I would first and foremost like to compliment The Northerner for its online version of the paper, since I am in Louisiana and get my feel for my alma mater through its articles. Thank you.

As I have been reading the editions of The Northerner this year and last year, I have been concerned with a lack of reporting on one issue that is affecting our country as no other piece of news is or will for the next few years: the fact that we are at war.

As a nation we have men and women on foreign soil dying daily in war, and as the mainstream media has been and is doing, you too are neglecting to report on this tragedy. We have lost nearly 3,000 military personnel. The innocent Iraqi citizens’ loss of life numbers in the hundreds of thousands.

I realize some will say it is reported at a little less than 100,000 and a recent report says it is more likely to be 650,000. The truth lies somewhere in the middle.

But that doesn’t change the fact that much innocent life has been lost. There is a large debate regarding the legitimacy of this war. I admit I fall in line with the belief that we were misled and brought into war with deliberately misleading information.

However, that debate has nothing to do with what is transpiring in the Middle East, especially in Iraq where we’re at war.

With whom, I am not sure we know. I am not here to play all-knowing. Like the current administration, I have no idea what will bring this disastrous situation to a peaceful close, but what I do know is it seems we here in the United States are oblivious to the fact that we are at war and lives are being lost.

Yellow magnet ribbons and “we support our troops” bumper stickers are all fine.

However, they are moneymakers and every gas station in America, if they were honest, would tell you that. The people mass-producing those in China could care less about the effects of this war on our nation and those selling them.

They should be giving them away.

Look at the numbers. Each year, each month, we lose a higher number of soldiers than in the previous one and no one is reporting on it.

I challenge The Northerner to be a beacon, a leader. Begin a weekly spotlight on this war and the lives lost in it. Search out families in Ohio and Kentucky who have lost children, fathers or mothers to this war and spotlight them. Put a face on this war. Show those who have died. Share with your readers their lives and how dearly they are missed.

Spotlight how many deaths there have been since the last publication, how many soldiers have lost limbs since your last publication and how many innocent Iraqis have died over the last week. Put this in the same place on the front page each week. Put a face on this war.

While you will celebrate the sacrifice and life of an local soldier, I realize this is not happy news. I also realize that some don’t want to see the casualty numbers from this war.

I hear the side that says posting this type of information brings down morale and hurts our troops.

I think the only morale brought down is that of the individuals reading the information and my feelings on that is, if these young men and women, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters can give their lives in this war, we should be able to recognize the lost and celebrate as many of their lives as we can.

One day this war will be over. It won’t be soon enough.

Christopher Boggs NKU Alumni SGA President 1999-2000