The Chart Online

Ritter stresses community action
Michelle Conty

Opinion Editor

Southwest Missouri was given the opportunity to ask questions of former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter on Oct. 21 in Taylor Auditorium.

Ritter lectured for more than two hours about U.S. involvement in Iraq.

The whole purpose of resignation was on principle in protest to what I deemed a failure of policy, and I made a decision at that point in time to commit myself to see our Iraq policy changed, Ritter said, and so I have been speaking out against that by writing books and doing whatever I can to get the message out.

You have representatives in Congress speaking about the threat Iraq poses and talking about the links with Al Qaeda and listening to the president speak, and there is this big temptation to believe everything you hear at face value, not question anything, and I think that's a danger. You have to question everything, it doesn t mean you re being negative, but you have to use the standards of when you go buy a car, you inspect the mileage, look under the hood and don t take the salesman's word for anything.

Ritter gave The Chart a one-on-one interview.

When not on the lecture circuit, Ritter serves on the volunteer fire department in Delmar, N.Y.

It s a good way to give back, he said. I m a big believer in community. It s easy to fall into an artificial reality of elitism. I consider myself a regular guy. You can get carried away, traveling around the country, and let it go to your head and say I m special. But being on the fire department, you re not special. You re just another firefighter who better get in his gear and respond to call and obey orders on the scene like everybody else. And when it s done, you drink a beer like everybody else.

People take for granted what it takes to make a community to work, the real people of the community, the electricians, the carpenters the store managers salt-of-the-earth kind of people.

He compared investing in the community to investing in America. When someone asks Ritter for advice on going into the military, he encourages them to because it is an investment in the country.

Everybody makes a commitment to their country in a different way, being a doctor, a lawyer or a journalist, you are committed to your country, he said. People take for granted what it means to be a citizen.

Ritter believes it is a failure how few people turn out to vote, and of those who do, how many are actually qualified to vote and know what the issues are.

We need to hold our elected officials accountable, he said. We often times find a situation where we have candidates running who are not the best candidates for office. Because people have disengaged themselves from the political process, we get presented with these candidates. If people become more actively involved, they will have a greater say in who represents us and that s the key, to be involved, vote, learn the issues.

Ritter s words did not fall on deaf ears. After the Monday night lecture, Aaron Divine, sophomore, secondary education major, was on Ritter s side.

When he said, Ah, Mr. President I have a question, he had me on his side, Divine said. Anyone who would openly say to question those in charge and keep those in power in check has my endorsement. We as a nation have to ensure our that we maintain our rights. Even if they are not in popular opinion.

Ritter does not classify himself as anti-Bush, but believes an un-American ideology is being promoted.

What scares me about this war on terrorism and the Homeland Security Bill is that we seem to be all too willing to give up our rights, and we can t give up our rights. We can t give up any rights, because as soon as we do that the terrorists win.

Americans have to remember what makes this country different from the rest of the world.

I tell everyone I d give my life for someone s right to burn the American flag, Ritter said. That s what I m doing when you go to war for the constitution. You re giving your life for someone s right to burn the American flag. Now that guy and I might meet in the back alley of a bar afterward and I d give him my personal opinion of what he s doing. But still as an American I have to defend his right to express himself in that way. I have to defend everyone's right to freedom of speech. Everybody's constitutional liberties. That's what makes this country great.

The people who are willing to give up their rights are white people who live in a fairly safe part of the country who take these rights for granted anyway. You won t find any black Americans willing to give up their rights -no way-those rights are too damned precious because they didn t have them for a long time.

Ritter is talking to Harvard and the University of New York about pursuing a Ph.D. program. He views it as an opportunity to give something back.

Teaching is a great profession. The impact a teacher has on children from elementary to college level is incredible, he said.

It will allow me to do something good for society while having a relatively stable home life for my kids and my wife, Ritter said. I couldn t do any of this without my wife. She s the foundation. I owe it to her to get some sort of stability.

The CAB spent $5,000 to bring Ritter to campus.

That s a good price for a speaker of this magnitude, said Jeremy Sturgell, interim president and lectures chair for the CAB.

He is such a timely figure to have speak, we just couldn t pass that up, Sturgell said.

Ritter is a ballistic missile technology expert who worked with military intelligence during a 12-year career in the U.S. armed forces. A former major in the U.S. Marines, he served under Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf at Marine Central Command headquarters in Saudi Arabia. In 1991, Ritter joined the United Nations weapons inspections team.

He graduated from Franklin and Marshall College with a bachelor s in Soviet history.