My eyes still sting from reading the front page of the paper on Thursday, March 14. I almost never cry. I remember distinctly both times I shed tears in the last four years. Thursday made it three times in recent history.

I walked into a store to make change and I was looking around when the front page of the Bangor Daily News jumped out at me. “Bush: Nukes an option to defend U.S.” Tears came springing forth from my eyes as I stared with disbelief. I truly expected the general military state trend to continue, and this was not a big surprise from Bush. My astonishment was the millions of people who read this headline and did not tear off their clothes and go screaming into the street.

The article talks about nuclear attacks as an “option on the table,” perhaps like corn or beans. It continues that we may need them against such countries as “China, Libya, or Syria.” Did I miss some big news? I did not think we were at war with all these countries. What is this sudden insanity we have taken on in the name of anti-terrorism. Do people realize how devastating nuclear war truly is? Do we remember the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Please, from the depths of my tears I beg fellow Americans to call senators, wear banners, tell your neighbor, write the paper, start a petition, or whatever else you do to help stop nuclear devastation. Why would we subject so many innocent lives with radiation?

Josh Harriman

Newburgh