I just got through reading Riverbend's blog again. Then I went to yahoo and was taking a spin through the headlines for today. That led me to the Asia Times and an article entitled The West in an Afghan mirror By Spengler. As I was reading through Spengler's article on why Islam and Christianity are the same yet different one thought kept pounding through my mind. People are idiots.

I'll wait for someone to correct me if I'm wrong but in all religions doesn't the story start with 'and that God made man' yada yada yada? I realize we live in a predominantly patriarchal society and most of the time it's the women that do the majority of the house work but DoH! If I go through and make dinner (make people) then the kids come through and throw dinner all over the floor (kill the people I just made) I'm going to be a little pissed.
As an adult (God) I'm perfectly capable of throwing dinner to the dogs (tossing people into hell) and don't need the kids (terrorists) jumping the gun.
God is about creation. All the religious idiots in the world spend so much time worrying about what 'God' wants and don't stop to realize if he doesn't like what is happening he can change it. We (people) are superfluous in what God wants or needs. By the very definition the being that comprises God is all powerful. Human weaknesses are not part of his make-up.
Any one individual that stands up in front of a mass of people and screams that 'God wants!' is nothing more than a self centered moron.
The Islamic radicals that kill people and then scream they've done it for Allah need a dose of humility. They are no more or less important to 'God' than anyone else on the planet. If God wants a person dead he's got natural disasters, cancer, AIDS, you name it, it's in his arsenal and he can use it as he sees fit. His arsenal makes our armories look pathetic.
For all those that kill in the name of God? At least be honest about it and admit that you are nothing more than murderous sociopaths that hide behind some grand religious calling to commit your foul deeds.
In Christianity and Islam one of the rules that's set forth very clearly is that 'Thou shalt not kill'. Quit picking and choosing which rules you like and which you don't. Quit lying about your motivations for killing. God has nothing to do with it. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when you do die and have to explain to the man upstairs why you commit atrocities and then consecrated them with his name. I doubt he's gonna be pleased.

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"In the face of continued reports about killings and reprisals, I understand how some Americans have had their confidence shaken," Bush told the City Club of Cleveland. "Others look at the violence they see each night on their television screens and they wonder how I can remain so optimistic about the prospects of success in Iraq. They wonder what I see that they don't."


Newsflash. We're not wondering what you see that we don't. We're wondering when your going to admit your own incompetence and get the hell out of the way so someone can clean up your mess.

We've heard all about how the war in Iraq is over and we've won. What was that, two or was it three years ago? Oh yeah, we also heard about how Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Let's not forget when we heard about what close friends he and Osama are. About how Saddam had a major part in 9 / 11.

We've heard all about how the Patriot Act is making us safer; all the while you leave our borders undefended against any terrorist that wants to come on in. Plus, let's not forget how you wanted to turn our ports security over to a nation that finances the very terrorists that flew passenger jets into the World Trade Towers. Yup, Mr. President, we've heard about all of that.

We've heard all about how Iraq is such a safer, better place, how democracy will flourish there. How the Iraqi people love us and are so grateful that we liberated them from the monster that was friends with Osama and had helped him kill 3000+ people in New York.


Unfortunately for you we have the Internet. So we can go read Riverbend's blog http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/. The one where we find out that common, everyday people that live in Baghdad hate our guts because we've destroyed the infrastructure of their country, turned neighbor against neighbor, and taken a country with a secular ruler and turned it into a hotbed of religious fanatics all jostling for control. A country where women actually had some rights and were allowed higher education and we've handed it to religious idiots that want to turn back time to the dark ages.


Thanks George. That's just what we needed to round out the world's view of us as total morons. As far as what you see that we don't? It's called hallucinations. Or maybe your actually residing in a different dimension than the rest of us. Or could it possibly be that during one of your trips home to the ranch you got into some funny looking mushrooms? I've heard those can cause some really colorful hallucinations. Why don't you do all of us in the world a favor. Round up the two functioning brains cells you have and go home. Stay there. Go play with your cows and your horses and leave thinking to those that have more than two operational brain cells. Idiot.

