Iowa City Press-Citizen from Iowa City, Iowa • Page 9

Editorial Board: Susan Patterson Plank, general manager Jim Lewers, executive editor Jeff Charis-Carlson, opinion editor Daniel W. Brown, advertising marketing director Tricia DeWall, assistant managing editor Lucille Hernandez Gregory, community member Shams Ghonelm, community member Page 9A Tuesday, December 9, 2008 Iowa City Press-Citizen Jeff Charis-Carlson, Opinion editor Phone: 887-5435 E-mail: OoMoe Facing reality of terrorism Moishe Two-year-old Maria 'Monuny, Holzberg crying, 3 "l-V Houser II tonzemius ft writers Group Our View Consensus of the Press-Citizen editorial board Hawk victories a good thing for Iowa City Tliis weekend was one continuous party for Hawkeye sports fans, with the men's and women's basket ball teams and the wrestling squad all posting home victories and trie football team's return to a January bowl for the first time in three years. The only damper on The Associated Press Moishe Holtzberg, the 2-year-old orphan of the rabbi and his wife slain in the Mumbai Jewish center, cries during a Dec. 1 memorial service at a synagogue in Mumbai, India. Moishe flew to Israel on an Israeli Air Force jet with his parents' remains and the Indian woman who rescued him.

rorists the same children we saw in the madrassas, armed with weapons when we watched the documentary "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the As my husband and I rewatched "Obsession" in order to check out our impressions we couldn't find anyone unqualified to give an opinion. The daughter of a terrorist, a former male terrorist, how could their testimony be unrealistic when terrorism is a reality that they lived with? As "Obsession" chronicled, denial kept Europe and America from facing the reality of Adolf Hitler's remorseless drive toward world conquest. It was thought that Hitler could be appeased. He couldn't. Europe gave up one eastern European country after another to Hitler in the hopes that he would be appeased.

He wasn't. As we face the reality of Islamofascism today, it seems that each country attacked absolutely will not believe Will we carry our suit cases onto Adolf Eiehmann's train again and hope for the best? Following the Holocaust, perhaps only the Jews who escaped the Holocaust understood the reality of true evil. They understand that there is no win-win with people who will not take yes for an answer. I hope that Moishe will be safe in Israel. Writers' Group member Maria Houser Conzemius blogs often at www.press-citizen.com.

that it could hapien "here" wherever "here" is until they've beheld the slaughter of innocents on their own soil. Our government was warned prior to 911. We ignored their warnings. American intelligence, ironically, warned India about terrorist attacks approaching from Mumbai's seafront in mid-October, and India not only ignored the warnings, but couldn't put Indian commandos on the ground until nine hours after the attacks began. The issue It was a great weekend for Hawkeye sports fans, with the men's and women's basketball teams and the wrestling squad all posting home victories and the football team's return to a January bowl.

We suggest When the Hawks win, it's good for Iowa City. Our image improves across the state and country. And in these tough times, it's nice to have something positive to talk about. What do you think? How do Hawkeye victories affect you? Send letters to Opinion Page, P.O. Box 2480, Iowa City, Iowa 52245 or e-mail to Post your comments directly to the whole tiling was word that men's basketball Coach Todd Lickliter had suspended freshman basketball star Anthony Tucker indefinitely for violating team rules suspends leading scorer," Dec.

8). Hawkeye fans played key roles in two of the biggest highlights, setting an NCAA dual wrestling record Saturday night best show in town," Dec. 7) and helping the football team jump into a New Year's Day bowl even though Northwestern had a better record Tampa black gold," Dec. 8). Nearly 16,000 fans packed Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Saturday night as the No.

1 ranked and defending NCAA champion Hawkeyes defeated the No. 2 Cyclones 20-15. Coach Tom Brands has Iowa back solidly atop the college wrestling world. And Coach Kirk Ferentz's team's rebound this year, including its upset of No. 3 Penn State just a few weeks ago, got a little bit better Sunday when the Outback Bowl 1- A mommy!" during services for his dead parents symbolized the death of innocence in Mumbai, India.

The child's nanny braved terrorist gunfire and is reported to have skimmed a door in a terrorist's face to escape with the little boy, who was unhurt although his little pants were drenched in his parents' blood. Israel conferred the status of "righteous gentile," normally conferred on gentiles who helped Jews during the Holocaust, on Sandra Samuels to allow the litt le boy's nanny to join the toddler at lus grandparents' home in Israel. The boy's late piirents, a 29-year-old rabbi and his wife, worked in a Jewish center in Mumbai. Some 10 to 15 terrorists who would have looked like college students but for the weapons and grenades that they carried tortured and killed the kindly and conscientious rabbi and his wife. Nine of the terrorists are dead, and one Pakistani terrorist, who admitted belonging to a Pakistani organization allied with al Qaida, was captured alive.

Other terrorists may still be at large. Were the baby-faced ter- Letters Our volunteers are Persons of the Year This year's Persons of the Year, in my opinion, are the unheralded volunteers of all ages who assisted Johnson County residents. As I reflect on this past year, the people who deserve accolades are those who provided massive disaster relief to hundreds of people and animals who were displaced by flood, the numbers of people who were involved in turning out the vote in the historic presidential race and passing a forward-thinking local conservation bond issue, and, in this time of economic uncertainty, those stalwart people who provided much needed support and services to those living in crisis. These are this year's persons of the year. If ever there was a year when "Yes, we can" resonated, this was it! Garry Klein Iowa City UIHC doctors are Persons of the Year It is with great pleasure and appreciation that I nominate Drs.

