Why Again?

The tragedy of Virginia Tech.'s massacre is further proof that something is terribly amiss in our culture where thirty-two innocent people can be summarily executed as compensation for angst and a sense of emasculation. One man killed more people yesterday on a single college campus than the total number of people who will die at the end of a handgun in all of Australia, an island nation with a population of thirty million. As a parent, I see acts like this less as statistical and more as the terrible acts they are when I watch my son eat his dinner in his highchair, look up at me and say he loves me. God help the families and us, as this will happen again. And again.

Interesting how something sensational such as this can drown out the rest of the entire world's news. Darfur? Wolfowitz at the World Bank? Sectiarian division in the Iraqi government that threatens U.S. presence and stability in the region. Just what in hell is happening with Iran? Are both nations really itching for such a war? What we continue to see is that hawks in both nations, controlling the press and militaries of both governments, are pushing the people of both nations to the precipice of war. War will happen; it will simply be a matter of when. Before Bush leaves? I can see the neocons wetting themselves over the chance of seeking revenge at Iran for the Reagan-era sins and the cynics that are trying to set the nation up for disaster on the 21st of January, 2009. Am I that paranoid? Look at our five-year record...

Dennis Kucinich is considering drawing up impeachment charges against Vice President Dick Cheney. Couldn't happen to a more deserving person, but our fine Congressman from the fine state of Ohio needs to remember that this could come back to hurt the Democrats in a year and a half. Besides, don't we really wish to just sweep the current administration under the rug and pay more attention to the marathon horse race that the 2008 campaign is becoming? Who would think of such a plan? Let's have all the candidates throw down early, raise hundreds of millions of dollars, ratchet up cynicism and fatigue among voters who see what elections are really about, ignore current problems and allow the status quo to cement itself for another eighteen months. Rove?

On the homefront, my wife continues to swell with babies and I'm betting that we won't make it to the end of the month. My son's thrilled. I'm scared. My wife's ready. Our minivan's packed.