Iraq is a mess. From all the different news articles I've read there's a sense of fast approaching doom in all but the most delusional quarters. Families are stockpiling food and weapons in preparation for a civil war that's already started. Even though George W. swears it's not going to happen.

Saddam Hussein was an iron fisted dictator but he did keep the peace in the streets of Iraq. We've been over there for three years come March the 20th and it's degenerated into a generalized brawl between Shiite and Sunni, one brigade against another. There is a general lack of public services such as basic sanitation and electricity. Iraq sits on top of the second largest reserve of oil in the world and yet there isn't enough fuel to power generators or automobiles.

The divisions between the Sunni and the Shiite have become a gaping chasm that Iraq teeters on the brink of. It's a powder keg that needs only a match to explode. And we're stuck. Or rather the United States army and it's people are stuck.

George W. Bush will only be in office another two years, God help us all, American and Iraqi both, but he's created a culture of fear and death in Iraq that we will be honor bound to try and fix. We are the cause of this, George Bush led and we followed him. But he's going to be able to skip off stage in another two years and leave us holding the bag. Where will he be then I wonder? Probably in Texas counting the millions he's made from Halliburton, vacationing in Aruba or weaseling his way into stirring up more crap to make himself and his cronies more money.

A country needs an identity, a sense of something common shared. At this point the only thing Iraqi's have in common is a general distrust of and disgust with Americans. How can you build a national identity from hate?

If America and American's had spent the last ten plus years under sanctions that prevented us from getting even the most basic of medical supplies in high enough quantities then were plunged into a chaos of invasion and civil war would we be any different? I doubt it. Humans all have the same basic needs and desires. Food, shelter, medical care, a decent standard of living, and protection for themselves and their families from harm. If you are faced on all fronts with people that want the same and think they have to take it from you to have it, then they will try and take it. It's just human nature. Who wouldn't kill or die to protect their families?

I do not understand the Iraqi peoples inability to united in the face of a common threat. We've been where they are. It was called the Revolutionary war. England was meddling in our affairs and we wanted them to stop. So we united and gave them the boot. Then we wrote our Constitution and Bill of Rights, elected representatives and got down to the business of governing ourselves.

The Iraqi's on the other hand seemed to have contracted a serious case of the screaming ME ME's. It's not enough to set up IED's to try and blow up American's. They also have to kill each other for some bizarre reason. What happened to 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'? Is that saying not the same in Iraq as it is here?

Most importantly how is American going to clean up her mess? To date our housekeeping skills really suck. The good news is that we only have two more years to tolerate George W. but the bad news is we'd better get busy quickly trying to figure an honorable way to eat the chaos omelet we've made in Iraq.

Oh happy day! NOT. I'm skimming the headlines this morning and it's just about curdled the cream in my coffee. Let's see, so far we have, KBR in Iraq not purifying the water for our troops as they were paid to do. (Gee why hasn't Georgie dear arrested THEM for terrorism?) Then we have the NSA that investigates anti-war groups for their pacifism. I think I'm missing something. They investigate pacifist groups? I thought we were supposed to be watching out for the guys with big guns, big bombs, and commercial passenger jets. But nooo, let's waste our time on groups that peacefully protest the death, imperialism, and lies that will meet the three year mark on March the 20th.


Is anyone else out there taking a look at all the different things that have gone on since we invaded Iraq and saying 'DoH' have I missed something? The missing link, so to speak, is the line of BS we've been fed over why we're doing such a horrific thing.


It doesn't have a darned thing to do with terrorism. Or weapons of mass destruction. Or even with George W. Bush wanting to avenge his 'daddy'. It has to do with money. Plain and simple. BushCo is making lots and lots of money. Heck the oil companies are reporting windfall profits even though oil is at an all time high per barrel. To the point that our federal government is investigating them. Plus, let's not forget Halliburton. They ran right up to the Presidential podium with their greedy, grubby little money mongering hands out screaming poppa may I? And of course, being the benevolent SOB that he is George W. smiled and forked over the dough.


