A Common Enemy

Forest v trees. We all need to pile onto one end of the seesaw thru the elections and then we can scatter into our many respective points of view.

The current administration has been responsible for killing a million innocent people in Iraq. I cannot type that without being sick. I have spent my entire life working to save a mere few thousands of lives, and in the meanwhile, my government has killed a million people. May God forgive us, for the rest of the world will not.

I truly cannot contemplate the NEXT big thing which is aggressive war against Iran. I came into blogging because Washington insiders who opposed Bolton were horrified about this next step that would truly take our country off the cliff.

This administration is responsible for the shredding of our Constitution. The degrading of our planet. The justification of the unthinkable -- torture, the abdication of the Geneva Conventions, and starting a war of aggression. Our country.

Eyes on the prize folks. We have a real enemy in common. We are fighting evil, the Biblical kind of evil. Money versus human lives. Power versus human rights. It is ugly and wrong.

Can we please, please, please get behind the only chance to turn things around in the short term, and then argue the fine points and the frankly hurtful points of division, after we have given it our best effort, our one big push in November?

We need a Democratic president and we need to help elect as many progressive Senators and Congressmen as we can. It is a race against time and a race against insanity. Let us work together to fight against this insanity and not attack each other. There is an enemy, and it is not us -- let's stand together for now and work out the fine points later please? The Germans went down because the left dissolved into bickering factions. Let's do better, ok?

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photo by pagedooley at Santa Monica Beach, one cross for each American killed in Iraq.

Webb and Iraq and Iran

I should be happy about the progress being made in the Senate and House Judiciary hearings, and I am to a point. I fell into a funk considering our military situation. Stepping back from the motherblog, I spent some time thinking about more mundane matters such as lovely children and my new Louboutins. It does not create a balance against the horror but I must try to find joy where possible.

But there are matters of war and peace which are slipping away from us. The Webb amendment to give troops adequate rest before being sent away to get shot at: 56 favored this, 41 against. And that means it passed? Oh no, it failed, because this was a cloture vote. Now we see who -really- supports the troops.

The Webb amendment was a compromise between historical ratios of fighting and rest, which are 2:1 for regular forces and much greater for reserves and guard. The bill would set the ratio at 1:1 for regular forces; current troops are fighting for 15 months and off for only 12. The Senate couldn't agree to 1:1? Who will agree to sign up to fight with no end in sight, for a bogus war begun based on lies about weapons of mass destruction?

It is destroying our reserves and our national guard as well. Someday we might need the guard at home. New Orleans anyone?

Then the Senate passed a bill using very provocative language about IraN, using terms like murder of US troops. This is the kind of step that can lead to more propaganda, falling into war, real war, the kind where the other country might actually strike back against us. And for what? Oil, power, our supposed ally in the Middle East?

Spare me. No, better: spare our troops.

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Setting a good example

Three kinds of good examples today.

My pilates teacher, fellow Cherokee, who is being very brave in handling all things as her husband is in Iraq for a year. Oh yes, and more, as he is being stop lossed. They have a baby who is growing up without dad.

My commenters here at egregiousBlog who are sharing very personal and painful details of their lives. I am in awe. You guys are the greatest. You are inspiring not only me but many others who benefit from your example of courage. Keep up the good work.

A new senator that I had the good fortune to speak with again this evening. He totally gets it about Iraq and Iran, the depletion of our military, the necessity of finding a new way home.

And WHAT is that yellow thing in the sky, seems to be melting the snow?? Is it related to waiting for the jurors in the Libby trial? For those of us who are watching and waiting, everything in the world seems related to the trial.

JUSTICE. And soon please God.
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My ADD interferes with my OCD

True quote from my best friend. We were discussing the joys of being both ADD and OCD when she came up with this gold. Need to think about the implications.

May I ramble on a bit? All right, you say, and in fact necessary to identify a post as being uniquely mine. Not kind of unique, sort of unique, nearly unique, [uniquer--per egSon] thank you lovely children who know this pet peeve. It is either one of a kind or not. Unique or not unique. /rant.

As to rambling, you might think this was the very sign of me posting, rather like looseheadprop's spelling errors at firedoglake. It's how we know it is her speaking.

This lovely friend came over today, as every Friday, to help in whatever way I needed for the Russian Medical Fund work. Today the agenda was to keep the president from quitting. Again. But rather seriously this time.

According to my friend, there are still children who will die without our help, and no one will take my place if I quit [what is WRONG with this world], and I probably am strong enough to keep doing this work. Gratuitous swear word inserted here. I apparently continue to have the obligation and the opportunity to save lives if only I will keep going. So be it. But I hope it's worth the cost.

We operated on a child from Tadzhikistan, who came to us from another center that will remain nameless to protect the guilty. The parents SOLD THEIR HOUSE to pay for his first surgery at the other institution, and they nearly killed him. They at least had the conscience to send him on to us. We did his repair, undoing their strange cutting and pasting, and now he has a chance at a normal life.

I watched the re-do surgery and sat with the mother, who was understandably hysterical, as her son came from surgery to the ICU. I explained to her that the surgery went well, was perfectly normal, yet her son would look strange being under anaesthesia and with tubes sticking into him. We spoke in Russian, which was her second language and mine. Yet as mothers we communicated at a higher level. She trusted me since I too had children.

That's the good news. The bad news: there are people in the city where I work who are actively trying to shut down our program, which saves the lives of 350 children a year.

Why? To bring a trickle of federal money toward their own program, so they can have a small and weak program that kills more patients than they save. They want to expand their own program at the cost of killing ours.

Can you hear my response? Their inability to see beyond themselves is evil.

Yet at some level I am sympathetic. It is always hard to see beyond oneself, or beyond one's own organization. But in this case, for them to succeed, children will die. I WILL RESIST.

My alcohol counselor is unhappy. Better I should withdraw from this struggle and work on my own sanity. What is morally right here?

I have already decided to withdraw from the issue of war and peace between the United States and Iraq/Iran/et cetera, for the benefit aof my sanity. Must I leave my work of 10+ years as well?

Dreams of the future

Talking with one of my children about the future. It makes all those years of peanut butter sandwiches and carpools worth it. Don't ask me about the teenage arguments :)

What they want to do in the future...so many possibilities. Addressing egregious social problems, raising children, making money to provide for a comfortable life, trying to make the world better for the future. How to make all goals work out.

I have to look back with some satisfaction that I have already made these decisions, and for me they worked out. I did have ferrari children [don't ask me about their bipolar/teenage crises], I did make enough money to have a comfortable living, and I have had the privilege to address larger issues i.e. saving the lives of children in Russia while working for peace there.

Making things better here in the US? Slow going. Molasses. Donating/killing brain cells thru alcoholic madness. What the bloody hell---literally---ARE we doing in Iraq/Iran. Are we the Matrix, carrying out the will of another country? I hope I'm wrong.

There are terrorist threats from Iraq and Iran, yes, but for others, not for the United States. What does it mean, "existential threat." I am more sympathetic to that than you might imagine, being depressed, I am all over existential threats. But how does that translate into sending our young men and women into battle?

Mental illness open house. Welcome.

I'm mentally ill, politically active, and increasingly sick due to our war in Iraq/Iran.

Canaries/mine

What's on your mind?