caerula's Diaryland Diary

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i'm not anti-American, i'm anti-stupidity

Maybe I'm na�ve, but I really never thought that I would ever live in such utterly frightening times. And I never thought, when I did give it thought, that so many of us could go on so normally in such times. But what else are we to do? I can hope. I can pray. There's nothing else I can do that will make a difference. Except honor those whose lives are not and may never again be "normal" by living my life as normally as a can. On some level it feels wrong, and yet I don't know what else I could possibly do.


I try to be non-political here, but it's difficult when you can't avoid it anywhere else. Of course I have opinions. I'm finding it difficult not to share them here. So can I just say that I'm really tired of the assumption that "anti-war" = anti-military, anti-American, or anti-freedom? That's just ridiculous. There are logical fallacies everywhere on both sides of the war issue, but one of the worst is assuming that because I don't believe this is a just war that should be fought now, in these circumstance, then I must somehow support the regime of a bloodthirsty dictator, and that I think all the American troops should be blown up over there. How ridiculous. Our troops are there, and nothing I think is going to change it, and I am immensely grateful that there are men and women who volunteered to serve our country in the military. I think it's tragic that many of them probably didn't realize they were signing up for this, but they do their jobs anyway, and that is only to be admired.

I tried to convince my dad of this the other day. He keeps forwarding me pro-war propaganda, which I've generally been ignoring, but one of the pieces jerked a response out of me. To which he responded that he thought I was belittling the efforts of our servicepeople and I don't know what he went through in Vietnam. I don�t know, no, because he has made the choice not to talk about it. But I have nothing but respect for the fact that he signed up for the Air Force before he could be drafted, and that he didn't take the easy out. I respect that we will never agree on this subject. And as I responded to him, I respect that there are countless opinions on this new war, and I am willing to respect any of those opinions as long as they are logical and based on fact and thought, not knee-jerk patriotism or hiding behind the flag. Similarly even if someone agrees with my stand on the war, I'm much less likely to respect that opinion if it is followed up with stupid pronouncements about being ashamed of our country or our soldiers because of it. I'm not ashamed of my country. I have, all too often, been ashamed of our president, but that isn't the same thing.

I don't think I convinced Dad of anything, but I felt better for having cleared the air. And maybe he'll stop sending me pro-war rants.


On much less important subjects, albeit vital for my sanity, had a blast last night hanging out with Cyn, watching "Remember the 80s" on VH1 and, of course, American Idol. I have sucked her in! Also pawned off a bunch of my skinny clothes on her skinny butt. At least they will be loved. Adios, skinny clothes. Several of them looked far better on her than they ever did on me. Sigh.

Speaking of skinny clothes, I'm considering joining Curves. There's one fairly close to us, and another set to open soon even closer, on my way home from work. Auntie has talked me into going to check it out with her, so we'll see. It's supposed to be low-impact, etc., and since right now my body is pretty much up for no-impact, I need something. It's not so much the weight, although I'd like to take off another 20 pounds, as it is the strength and feeling-like-shit factor. If I could just feel better, I'd be so happy.

What a mantra. Wouldn't most people be happy if they felt better? Duh.

12:49 p.m. - April 02, 2003

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