Watching all of this I can understand why terrorists do it. I mean if I weren't so determinedly pacifistic myself I might sit here and daydream about the White House blowing up while Bush, Rummy, Rice, Cheney, and all the other neocon ass wipes were sitting in it. But since two wrongs do not make a right (I've always hated integers don't you?) Instead I sit and daydream about all of the people responsible for this travesty standing trial on murder charges. Losing all of their ill gotten gains. Having to stand for public humiliation and censure.


Then the phone rings and I'm reemerge back into reality and get grumpy as hell. It will never happen. The best we can hope for is to survive until we get George W. out of the White House and then try to elect someone with a brain to straighten out this mess he's made. And we let him! We didn't take to the streets in high enough numbers to protest this train wreck he's driving us into. If all of our representatives and congressmen had been made to understand that we would NOT reelect them if they didn't stop this they would have done something. They don't want to lose their jobs.

How many of us out there were to busy to even write a letter? How many of us don't watch the news or read the headlines because 'there's nothing I can do and it upsets me?' All it would take would be one letter from every household in this country every week to every congressman and senator and it would all come to a screeching halt. Our representatives don't seem to have any backbone so we need to be their backbone. Write letters every week against the Iraqi war, about what he's doing to our national parks and the environment in general, against our unprotected borders, against the way George W. Bush is selling out our country to the highest bidder. Just do SOMETHING.

Spring appears to be springing here, the trees are getting leaves, and the wind has that warm smell I always associate with things coming back to life after their winters rest. Instead of reveling in the worlds reawakening I'm glued to my computer monitor trying not to cry at the headlines. I've never lived in a war zone before, unfortunately I have the ability to imagine it. I guess empathy would come closest to describing it. I have to much of it.


I read Riverbend's blog and can taste the fear the people in Baghdad live with daily. It's such a mess. Our kids in uniform over there joined the armed forces to see the world and get an education. To defend their country and their loved ones. Instead they are faced with a kill or be killed situation not of their making. Neither did the Iraqi people ask for this. It's like they've taken two little kids and put them in a room together with weapons and said 'okay their bad and you have to hate them and try to kill them now.' For no reason.


Can you imagine what it would be like to go to bed at night, thinking your safe and secure in your bed to be awoken by the sounds of bombs dropping? Or the sound of booted feet stomping through your house looking for rebels? Thinking you might be one. Knowing that even if your not the court systems aren't set up equitably and they have the power to haul you away from the family you feel the need to protect?

Now switch sides and how would you feel being thousands of miles away from home in a dark street, with your weapon drawn, expecting at any moment to maybe be blown up by an IED? Knowing that you are about to storm into a family's house. Not knowing if the occupants might have weapons, probably have weapons, and might be part of one of the terrorist organizations that are springing up like weeds in very fertile soil.

Or God forbid, what about our guys that have ten year old rebel fighters come at them? It's definitely a kill or be killed situation but how in God's name are they going to get that picture out of their minds? Ever.

You join the armed services in this country thinking that you are going to make a difference. No matter how small, you'll be doing your part for freedom and democracy, and keeping our country safe. Once your in you are at the mercy of the federal government. There are no outs. You do what you are told without question. So what do you do when they put you on a plane to Iraq and them tell you to shoot rebels? But, oh yeah, they're not altogether certain whose a rebel and whose not, so maybe you should shoot and then again you might be wiping out a perfectly nice person who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Oh, let's not forget the fact that three years after the invasion of Iraq we now know that Georgie boy lied to get our guys over there. So now not only are you not sure your shooting the right people, your positive your not.

Iraq didn't have anything to do with the destruction of the Twin Towers. The self admitted instigator of that attack was Osama Bin Laden, whom our President gave a head start to. It was two months after the invasion of Afghanistan before Special Forces troops were put on the ground. If he really wanted the master mind of the destruction shouldn't Bush have sent Special Forces in FIRST to extract the butt wipe? Then sent regular troops in to do a mop up? Looks like a child's game of hide and seek to me. George turned around to face the tree and didn't peek while he counted to one hundred....gazzilion. Then started looking for Bin Laden.

