Protest story did not reflect local sentiment

RE: “War sparks protests, support,” Friday.

It’s Friday morning, March 21. I take a sip of fresh brewed coffee

and wave to a jogger as I snatch up my morning newspaper from the

driveway. As usual, I open it up, take another gulp of coffee and

proceed to read about the details of the war in Iraq. The Los Angeles

Times’ headlines regard American troops entering Iraq territory on

their way to Baghdad. I set the Times down for now, because I always

like to read the local news first. So I thumb through the pile and

pull out the Daily Pilot. “What’s this? Uh! What the heck?”

What’s wrong with this picture?

To put it mildly, I couldn’t quite understand why the Daily Pilot

had chosen to dedicate almost the entire front page to a small

faction of students who were holding an antiwar rally on one of the

local junior college campuses. If this were San Francisco or France,

I could maybe understand it. But the Daily Pilot is a local newspaper

that circulates in the Newport Beach/Costa Mesa area, where the vast

majority support President Bush and support this action in Iraq. So

what’s with the antiwar sentiment?

Does the Daily Pilot editor think that its readers want to read

about a small, uninformed subculture of antiwar junior college

students caught up in a mob mentality attempting to be cool,

rebellious radicals? I don’t think so! I blame the editor rather than

the reporter, because I assume that it’s the editor’s job to

determine how the articles are placed in the format of the paper and

which articles should be given more credence.

Surely, there could have been a story that better represented the

feelings of most of your readers. Possibly something about local

families of some of some of our troops in Iraq and what they must be

going through. Maybe the page could even have something with a few

patriotic overtones.

It just seems to me that a lot of the media is always too quick to

take the stance against America, and millions of us are just sick of

it, and that’s why I don’t want to see it happen to my own local

newspaper.

Nobody wants or enjoys war, but sometimes it’s necessary, as is

the case with Iraq. Keeping up on what’s happening during a war or

military action is something that most people like to do, even though

the details might not always be pleasant. But this is quite different

from most wars. We’re not actually at war with another country. We’re

simply trying to remove a sadistic criminal regime that should have

been removed long ago; a regime that supports a tyrant who has proven

himself, in hundreds, if not thousands of instances, to be a

monstrous madman. Experts agree that it was only a matter of time

before Saddam Hussein achieved his goal and took possession of a

nuclear weapon, or possibly a global level biological weapon before

that. Any decent, intelligent person must agree that allowing that to

happen could not be an option. As time goes by, we are finding out,

more and more, just how bad things there have been.

No, I don’t feel bad about this war. Along with the vast majority

of Americans, I actually feel really good. We’re citizens of a

country that is ridding the world of a monster capable of

incomprehensible evil. I believe Bush has proven himself to be one of

the greatest presidents of all time. He knew that this was the right

thing to do and he stood by principles. He stood up to the liberal

Democrats who have tried to use this situation to their political

advantage. They have dishonored more than 200 years of an unwritten

moral and ethical code of honor among American elected officials.

When our president, the commander in chief of our nation, has

formally given orders to achieve a specified result, militarily or

otherwise, our American tradition for other elected officials has

always been to either rally behind him, or at the very least, keep

their mouths shut.

So, Daily Pilot editor: Get in touch. Maybe try and find out a

little bit about your readers. Example: If your readers are all

eagles, then don’t dedicate your front page to the turkey festival.

BRENT BURNHAM

Balboa Island