Protesting is patriotic

Kristin M. Beasley
clerk, Advancement Services

Dear Editor:

I write in response to Brian Smith's column titled "The new Vegetarianism." Let me preface this by saying I am a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, having served for nearly six years as an Arabic translator in the army.

I am also a meat-eater, although I do enjoy a nice vegetable now and again. I am also a patriot. My brother Jeremy is one of many thousands of American citizens who have protested against both the war in Iraq and the currant U.S. occupation. He is a true vegetarian. He will not even eat chicken (KFC protesters, please take note) despite repeated assurances from our mother that "chicken doesn't really count" (some Midwesterners have a strange idea of what constitutes a vegetable). He is also a patriot. According to Brian Smith, because my brother does not pretend to wholeheartedly approve of the administration's foreign policy, he cannot possibly be patriotic. This is patently ridiculous.

My brother and I are both patriots because we both understand we do not just have the right to make certain our country is pursuing the right policies; we have the duty to do so. To be patriotic is not to support actions one's country has embarked on uncritically. Rather, it is to review those policies and make your feelings on them heard by the policymakers. That means voting and writing letters to your Congress members and Senators and writing letters to the editors. It means serving in the military, or AmeriCorps, or the Peace Corps. And, yes, Brian Smith, it means protesting. It's the duty of every American who takes their citizenship seriously to make sure our representative democracy is representative of the will of the people. To do less is dishonorable and unpatriotic.

Kristin M. Beasley

clerk, Advancement Services

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