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To: willcousa who wrote (167257)	9/28/2001 5:08:27 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 176387

LEONARD PITTS JR.: Peace is good, but let's hold that thought September 28, 2001 BY LEONARD PITTS JR. The Detroit Free Press Chances are, you've never heard of Jeanette Rankin. It was immediately after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that she became, for a moment, famous. Or maybe the word is "infamous." Congress was in session to consider a declaration of war. Before the attack, there had been a lively peace movement in this country -- people determined, at all costs, to keep the United States out of the conflagration in Europe. Afterward, the hue and cry everywhere was for war. Rankin, a Republican representative from Montana, cast the lone vote in opposition. Her dissent so outraged onlookers that an angry mob chased the committed pacifist through the corridors of the Capitol. I've always appreciated the lonely courage of her stand. Something like that stand is beginning to emerge in the wake of Sept. 11. As the country cries out for war, peace rallies have broken out on college campuses nationwide. Social activists like Harry Belafonte and Rosa Parks are questioning the wisdom of retaliation. And a letter making the rounds on the Internet urges America to bomb Afghanistan with butter, rice and other staples the starving poor of that wretched country find in short supply. Some in the peace movement simply oppose an indiscriminate military campaign that cannot help but target innocent civilians along with the thugs who have hijacked their country -- an argument with which I have no quarrel. But others crusade against any military response, period. For them, no provocation justifies the use of force. I couldn't disagree with that assertion more. Yet I'm pleased to hear it, nonetheless. We need balance These are troubling times. We've just seen more than 6,000 human lives obliterated. People want retribution. We are as united in that as we have ever been in anything. There's righteousness in that demand. There's also a certain danger. When emotions are this raw, it's easy for a crowd to become a mob. Not surprisingly, you can already see signs of it happening. Some have said we ought to turn Afghanistan into the proverbial parking lot. Some have used their pain and anger as excuses to visit violence upon fellow Americans who are -- or simply look -- Arab. Terrible things can happen when passion is unhindered by reason. So the counterweight the peace movement provides is a valuable one. But at the same time, the argument that violence is never justified is spurious at best. Time to fight Martin Luther King Jr. was probably the greatest pacifist in American history. Yet even he acknowledged that there were times violence was necessary. If called to service in the Second World War, he said in a 1967 sermon, "I believe that I would have temporarily sacrificed my pacifism because Hitler was such an evil force in history." Sometimes, history demands that aggrieved people draw an uncrossable line. This is one of those times. Otherwise, what comes next? Is the next hit chemical? Biological? How many lives will that cost? The nascent peace movement will be the conscience of the mob in days to come, and that's a good thing. But most of us understand, as King did, that sometimes, the cost of peace is too high. Sometimes, peace costs more than war. I like Jeanette Rankin. But she was wrong. __________________________________________________________ LEONARD PITTS JR. appears most Wednesdays and Fridays in the Free Press. Reach him at the Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, FL 33132; toll free at 888-251-4407 or at leonardpitts@mindspring.com.