Joong Ann, Carol Scott-Conner, Susan Roeder and Geraldine Jacobson four amazing women as well as the entire Radiation Oncology team at University Hospitals for "Persons of the Year." Last October, my beloved husband of 38 years, professor and head of pediatric ophthalmology at University BECAUSE PATToRTViei P- 'L I r-H WW How to reach us length, style and content. Send e-mail to send mail to Press-Citizen, 1725 N. Dodge Iowa City, IA 52245. Letters should be no longer than 250 words. Letters must include a daytime phone number and an address.

The editor reserves the right to edit all letters for Hospitals, passed away from leukemia following two bone marrow transplants. Our family had pulled together to continue on, but we miss him every single day. TTiis summer, I received a letter from the breast imagining center informing me that the mammogram taken just before our trip north revealed something that the doctors wished to look at again. A biopsy done by Ann on the day I was to return to school teaching my eighth grade classes at Northwest Junior High discovered an impossibly tiny mass pressed snugly against the chest wall. How she even detected it is a testament to her expertise.

It proved to be a ductal carcinoma More mammograms and expert surgery by Scott-Connor removed the tumor with clear margins. The subsequent oncology care was carefully managed by announced Iowa would face South Carolina on Jan. 1 in Tampa It's no secret that Hawkeye fans travel extremely well, which helps explain why Iowa jumped over Northwestern in the Big Ten Conference bowl lineup. When the Hawks win, it's good for Iowa City. Fans come to town to see the teams.

Our image improves across the state and country. People just feel a little better. Of course, they have to win the right way. But in these tough economic times in particular it's nice to have something positive to talk about. As for Tucker, we still don't have a full understanding of the situation, though police say the situation involves alcohol.

We expect Lickliter's discipline will be tough based on the coach's several-game suspension of former walk-on Dan Bohall last season. It's possible that Tucker is lucky, though. In the past year or so, binge drinking in our community has resulted in much more serious consequences. Roeder, and finally the radiation began under the care of Jacobson and her team. I was motivated to write this nomination because my team with one mind and one heart offered me the kind of unconditional, personal and intimate care I would never have believed possible at a huge, tertiary care facility like University Hospitals had I not experienced it firsthand.

Day after day, year after year, the people who treat the most seriously ill of patients soldier on with kindness, compassion, and care. How difficult it mast be to face the challenges they do on a daily basis. Yet they do it graciously with a smile, a hug, and a hand to hold when it is needed most They would never ask for such recognition as being awarded Persons of the Year, yet no one could deserve it more. Andrea Keech Iowa City Iowa Supreme Court should again be a pioneer was the 'wrong kind of person' for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry." As with Mildred, we hope to hear similar sentiments of triumph and love from the Varnums and other siune-sex couples 40 years from now.

Most of all, we hope that Iowans, including ourselves, will be able to look back proudly at this state's pioneering place in history on the legality of same-sex marriage following the hearings today. Jacob Willig Onwuachi is a physics professor at Grinnell College, and Angela Onwuachi-Willig is a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law. Angela Onwuachi-Willig and Jacob Willig-Onwuachi Guest Opinion Mildred and Richard Loving, the black woman and white man who were the named plaintiffs in the Loving case. In 1958, Mildred and Richard had to leave their home state of Virginia and travel to Washington, D.C. to legally marry.

Upon their return, they were arrested, charged with leaving the state to evade the law, charged with unlawfully residing as an interracial couple, and threatened with a one-year prison sentence unless they left Virginia without returning for 25 years. Had the Lovings lived in conscious and unconscious discriminatory biases, we recognize how we benefit daily from the legal privileges that stem from government acknowledgement of our fundamental right to marry, regardless of race. We look back on these words of Mildred Loving just months before her death earlier this year "The older generation's fears mid prejudices have given way, and today's young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry. Surrounded as I ran now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he protecting the civil rights of its citizens. Iowa pioneered the end of "separate but equal" systems of public education for black children, long before the U.S.

Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 195-1. Nearly 100 years earlier in 1868, the Iowa Supreme Court held that racially segregated schools were unconstitutional in Clark v. Board of Directors. Today, we are hopeful that Iowa and its Supreme Court will once again prove to be a pioneer in protecting the rights of its most vulnerable citizens by granting same-sex couples the right to legally niiirry in the state.

As a couple that endures the legacy of the Lovings' social lives, which, even in a post -Civil Rights era, are affected by both Iowa, however, they would have been able to marry each other, remain in their home, and have their marriage legally recognized by the state. Why? In 1851, Iowa rejected the ban on interracial marriages that had been a part of the Territorial Laws of 1839-40. When Iowa eliminated this ban, it did so more than 100 years before the Loving decision and became only the third state to do so. As an interracial couple, we are extremely proud of this history in Iowa. It reveals to us Iowa's commitment to freedom and equality as well as its protection of families within its borders.

But as residents of Iowa (including one native), we are even prouder of the state's general legacy in standing apart as a leader in The lives of many interracial couples were forever changed in 1967 when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down anti-miscegenation statutes as unconstitutional in Loving v. Virginia. Aptly named, the Loving case ensured not just that every interracial marriage would be legally recognized in Virginia, but also that every other state would recognize and give full faith and credit to all interracial marriages. We, a white man and a black woman, were married in Iowa more than 12 years ago, and we currently live in Grinnell with our children.

Were this the year 1966 rather than 2(X)8, the legality of our marriage would still be intact at least in Iowa and our fate in Iowa would have been different than that of.