One of the Yahoo groups I subscribe too focuses on how to give the idea of peace more strength and followers, especially in the education system. The latest digest I received discusses Washington Senator, Patty Murray, and her alleged attempt to undermine our government. During a question and answer session with high school students, she challenged them to think beyond the propaganda and rhetoric to the reasons behind our problems with the middle east and Iraq in particular. The right wing conservatives are accusing her of praising Bin Laden and implying that the US "got what it deserved". They are asking her to resign in honor of those who died on September 11, comparing this to the uproar and consequent resignation of Senator Trent Lott. There were quotes in the digest of what she actually said to the students, taken from an online news source. See for yourself.


Democrat senator praises bin Laden
Patty Murray asks students to ponder why U.S. lacks popularity of terrorist
Posted: December 20, 2002 5:00 p.m. Eastern

By Art Moore
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

SEATTLE - Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told a group of high-school students in her state that the U.S. should adopt Osama bin Laden's nation-building tactics.
"We've got to ask, why is this man so popular around the world?" said Murray according to the Vancouver Columbian newspaper. "Why are people so supportive of him in many countries that are riddled with poverty?"

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
The second-term senator, who faces re-election in 2004, was responding to questions from world history students and student government leaders at Columbia River High School in Vancouver, Wash., on Wednesday. Murray said, according to the Vancouver paper, that bin Laden has been "out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day care facilities, building health care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful. We haven't done that." "How would they look at us today if we had been there helping them with some of that rather than just being the people who are going to bomb in Iraq and go to Afghanistan?" Murray asked.
Murray, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the 107th Congress, voted against an October Senate resolution - passed by a77-23 margin - that gives President Bush authority to use military force against Saddam Hussein's regime.
Murray concluded the session with students by challenging them to consider alternatives to war, the Columbian reported. She said that while building up Third World nations is costly, war is expensive too. "Your generation ought to be thinking about whether we should be better neighbors out in other countries so that they have a different vision of us," said Murray. "It is a debate I think we ought to have."

Murray elaborates
Murray's press secretary Todd Webster forwarded a statement from the senator that warned against sensationalizing and distorting her remarks in an "attempt to divide." "Osama Bin Laden is an evil terrorist who is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans," the statement said. "Bringing him to justice, dismantling his terrorist network, and protecting our nation from further attacks must continue to be our government's highest priorities, and I continue to vigorously support those efforts in the Senate. "While we continue to search every corner of the globe to destroy Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network, should we also consider the longer-term issue of what else can be done to improve relations with all nations including the Arab world? How else can we bring America's values to those who do not understand us?"

So? What do you think? Is she rabble-rousing and corrupting the minds of our youth? Or is she opening their eyes to alternatives? Is she helping create a generation that cares less for it's own country than that of a killer? Or is she creating a generation that cares enough for it's own country to look beyond it's borders, both physical and emotional?

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