Student Voices: Why I am Opposed to War on Iraq

To the Editors:

I oppose war in Iraq because it is simply ridiculous. A war about oil disgusts me at a time when alternative energy is our only hope for survival. For example, I do not know why people are resting comfortably on some bizarre notion that global warming may not exist. We have completely changed the surface of this earth with our roads, buildings, agriculture, etc. How could we possibly think for a second that we have not changed the atmosphere grotesquely? I am from Ohio, and as I child, I remember playing in the snow and being desperately cold in the winter. My parents remember this well, too. However, for the last several years, the leaves have been changing later, snow is less frequent, and sixty degree days in November are dismissed as “nice.” Yes, I have heard the scientists and the politicians saying that climate changes and this may all be a natural cycle. However, look at what we have done in the past century industrially. Could it just be that the changes are finally intruding into our everyday lives?? Consequences are inevitable. Change CAN occur rapidly. Also, I would like to bring up the fact that an oil tanker split in two off the coast of Spain this past week. If you want the socialist interpretation, visit CNN.com. Their article goes on about the plight of the fishermen and the loss of their prey. However, if you think of marine life in terms of its undeniable importance and connection to the well-being of our substrate of life, the earth, and not as a swimming manifestation of potential profit, visit news24.com. Their article contains a healthy balance of workers’ issues and the environmental devastation likely to ensue for years to come. Environmental degradation is too far from the minds of too many people. It is the greatest injustice -- and we, as humans, both inflict and surrender to this injustice. It is not an “issue” reserved for those who have the time and privilege to ponder the problems. The fact is, those fisherman are as much environmentalists as the Greenpeace newsletter-subscribing, tofu-inhaling, Prius-cruising college kid from California. Their lives depend on the environment and, one way or another, they realize that. The president of this country, however, does not. And it will not be Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction that will kill us all, it will be our administration’s lust for his country’s oil. War with Iraq is simply ridiculous.

–Amzie Pavlisin
College first-fear