Letter: Hatred, violence go hand in hand

Any reasonable person looks at these killings and wonders how anybody could justify to themselves such savagery. But that misses the point. A reasonable person seeks information and understanding before acting. A mind filled with hate does not care about information, understanding or reason.

When hate is in control, that person sees only the worst in the world and other people.

It is no coincidence that Muslim terrorists call the United States the "Great Satan." First, leaders of terrorist organizations or violent gangs demonize their opponents to below human, then fan the flames of hatred against them. Without compassion, tolerance or reason, violence is hatred's natural bedfellow.

We Americans may dismiss Great Satan comments as unreasonable nonsense, but this nonsense is alive and well in American politics. Anybody who has read Mr. Daniel Olivier's letters has seen full-flaming, Democrat hate-mongering at its worst. To him, anybody who does not want to level Serbia is a Milosevic-loving, Clinton-hating traitor.

Serbia, excluding Kosovo, has 8 million people. The vast majority have nothing to do with ethnic cleansing. Instead of taking out Milosevic, millions of innocent people, including children, will suffer and die because of our bombing. People of compassion of all political parties and religious leaders, such as the pope and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, are saying, "There has got to be a better way."

RODNEY K. SMITH

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