November 26, 2004

Sticks and Stones, and Bad Names

To the Editor:

Geoffrey Galt Harpham believes that calling terrorists "human debris" or "subhuman" puts them outside the human community in the same way that extreme racism denies the tragedy of an African-American death ("Inadmissible Evidence: Terror, Torture, and the World Today," The Chronicle Review, October 15). Surely this is not the case.

While Rush Limbaugh's words were harsh (and perhaps ill chosen), they reflect a moral judgment on the behavior of those who have, by