While I respect the views of all Americans, if anyone had truly read Bill Eldridge’s editorial (” Wrong to protest retaliation for terror,” Sept. 17, p. 5), they would have seen that he did not advocate violence. Regardless whether he believed our country should or should not be engaging in military activity, he wrote Americans need to stand united.

The last thing anyone needs is a divided nation. We should rally behind our leaders to combat this deadly attack of violence. Our country needs to stand as one nation, indivisible.

Eldridge asks whether those bringing dissension to our community should question their patriotism. They should. He did not suggest that these individuals should give up their desire for peace. In fact, he also advocated peace as a “sentiment of everyone in America and around the world.” Those who disagree with the sentiment of a nation’s unification are the ones who should question their alliances. To say that bringing dissension is as American as “apple pie” is almost to condone these attacks.

In his letter to the editor in the Sept. 20 Hatchet (“Patriotic to protest”), perhaps Ben Williams should have considered unification and support of our friends and neighbors before questioning Eldridge’s motives for coming together. Is he suggesting we turn on each other instead of leaning on one another for support?

I am proud of the world’s citizens for uniting behind America, now perhaps the rest of our citizens should as well. I am proud of the way President George W. Bush is handling this situation thus far, and even prouder that he got my vote.

-The writer is a junior majoring in criminal justice and psychology.