In my dreams I see George W. Bush standing in a court room listening as the jury comes back with a guilty on all counts. As the head juror stands and hands the list to the baliff who then hands it off to the judge, I'm so excited I can't sit still in my seat.

'The jury finds the defendant guilty of:

1)Lying to the American people to garner support for an illegal war.
2)Murdering uncountable thousands of innocent Iraqi people.
3)Murdering American military men and women.
4)Embezzling tax payers dollars to companies that make he and his family money.
5)High treason
6)Putting the American public in danger by striping our country of needed civil services
7)Putting the American public in danger by leaving our borders undefended.
8)Destroying our economy and plunging thousands into poverty.
9)SELLING OUT OUR COUNTRY TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER!
10)The murder of New Orleans citizens who died when the levies failed.
11)The murder of American citizens who died in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when no federal help was sent.
12)The attempted destruction of the American Constitution which is NOT 'A GODDAMNED PIECE OF PAPER'!



Of course my second favorite dream is the sentencing portion of the above mentioned trial. When the Judge looks down his nose at the human pile of crap standing before him and intones, 'Death by firing squad'. Dear old George is in such a hurry to send people around the world to play with bullets that I think he should get his chance as well. It's too bad you can't kill people more than once. I'd like to see him executed several times.

1)Firing squad once
2)Beheaded with a rusty knife once
3)Have a bomb dropped on him once.
4)Drop him in a vat of acid once.
5)Starved to death once
6)Burned to death once
7)Raped to death once
8)Drowned
9)Tossed into a hurricane



Well I'm sure you all get the picture. All the different ways you can die in a war or a hurricane. I want for him to have to experience them all. Not as punishment, oh no. He unrehabilitable. (Is that even a word?) I want him to have to go through all that as a warning to all future politicians. That would send a very clear message to all the power mongers in the world. Keep your corruption within reasonable limits, don't use human life as currency.......or else.

including George W. Bush & Osama Bin Laden


I interrupt your regularly scheduled prayerfest with an important news bulletin from God, and Allah. Hence forth in this bulletin the dual tag team of Allah and God will be referred to as AG, or GA in the interests of fairness.


To all of you religious fanatics out there.

1)What part of 'Thou shalt not kill' and 'If anyone has killed one person it is as if he had killed the whole mankind ' did you misunderstand? George dear, I realize that you are mentally challenged but I did write those ten buggers for those of you that are incapable of thought. No offense intended George, but having you as a Warrior for Good is the biggest oxymoron I've seen since I made you people. As for you Osama, the Devil says not to worry he'll have you and George set up side by side when you arrive. It is his steaded opinion that breaking up such an incredible team of misery makers would be a mistake. (You should feel honored. I think he's going to go easy on you guys in exchange for ideas. Just think. He's going to stick you in the same section as Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Attila the Hun, and several of the more famous serial killers.)


2) 'Thou shall not steal', 'As for the thief, male or female, cut off his or her hands', Newsflash! Killing is stealing life. Don't do it. Oh yeah, George, taking taxpayers money and funneling it to companies that make you and yours money? That's stealing too. We don't like it.

3)'Thou shall not commit adultery ', 'Do not come near adultery. It is an indecent deed and a way for other evils '. We think we understand where the confusion occurred with this one. So let us clear it up. Screwing the entire world for your gain IS adultery. Don't do it. We don't like it.

4)'Thou shall not lie or give false testimony ', 'They invoke a curse of God if they lie', Allah convinced me that his cursing idea was a pretty darned good one. His vote was to tie both of your dicks in a knot, in the hopes that you'd be so busy trying to untie them that you'd stay out of trouble for awhile. (Don't worry Georgie I told him you don't use yours anyways, so he went with my idea). So, no worries mates, we're going to turn them inside out instead. That way you can experience the physical sensation of screwing yourselves silly.


