sure, the tsunami was last week, and last year, but the media gets to start the year talking about the destruction still, about the death and the heroic efforts of the united states to help out... a little
we are in the middle of a war, for christ's sake... or is that a war for christ's sake (sans the comma)? can't anybody remember that, and not get upset when we don't immediately offer more monetary aid than every other nation that is poorer than us? i mean, we've got iraqis to save. there's only so many countries we can help at any one time
now, if the indonesians really want our assistance, they should just convince bush and his cronies that the terrorists (that area is one of those supposed terrorist strongholds, still, isn't it?) are acting up. then, we'll send in a bunch of troops, kill a good chunk of the remaining population and start "rebuilding"
of course, it's nice that we're bothering to at least try to do something positive (and that we raised our initial monetary offer tenfold). it's hard to argue against disaster relief
last year ended and some of us are still alive. that's a plus.
bush will be inaugurated (at a cost higher than our initial monetary offer to the tsunami relief, mind you) soon. that's not a plus. iraq will have its election (and, sure it might be "fair" but how fair really? you think the ballots in the more dangerous neighborhoods or the insurgent territories will get some nice security from us (or us backed iraqi) troops?). my birthday's this month, and i still intend to do an all day lord of the rings extended version marathon
i've been writing again (nearly a hundred pages into the rewrite of clubhouse blues and readying in my head for the second gardia novel, lion, horse, tree)
it's the year to be honest and straightforward and to get things done... not that we may ever necessarily know what needs to be done. of course, not knowing has never stopped people in this country before, has it? better to be proactive and wrong than sit back and do nothing...
or, screw both of those options and figure out what needs to be done and do it. if you can, anyway