Death, California Governor, Afternoon Follies In Bhagdad

Death

Working in the hospital you see people die, good deaths, bad death, different yet the same. It is still hard to see a man die who has no family, who suffered so much, who perhaps knew not much human kindness till his last days and from people in a hospital.

Another death, this time of a close nurse friend who was only 62 years old. Someone said that it was not part of the normal course of life, that we expect something else. No to the first, yes to the second. It is a normal part of life, but we don't want to acknowledge the normalcy of death in one so young. She loved to dance in the ER late at night, a young 62, she taught me so much. It is here that I remember her and in my heart and mind.

California Governor

I did not vote for him but obviously he is an intelligent and motivated man. I am embarassed by California, yet am part of the State for a time. I am embarassed by our National Government, yet am part of it in my small way by my very presence on these shores. What angers and distresses me is the bloody outright and sneering rightousness of the Right, the Fascist, the Fundamentalist. I abhor them and denigrate what they do and thier beliefs. I am about as narrow minded or close minded as they are when I start ranting and raving like this. We are on the road to armegeddon, but not the one that they are preaching about in those unintelligent, stupid, trite and ultimately laughable and ridiculous (is that enough for you?) series of books called Left Behind.

Afternoon Follies
Does Bush and his Gang of Four really think they can spin the war on the American People? Of course they can, we lap it up like starved dogs because we cannot begin to believe we might be wrong in our pigheaded and disgusting headlong rush to own, conquer and sell the World. So we begin now, like Vietnam, a quagmire, body counts mounting, soldiers dying for each other, hoping to make it home alive. Is this what America stands for in the Constitution, our Declaration, our Bill of Rights?

We are betrayed by our leaders, betrayed by those on the right, led down the path to destruction by a minority of zealots who are no better than those they condemn of the same. Yet, all I do is rant and rave, speak out against them. If I go to Iraq on a medical mission (always a do gooder), am I perpetuating the problem? Or am I part of the solution by showing my face and learning to love another country? So our country continues to suffer our own problems yet we must continue to assist Iraq, but we need to leave and let them do their own work while continuing to support and ease the pain.

I must leave, I see no option. I am ashamed to be an American and most of the Americans I know hate what is happening to this country. Yet, in the same breath, I feel most Amerians love what is happening and would say to me, "Get the hell out then! This is America, love it or leave it!" So, Facism reigns paramount when dissent and questions are deemed unpatriotic.

What terrifies me the most? Our President's belief that God is with him and that he has divine inspiration. So did the Crusades and the Grand Inquisitors. In the end our Iraq policy will destroy the Bush Government, let us hope it does not destroy America, at least this time around.