5)'Thou shall not covet thy neighbors ', ANYTHING. Don't Covet. Coveting is bad. It's bad for you, bad for them, bad for us all. 'Do good to your parents, relatives and neighbors ', Yo, Osama? Knock it off. Georgie boy IS your neighbor. Like it, lump it, but get over it.

Now that we've covered the basics we'll move right along to move complex matters.

1)SHUT UP! You two are not us. You are Georgie and Osama. You do not speak for me or for Allah and we're sick of you saying you do. That's called fraud and if you don't watch your step we're going to call the Devil to represent us in a slander suit against the two of you. You've been warned.
2)George we've decided to take pity on the people of the world that have television and are subjected to having to watch you on it. You've been enrolled in a public speaking class and we've hired tutors for you. They assure us they can explain words of more than one syllable to you. Or at least get you to pronounce them properly.
3)Osama, you are hereby put on notice that not only do your suicide troopers NOT get seventy-two virgins but they don't even get to come here.

Now as far as the rest of you go. If you actually believe anything Osama and Georgie tell you then Allah and I are going to do a mass recall. We were positive we put brains in all models but we're beginning to second guess ourselves there.

Mainstream media? Allah and I have a special notice for you. You aren't doing your jobs at all. So in an effort to get you moving? We've designed a special suppository to get you off your asses. We call them our 'wake up and look alive' special. The main ingredient is Icy Hot muscle rub. Enjoy.

Further notices will be forwarded as needed. Don't make us come down there.

I was reading over the first post I put up here and realized that I wasn't finished with the thought processes that were occurring on the United States being a playground bully. You will forgive me, I hope, for using our school system in this example. As a mother of two the school systems we have here are top on my list of THINGS WE SHOULD HAVE SPENT OUR TIME AND ENERGY ON instead of killing Iraqis and our own young people.


The one rule that is the same in all of our schools is an intolerance for violence. No exceptions, no time outs, absolutely no violence. It doesn't matter if your walking through the lunch room and you get jumped by five other kids, if you strike back even once, in self defense, to get them off of you, you get suspended too. You are considered just as culpable as the instigators.


If I strain really hard and give myself a whopper of a headache I can almost see the reasoning behind this. Then the headache fades, reason returns and I'm back to snorting my derision under my breath. I'm slow and fat at this point in my life but by gosh if someone jumps me and I can't get away I'm going to hit them somewhere tender, really hard. At least then I might have a chance to get away long enough to call the cops.


We teach our children from kindergarten through twelfth grade that violence is wrong. Hell even in our banks and stores the employees are told that if someone tries to rob them to just let the criminal take what they want, don't fight back. Women are told not to fight their rapists. If they just lay there then they might not kill them. So how, in this culture of non-violence, did we go from 'don't fight back', to 'Saddam maybe, we think, might, well there are mobile chemical labs, have weapons of mass destruction and we think, maybe, he might, well you know, be friends with Osama Bin Laden and therefor he's part of 9/11.' ?


I pride myself on being fairly intelligent and headache or no headache I can't come close to finding the logic behind this. We go from don't fight to let's kill them all? Who defines 'them'? Well let's see. That would be the iddgit in the White House and his posse of imbeciles. Except they aren't as stupid as they look. They're actually smart like a fox.


No one is making any money off the Iraqi oil fields, but what happens when you take a precious commodity and make it scarce? Or fix it so there's less to go around? You got it, what is available becomes more expensive. Much more expensive. Who does that benefit? Why bless my soul. I believe it would be the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia. The very same royal family that the Bush family is so chummy with. The same family that has been the Bush's own private bank for how many years now?


As Michael Moore so eloquently phrased it in his documentary 'who ya gonna love'? The people that pay you four hundred thousand a year to be their President or the people that have paid you umpteen billions of dollars to watch their backs for years? The clip that was played in that documentary of George W. Bush speaking at some dinner, telling the attendees that 'Most people call you guys the Have's and the Have More's but I just think of you as my base,' to approving laughter has made me ill. Doesn't that illustrate exactly how he thinks of the rest of us? We are all expendable. Morals are expendable, ethics? What are those?


