LETTER: Student: Dream of assimilation is not realistic

Being a senior at Capital High I would like to spit something out on current affairs since doing so is always taboo in the classroom. A group of people who happen to be the best people we have are not being given a voice in the community — the military veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

One I have talked to extensively is a 33-year-old Army veteran of the Afghanistan campaign. He traveled the countryside there where he saw, several times, women being stoned to death. They were buried up to their necks and everyone in the village filed by and threw a rock at what could be seen of the woman. They were always told to look the other way and at no time attempt to interfere, because, “It is a part of their culture.” He said it was, “sickening.” I assume he meant looking the other way as well as the stoning of women itself.

I could mention atrocities against young boys that the veteran also witnessed many times in Afghanistan but I am not supposed to know about such evils before my brain reaches its full size at the end of my 20th year.

One thing quite obvious I picked up however is that there are lots of people coming into this country that are never going to adapt to our way of life, and anybody, and I mean anybody, who thinks they will is as shallow as a spilled Mountain Dew on a pool table. —Rex Chapman, Helena