[4 Jun 03 to N&O

I love my country, my home of 76 years.  I do not have an American flag on my auto.  I do not say, "I'm proud to be an American."  I love my country, and I am embarassed by much of what is happening with us.  Icannot join in the current wave of flag waving.  Nicholas Kristof's New York Times column (N&O 5/31) is aptly headlined, "Shaping the signals to justify war."   The search for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) goes on with minimal result, although our president says of the two laboratory trailers found that we have found such weapons.  Kristof qoutes numerous intelligence people who state that we were being manipulated, that intelligence was grossly distorted.  European media picked this up well ahead of the U.S. press.

 I am embarassed at our imperial stance, by our president telling other countries they are either with us or with the terrorists, by the Guantanamo prison camp and detention of foreign nationals without access to legal counsel.  I look to the day when we will have regained our balance, when I can once again offer thanks that I am an American and be proud of that.

 (The Rev.) Ralph E. Macy