The truly sad thing is that the American people that can still tolerate the sight and sound of the man honestly think it's just the welfare folks that Bush has no use for. Or the 'working poor', or anyone who makes less money than they do. What they don't realize is that if you don't have enough money to pad his pockets you're cannon fodder. If you can't come across with the green then you might as well help him make money by dying, or killing to create the chaos he seems to need to get even richer.


Hurricane Katrina painted an accurate picture of our Commander in Chief. The Have's and the Have More's were already out of the area. The rest of the poor souls trapped in the toxic sludge bowl that was New Orleans didn't have anything to offer him. So they drowned in their homes, sat on roofs in the heat, died from lack of medical care, or died in the super dome from the violence and lack of sanitation.


We have a President that flatly doesn't care. He doesn't care if we live or die, as long as we don't cost him any money. The 'blank check' that congress gave him for the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan went directly to companies that make his family and friends money. He did not and doesn't not care if Saddam has weapons of mass destruction. He did not and does not care if Saddam had anything to do with 9/11. That has been proven by the testimony given by various CIA personnel after the attacks took place. They tried to tell him who did it and he didn't want to hear. They were issued presidential orders to find a connection between Osama Bin laden and Saddam.


The more I read and research the more sick to my stomach I become. What George W. Bush is doing is the biggest, most publicly blatant example I have ever seen of embezzlement of public funds and it just keeps going.


Set up a war. Go to war. Take tax payers dollars that were meant to educate our children, provide public services, fund scientific research to better ourselves and the planet, protect ourselves and funnel them all to family businesses while lying loudly to the people that are working their butts off to try and make a living.


'Let them eat cake' comes to mind right now. To bad no one has had the foresight to set up a guillotine on the White House lawn to remind the Bush family what happens to people like them. Eventually. Personally I say skip the guillotine and simply put him in a room with all the mothers who have lost children in his 'War on Terror'. Give all the mom's nice big sticks and some small very sharp knives and send his Secret Service out for a day long picnic.


Hate is such a counterproductive emotion. I don't like feeling it. When I look at pictures of all the dead women and children in Iraq, when I see the pictures of all our military men and women that have died I hate. I hate George W. Bush and everything he stands for. My fervent prayer every night before bed is 'Dear God, or Allah or whoever is in charge up there, please let that man choke to death on a fish bone SOON!'


The biggest defense our military could give us right now would be to lock that man and all his cronies up and throw away the key. Our biggest enemy is not in Iraq, or Iran, or Afghanistan, or even Saudi Arabia. Our biggest enemy is sitting in the White House.

Friday, March 03, 2006

I haven't been adding to the site as I should. After the last election all my energy seemed to drained out of my body in sheer disbelief and horror. Unbelievably, I actually expected someone else to win. I go to http://www.SorryEverybody.com and read through all the different posts and cry. Really helpful huh? I put off watching Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 for that very reason. I feel like I'm all cried out since 9/11 happened.

On 9/11 our youngest son was being a little boogerhead and didn't want to go to school. (He's painfully shy and got picked on a lot) I took the eldest to school while my husband stayed with the youngest to make him get ready. I got home and we all left for the school again. My husband (Jim) took the youngest to sign him in for school since he was late. I stayed in the truck listening to the radio. While I was sitting there the DJ broke in and announced in very stentorian tones that a small aircraft had just crashed into the World Trade Center.

At the time I just sat in stunned silence. It took a second for me to figure out what was affecting me so intensely. I had a chill running down my spine. Somehow, even then, I knew it wasn't a small aircraft, nor was it an accident. My husband came back to the truck and got in, ready to go. He took one look at my face and knew something was wrong. He started to ask what happened and then the announcer came back on the radio. All I could do was hold my finger up to my lips in the universal sign for 'hush!, be quiet!'. There was no way I could talk around the lump in my throat.

