LETTERS: Jerry Plett
To the Editor:
Many people in other countries don't like us, as you pointed out in your Feb. 5 editorial. What's worse is that the pacifists in this country don't like us, either, if by "us" you mean the military might of the United States. They love freedom but don't acknowledge what gave it to them and what preserves it.
I was raised a Mennonite, therefore, I was raised to be a pacifist. Many times in my younger years, especially in high school, I thought about the young men who were going off to war and I wondered about it. In my mind, I thought that was a virtuous cause.
Then I remember years later, spending time with Tom Hett in his office at John Deere. We would talk and there were times he would share his experiences in World War II. He rode in a plane during bomber runs, sitting in a glass bowl in its belly, exposed to every danger. I began to realize that this man put his life on the line every day, and he not only was fighting for the freedom of his future children and grandchildren but also was really fighting for me to preserve my right to be a pacifist. And what was I giving in return in terms of shedding one drop of blood or being threatened in any way for my life? (which I regret)
As I see it today, people say they are against war so that they or their loved ones don't have to suffer and die. That's what I've come to understand. I know that our government is corrupt, and that it's politically motivated, and secondly, indirectly, motivated toward a pacifist view. We are afraid to lose our comforts, our luxuries, our pleasures. But where does it say that you ever come to a point where you have arrived and no longer have to fight for your freedom?
I would rather trust in the military might of the United States to preserve my freedom than in those smug, self-righteous moralists who say war is evil but don't provide an alternative.
Jerry Plett
Lincolnville
