To Earnest, with Love

I am still surprised by my own reaction to footage of the WTC being hit by the planes.  Of course I can remember where I was when it happened and how surreal it was watching the towers, pouring smoke and flame, collapse one, then the other.  The images are still brutal to my psyche.  I can barely stand to watch them, and I usually avoid it. This past Saturday, I made myself watch the replay of actual footage that day.  I don't know why.  Something else went off and the "tribute" came on, and it seemed ... disrespectful ... to turn it off.  So I literally forced myself to watch.  Maybe it's that feeling of powerlessness that I find so overwhelming.  I don't do powerlessness well, though I acknowledge I am not all powerful - just for the record.  But now, every time I see footage of the events leading up to the plane crashes, or the towers crumbling, it's that sense of powerlessness that squeezes my chest.  I know what's coming and I can...

As "Americans", particularly right now, at this moment in hisotry, we need to get our heads around the FACT that it's not enough to just SAY we're great - we actually have to BE great.  Sitting on our increasingly fat asses, espousing ideals that we don't really understand ain't workin'.  And for (fill in your higher-power-of-choice here)'s sake, we MUST start THINKING FOR OURSELVES.  Video may have killed the Radio Star (am I dating myself?) but for sure, it killed critical thinking.  Where are the Smother's Brothers when you need them?

Okay, so this is my first ever blog and I'm suffering somewhat from performance anxiety, but I had a really tough day at work today and need someplace to vent my frustration where there is at least an illusion that someone is listening.  Which is somewhat ironic, since a big part of my frustration arises from way too much talking and head nodding, but little or no action. So, case in point: California Gov. Schwarzenager signed "Chelsea's Law" yesterday which is intended to protect children from violent sex offenders.  Yay, yippee, krunkitola, whatever.  I mean, it's kids and who doesn't want to support a law that protects kids, right? So, fast forward to this morning and I read this article in ESPN mag about an NFL-hopeful who is a registered sex offender and can't get picked up by any NFL teams.  Yay, yippee, serves the scumbag right?  Right ?  So, fast forward to 4 this afternoon and a deputy clerk at the local courthou...