Connecting the Dots by Jerry King

My friend Jerry King shared this letter to the editor of the Post-Dispatch with me and gave me permission to post it here.

I was struck in the past week with the juxtaposition of three events that are heartbreaking in their connectedness. First, the crowd at a Blues game chanted “USA, USA” at the announcement that the younger Tsarnaev brother had been captured. Second, a Senate Committee convened by Illinois Senator Durbin posited that our drone attacks are creating more enemies than they are eliminating due to the killing of innocent people, including children. And third, Vice President Biden in mourning with the family of the slain MIT police officer, proclaimed that no parent should have to deal with the premature death of their child.

The crowd outburst at the hockey game was a response that transcended mere relief from fear—after all, this was a one scared, isolated 19 year old kid pursued by a massive force of FBI and local police. The quasi-patriotic flavor of the response showed an outrage that the killing of innocents in Boston could happen in our country, especially perpetrated by “outsiders”. And yet, on a weekly basis, as the Durbin hearings remind us, we are perpetrating far worse killing of innocents in Pakistan and Afghanistan and in other parts of the globe.

Mr. Biden was right. No parent should have to endure the loss of a child, particularly through an act of violence. No parent, not American, not Afghani, not Pakastani. These children who are dying from drone attacks are as beautiful and innocent as the 8 year old who died in Boston. They are as deeply mourned as the young man killed at MIT. And we have the power to stop it, not after the fact as we did with the capture of young Tsarnaev, but before the fact with an immediate cessation of drone attacks and their “collateral damage”. Please, Mr. Obama, for the sake of children in these countries, and for all our sakes, no more.