Letters to the editor

United States should rise above using torture

"No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture." states the United Nations Convention against Torture. This is one of numerous documents that the United States has signed condemning all forms of torture, whether physical or mental.

Yet from the news of the last few years, it is obvious that the U.S. is not following these resolutions. Offenses ranging from the inhumane treatment of Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the "acceptable" method of water boarding, which simulates drowning, have been all over the news for the past few years, and the United States seems to have accepted torture as its interrogation method. When torture is clearly illegal as well as immoral, why are we doing this?

Officials may justify torture as a way to get imperative information out of terrorists, but how can this information be verified? Torture produces physical or mental pain so severe that the victim would rather talk than experience it again. How are the torturers to know that the victim isn't just making things up to get the torture to stop?

Also, to get any result, the torture must be horrendous. Mental abuse, beatings or even getting locked in a room without any food or water for a day aren't going to leave any lasting physical marks, but they can be just as bad as a turn on the iron maiden of old. No human, no matter what crime he or she has committed, should be subjected to this barbaric practice.

Torture is a relic of the Middle Ages and should just be an awful memory, not a current practice in the United States of America, one of the most advanced countries in the world.

JENNY MITAL

Carson City

Private toll road will endanger U.S.

Just say no to the North American Union.

Imagine an America where terrorists carrying weapons of mass destruction don't have to sneak into the United States - because they can drive from Mexico to Canada on a private toll road where U.S. police can't inspect their vehicles.

Imagine an America where Mexican drug traffickers don't have to smuggle marijuana, heroin or cocaine across the border - because they've been guaranteed their cargo will never be inspected by a U.S. Government official.

Now imagine an America where terrorists and drug traffickers actually started working together, enabling the terrorists to cross the border and travel through the United States at will, flush with drug money to carry out another September 11-like attack.

This frightening world is already being constructed by the shadowy political elite behind the North American Union (NAU). Consider this:

Plans are well under way for the Trans-Texas Corridor, the first leg of the NAFTA Superhighway which will run from Mexico, through Laredo, Texas, and all the way to Canada.

A Spanish company, Cintra Concessiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, has already bought the right to operate the road and collect the tolls for 50 years.

Many NAU observers have already dubbed the NAFTA Superhighway the "Terrorist Tollroad" because of the obvious threat posed to U.S. national security.

Wake up sheople - it is later than you think.

MERRITT K. "IKE" YOCHUM

Carson City

Saddened by lack of civility on the Internet

I am an eleventh grade student at Carson High School. I read the recent criticisms received by Guy Farmer and Lorie Schaefer with interest. Specifically why is it that people feel it is their right to use degrading language and sling angry words when expressing their views on any given topic?

Of course, I refer to the remarks made on the Internet by people who do not even use their real names. It seems that the vulgar responses are not necessarily chosen to prove a point, but instead are used to put down their opponent in a vulgar way. The most shocking thing to me was the casual nature of these remarks.

I have been taught to be kind and respectful. Whether I agreed with something or not, I was instructed never to use such language. It is strange to me that people believe it is acceptable or their right to speak in such a vile manner. I do not understand how society has changed to permit these types of uncivil exchanges. For some reason these digital duelers continue to verbally abuse people with no consequence whatsoever. If I were to insult or even threaten another student at school, I would be disciplined. Why then is it acceptable to use vulgar insults when addressing people in writing? Whether identity of the speaker is known or not, the insults still speak the same.

Some people hide behind their computer screen, and say things they would never say in a conversation face-to-face. I find it saddening that political civility seems to diminish more with each passing year. If only the age-old saying still had any effect, "If you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all."

RYJUL STOKES

Carson City