Letter to the Editor

It is a sad time in our country when we can claim everyone is “playing the race card,” when discrimination and exploitation is brought out to the forefront.

We’re not all perfect and we do engage in acts and conversations that may not have been intended to put down or offend anyone.

However, when the damage is done, it’s done. Whether or not an ad was meant to imply that the killing and murder of war is just a football game and whether or not the ad was to be used as another unjust recruitment tool to get minorities in the military just as the promises of “career” development, college money, and even citizenship have been used, it can be interpreted that way…And the damage is done.

I am one of many who interpreted these messages as pro-war and discriminatory to all soldiers who are out dying in Iraq, Afghanistan and every other land we are occupying, especially the minorities who are uniquely targeted by recruiters and to the families who were promised honor and pride based on lies, and to all Americans who are continuously surrounded by desensitizing images camouflaged between sports pages.

Many things are done that are not intended to mean one thing or the other, but we should not hide behind the “I didn’t mean that.”

If we are to ever overcome the prejudices on this campus, in the military or even the world, we need to address them when they arise and not close our eyes.

—Ruth Obel-Jorgensen