Perhaps the finest and most complimentary news the United States has received for years was buried on Page 4 of the Aug. 23 Columbian, which instead provided important front-page information on marijuana and changing laws on fireworks. Three young Americans, ignoring personal risk to their lives, stopped a likely massive disaster by taking down a gunman aboard a train in Europe. This striking example of what the United States has been pursuing throughout the world was, of course, less important than the number of days that Camas will allow for fireworks, and probably in the view of The Columbian, less important than a critique on the “M&M boys.”
The soil in many parts of the world is stained with the blood of young men and women such as the these who likely saved large numbers of individuals whom they never knew. Thankfully, the United Sates with all of our problems still produces young people with such courage and sense of purpose.
Don Beatty
Camas