July 20, 2003
Blaming Government Policy, Letter Writer Excuses Local 'Terrorism'
I've not really felt the need to cover the rash of dog poisonings in Laurelhurst Park (and I'm loathe to say anything that at all references the sort of fodder that comprises too much inter-weblog echo chambering), but I feel somehow compelled to make a sideways observation or two on the following excerpt from a letter in today's Sunday Oregonian:
Portland Parks and Recreation is to blame for the spate of dog poisonings at Laurelhurst Park, either because a dog-leash zealot has grown tired of its inaction and taken matters into his own hands or because some dogs were off leash and vulnerable because they were not provided designated park space in which to run.
Now, understanding that I have no way of knowing the writer's opinion on the root causes of terrorism (a much larger issue on an entirely different scale, but bear with me here), I find it ironic that the above argument runs counter to the consensus view that we can't place any of the "blame" for terrorist attacks against the United States on the vagaries of our foreign policy. We're supposed to simply blame the terrorists for being, well, evil.
Yet here comes a local letter writer blaming local government policy for actions of (supposedly) one individual which could arguably also be described as, well, evil.
On the off-chance that the author of the letter which I've excerpted should happen to come across this item, perhaps they could let me know if they also excuse the actions of, say, al Qaeda, on the premise that government policies haven't happened to go their way.
(As a footnote of sorts, I should also explain that I'm rather against the lumping of a million different actions into the umbrella of terrorism -- hence the quote marks in the headline here. It's meant to be at least mildly facetious.)