The Justaposition of day to day living

In conversation with an American tourist and his wife travelling around Cape Spear, the most easterly point of North America.....He voted for Bush twice, but is beginning to have a wee bit of a doubt. Condemns Cindy Sheehan for "betraying" her son. He was a military man himself. Somehow I don't think this is the average American. I met a few at the beginning of July who travel through the USA all the time and everybody they talked to in casual conversation, and there were thousands, did not vote for the moron. They honestly felt the 2004 election was rigged from the get-go. No audit trail. And what is this Electoral College business anyway? Why don't they shift to the parliamentary system and put a ceiling on the amount you can spend in campaigning? Why isn't there a Question Period? No system is perfect. But some are more perfect than others and work for the people and not the corporations.

My back door is being replaced here and I look at the framework of the house, the very bones of it, so to speak, and am amazed at the simple way it was constructed. Built to last. The diagonal boards fitted tightly so nothing would warp or shift. The house stays perfectly straight and has for a very long time. I cannot imagine in a million years this safe dwelling being bombed beyond recognition and yet this is what is happening in Iraq on a daily basis. I contrast my life here with a report out of Baghdad, there were 1100 bodies admitted to the morgue yesterday, some destroyed beyond recognition. They were built to last too. And now they are piled one on top the other, over a hundred of them women, nearly all of them innocent bystanders. Bringing freedom to Iraq. Destruction and grief. I mentally put myself in their shoes, living in fear all the time, looking suspiciously at every one....imagining a bomb coming out of nowhere and taking my world away. It is unconscionable that we are visiting this horror on another country we have no business being in while sitting in comfort and security thousands of miles away.