Letter to the Editor Are you on the List? Dear Editor: The world will long remember the horror of 11 September. The wanton destruction of national monu- ments, the thousands killed (many of whose bodies will never be found) and the soci- ety disrupted will live in our memories forever. We can only hope that some day those who plotted this disas- ter will find that their distant land is no safe haven from justice for the horror visited on these innocent people. And we now know that this malicious attack on democra- cy was plotted and paid for by the CIA at the behest of Henry Kissinger and his ilk. In case you are con- fused by the above, | am referring to the 11 September 1973 overthrow of the demo- cratic government of Chile. As to the problem of the latest 11 September, it has resulted in a war being declared upon nineteen dead men, a_ situation without precedent. Since the known perpetrators of this attack cannot be held to account, the United States has decid- ed to follow its usual pattern and has chosen to bomb a country which is incapable of either retaliating or of protect- ing its land from the American bombers. Panam- and Granada were already spo- ken for so Afghanistan was chosen as it just may be the hiding place of one Osama bin Laden who just may be involved in the event in ques- tion. There is known to be evidence, but we as mere cit- izens are not worthy of being trusted with this evidence. We are to trust the American government as we trusted this government in 1964 when the Gulf of Tonkin attack did not happen and the air war on North Vietnam resulted. Well, no one likes the Taliban very much since they believe some strange things and make their women wear bags over their bodies. As for the poor bastards who live under the Taliban regime, while dropping bombs on their heads, the bombers compensate by dropping peanut butter sandwiches on the mine fields. To make sure that the starving scramble for the peanut butter, the Americans thoughtfully bomb the Red Cross warehouses holding real food for them. All this gives the American government and their bedfellows, most notably Great Britain and Canada, the opportunity to ram through legislation with severe limitations on the free- doms and rights of their citi- zens; legislation which their police and security services have long lusted for. It is ironic that Bush Il claims that the terrorists were motivated by hatred of the Western freedoms we have enjoyed. Our governments responded by restricting those offending freedoms to bring our societies a step closer to those of the attack- ers. Perhaps this is a bar- gaining tactic to defuse the hatred against us. Now that we are to be subjected to increased humil- iation at the hands of profes- sional paranoids at our air- ports and surveillance by armed guards on aircraft, we are supposed to feel more secure in travelling. If our pilots divert from planned flight plans we will be protect- ed the same way that flight KAL 007 was protected by the Russians a few years ago. | don't know about you, but all of this protection makes me want to wing off to distant cities. Our private conversa- tions via e-mail and tele- phone will be subject to inter- ception by the government in its effort to protect us. And now that a couple of foreign- ers have died of anthrax, | have no doubt that out mail will be intercepted at the whim of postal paranoids. We have already been warned of what to watch for: Oversize envelopes, too much postage, unusual stamps, hand-written addresses, no return address and such. This profile seems designed to snare the letter from grandma while speeding the Visa bills. After all, isn't is suspicious these days when anyone puts a message ina sealed envelope and expects the government to deliver it to another person without read- ing it first? We _ sihave travelled around this province within the last month and we have found that there is a reluc- tance on the part of many people to discuss candidly their feelings and thoughts regarding this "war on terror- ism". Score one for the terror- ists. We are afraid to exer- cise our freedom of speech and we are afraid of our fel- low citizens. Anyone who does not display an American flag is suspect. "Loose lips sink ships", as they said in an earlier war. Don't talk about it or you may end up on a "list". Well, | won't play their silly game. If there is a list of people who are unafraid to speak about the excesses and duplicity of their govern- ments | want to be on it! During the McCarthy era the best people in the United States were on the "lists" and the most despicable people were the compilers of those lists. If it comes to the point where the governments round up those who do not march in their parade, the only honourable place will be in their camps and gaols. The cowards and quislings will be outside. Our forefathers (sic) fought for our freedoms since the time of the Magna Carta. Bit by painful bit they won the rights that we enjoy now. We in the current generation have no right to surrender those freedoms to a govern- ment which has deviated from being a servant otf its cit- izens James Loughery UNBC Student Men’s Basket ball October 27-28 UNBC vs OUC Double header: -UNBC 84-77 -OUC 79-66 Men’s Hocky October 27-28 UNBC vs Trinity Western -Trinity Western 6-1 UNBC vs Selkirk Collage November 5, 2001 Northern Timberwolves Update -UNBC 17-1 UNBC vs University Collage of the. Cariboo -UNBC 5-3 Men’s Soccer October 27-28 UNBC 1 vs McQuick -UNBC 5-0 UNBC 2 vs markm- cvey.com -markmcvey.com 5-1 Northern Undergraduate Student Society Notice Newly elected Director of External Affairs, Nedinska MacEachern is participating in the Ministry of Advanced Education’s consultation on the tuition freeze this past weekend in Vancouver. The purpose of the consultation is to gather elected student officials of BC universities together to talk shop and strategise about the ramifications and issues swirling about the current tuition freeze. Nedinska will be back on campus by Monday, November 5, 2001. She welcomes any and all student input as that is part of her mandate in this process. In addition, Advanced Education Minister Shirley Bond is inviting students from across British Columbia to participate in the province’s tuition fee consultations through the min- istry’s Web site at: www.aved.gov.bc.ca/tuitionconsultation. every students opinion, and will print letters to the editor that are submitted. Please drop off you submis- sion at our office or e-mail at over-the-edge @ unbc.ca.