Response to Halpin’s Perspective

While I have always loved the DFP and enjoied reading it on a daily basis, I had always hoped to never need to write in as a critic. Unfortunately, I have discovered that I cannot let Jason Halpin get away with his article in the Feb. 26th edition. For to do that would contridict all that I am attending BU for – namely to become educated in ways that I can help 3rd world nations and the people who live there.

Mr. Halpin writes about the new policies our government is considering instituting and how this will affect situations such as the Daniel Pearl case. He writes that new policies will enable the US to pay ransoms and then retaliate, instead of the former policy of no negotiation whatsoever. His views are his own in this regard when he states that he believes this new policy to be flawed, however what angered me was his complete calousness toward the late Mr. Pearl and his family, toward all those who suffered or will suffer at the hands of terrorists who hold their loved ones hostage.

I adress you Mr. Halpin when I ask: How dare you? How dare you be the judge of a human life. I’m sure you mourned like the rest of the nation when Sept. 11th occured – you may even have lost a loved one. However, you prove yourself unfit for you position of associate editor when you state that even one life (that could possibly be saved by these new policies) is not worth the money spent on it. You wrote, “I can’t see his [Pearl’s] story as anything more than a crime against a single person, and I can’t see why the United States should make concessions and weaken itself in the eyes of the international community to prevent such crimes.” (DFP, Feb. 26) Sept. 11th was a crime against every individual in New York, DC, PA and on the planes. How is their story any different than that of a hostage in a foreign nation, or even in the US?

I ask you, is money more important than a life? You seem to state yes, and your justification is that the same terrorists will use that money again against the US. This may be, but they will get money from other sources and it will be used, at least the US is stating it will retaliate after getting the hostage back. One life, no matter how famous the individual, is worth more than all the money in the world. How can you presume to judge a life insignificant when weighed against money? Think of the poor child who will never meet its father, the wife which never got to say goodbye… If you feel sorry for those people who lost their loved ones in Sept. 11th, you should feel sorry for Mrs. Pearl and her baby. The Pearl case was not a crime against one individual, it was/is a crime against everyone in the United States who has ever or will ever travel abroad. It is a crime which represents that no one, not even an American, is safe from the horrors of terrorism in the world. Daniel Pearl should be remembered as a man who was trying to make a difference and will killed for his efforts, not as some poor shmuck in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So I conclude, Mr. Halpin, with this statement: you clearly believe in a “War on Terrorism” and the retaliation against those who harmed the US… But wasn’t Daniel Pearl a member of the US as well? Doesn’t he too deserve to be alive right now as well as those who died in Sept. 11th? This was not an isolated crime, it happens every day in every country of the world… The new governmental policies could help to save the lives of Americans across the globe – don’t presume one life is insignificant when even our government thinks that it is. The government failed in this case, let us hope that with new policies that it will not fail again, because it may be you, Mr. Halpin who is the next Daniel Pearl if it does.

Submitted by Rebekah Thayer