By the time the DJ was through Jim was just as pale and shaken as I was. He looked at me and I finally managed to squeeze words past that knot in my throat. 'Terrorists', I whispered to him. We made the short drive home in silence, waiting for any information the radio could give us. Which wasn't much because things were so crazy.

As soon as we cleared the door I turned on CNN and fell onto the couch. The sight of that tower with smoke billowing out of it made the lump in my throat swell until I thought my neck would burst. Tears started silently streaking down my face instead. I watched the second plane hit. My husband was sitting beside me holding my hand tightly and I felt him flinch. I was seeing in my minds eye all of the thousands of people that were in both of those buildings. As if they were towers of humanity whose skin was so very fragile. Then we heard people off camera crying and getting sick as men and women started jumping from the towers. There was no way down. They didn't want to burn. So the entire country witnessed their last moments as they hit the pavement.

At that point the news anchors started speculating that one plane could be an accident. But not two. I whispered past the lump in my throat again, 'terrorists' I managed to tear my eyes from the horror on the television screen long enough to look at Jim. He was swallowing as if he had his own lump to deal with and could only nod his head in agreement. Once I wasn't watching the T.V screen any longer I was able to talk more easily.

'It doesn't matter whose responsible for this Jim, mark my words, Bush is going to invade Iraq', he nodded again in agreement.

The entire time the news anchors were keeping us up to date. There was a plane heading for the White House, but not to worry our president wasn't there. We'd be better off if he and his cabinet and Cheney had been having conferences in the World Trade Center when it got hit. I know Iraq would be better off. They said a plane hit the Pentagon. Our military headquarters. The mightiest military in the world, and it gets hit by a commercial passenger jet?

First thought? Get the hell out of town. At the time we lived sixty miles from Atlanta, and the CDC. I wanted my children and I wanted another thirty miles between them and the CDC. Of course that put us closer to the nuclear reactor in Savannah, but hey beggars can't be choosers right? Jim went to get the kids and I started packing overnight bags for everyone. I called a friend of mine that lives way out in one of the counties and made arraignments to go out there.

My sense of relief was enormous when we reached Judy's house. Everyone was safe for the moment and we were all together. I still sat in front of the television and cried, but they were tears of guilty relief that everyone I cared about was okay, because OH MY GOD people had jumped from the World Trade Center in New York City. There were people buried alive under a monstrously huge pile of debris. There was a field in Pennsylvania over which the remains of another passenger jet was scattered like a child's forgotten toys. Except we'll never forget. The last phone call from that plane still plays in my mind at inopportune times. 'Let's roll' he said. He being Todd Beamer, Lisa Beamers husband. He knew he was leaving his wife, he had to know he'd never survive. Yet his last contact with Lisa was a positive one. No we won't sit here and let this plane be used against other innocents.

As a nation we lost our innocence on September 11th, 2001, in more ways than one. In our minds and hearts we have felt the impassibility of our borders. No one would ever dream of assailing us on our home ground. Overseas embassy's sure. But not our sovereign nation. No way, that could never happen. Except it did, and we were introduced to the concept of wanting someone to pay for our pain. A dark and writhing monster fighting to free itself from our chests like a bad memory from the Alien movies the pain spawned such nonsensical sayings as 'These colors don't run' next to a picture of the eagle and our flag. Well DoH. Of course we can't run. It happened at home. Where would we run too? Canada? I do think it would be more appropriate to say 'These colors DO charge ahead heedlessly, with no thought or sense.' That would be more apropos.

Then there are all the 'We will remember' pictures that were made. Again, I say, DoH. Kind of hard to forget something of this magnitude. But, Mary mother of God, why couldn't that saying be changed to 'We will remember, AND we will learn.'

We have learned that the rest of the world hates a playground bully as much as we do. We have learned that what we want for ourselves is not necessarily what the rest of the world wants for itself. That the rest of the world has just as much right to self determination as we do. That unprovoked violence has no excuse. That any violence, short of self defense, is unjust, immoral, and just plain wrong. We have learned that invading another country, on the other side of the world is not self defense it is an inexcusable waste of human lives. Ours and theirs.