Around the Nation

11:09 am

Wed September 11, 2013

Do Americans Feel A Responsibility To Act In Syria?

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Later in the program, we'll hear from author MK Asante. He is a professor and an award-winning poet. And now he's written an explosive new memoir about growing up in Philadelphia with violence and drugs all around but also a love of words and ideas. That's later. First, though, we want to continue our conversation about Syria. President Obama addressed the nation last night. He talked about why America should be prepared to use force in Syria after two years of trying to address the conflict there through diplomacy.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The situation profoundly changed though on August 21 whenAssad's government gassed to death over a thousand people, including hundreds of children.

MARTIN: And we just heard from Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who's become a leading voice against U.S. military strategy. For our next conversation, though, we wanted to hear about conversations happening outside the nation's capital - at kitchen tables, town hall meetings, school houses around the country - so we've called three newspaper editors. Tod Robberson is editorial writer for The Dallas Morning News. Dana Coffield is city editor at The Denver Post. Suzanne McCabe is editor-at-large at Scholastic News in New York City. Scholastic is a news outlet that produces stories by and for school-age K-12 students. Thank you all so much for joining us.

DANA COFFIELD: Thanks for having us.

TOD ROBBERSON: Thanks for