to you. Even with ever-increasing Jewish immigration, in 1931 the population of Palestine was still overwhelmingly Palestinian (83% and still over 70% in 1935).

Over the decades Palestinians began to revolt against both British colonialism and Zionist incursions onto their land. The Irgun, an extremist Zionist militia, began bombing Palestinian Arab civilian targets in 1938, resulting in a flood of Palestinian refugees. In a 1948 letter to the New York Times, Albert Einstein and 27 other prominent Jews condemned Irgun leader and future Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin as a “terrorist and fascist.”

But the claim that Zionism has something in common with the Nazis who persecuted the Jewish people in the Holocaust was already apparent to some Jews even as they lived the hell that Germany had become for them. Writing in the midst of the Holocaust in a secret, but now famous diary (“I Will Bear Witness”), Jewish Prof. Victor Klemperer gave this assessment of Zionism: “To me the Zionists, who want to go back to the Jewish state of A.D. 70 (destruction of Jerusalem by Titus) are just as offensive as the Nazis. With their nosing after blood, their ancient 'cultural roots,' their partly canting, partly obtuse winding back of the world they are altogether a match for the National Socialists. That is the fantastic thing about the National Socialists, that they simultaneously share in a community of ideas with Soviet Russia and with Zion.”

It’s simple. As a purely religious idea, calling oneself the “Chosen People” is tolerable. When it becomes a political ideology and, like “Aryan Supremacy,” is used to justify the oppression of others — those “human animals” — it is evil.

Tom Kara, Norwood

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Letters to the Editor for Oct. 22