The tragedy this week was so great that I made a concsious decision early on not to let world and national events shape this page. Apart from comments in the blog, here, this place should be a refuge from the real world.

I have to admit I was sorely tempted to gray out the site the other day. But then I realized that would be like helping to erect a wall of tragedy all around us. We shouldn't be in a position where we have to face the sadness at every turn.

Unfortunately, I continue to be a bit under the weather. I tried forcing myself to stay up late to finish this strip, but just couldn't do it. After I went to sleep, I jarred awake in the middle of the morning, from a nightmare that forced me to relive watching the inhuman attack on thousands of men, women, and children.

This week I've also unfortunately been troubled by the growing realization that there is a significant number of people on the web who hate me. And when I say me, I say me as a citizen of the United States. Among other monsterous things, they say the US had it coming. By that, they're saying that I had it coming. For the US is nothing more than the sum of its people, of whom I am one. We live, we dream, we work, we play... and we pray for a better world, and are proud that many resources from this rich land go to try to relieve the plagues which have bedevilled this world since the beginning of time.

But we seem to be repaid in many quarters by hatred and contempt. This is infuriating to a citizen of a land most committed to freedom and humanity. We preach democracy while bloody dictators convince their followers that we are oppressors.

Watching men, women and children dancing, cheering, and clapping for joy over the death of thousands of innocent people is a spectacle that will never leave me. The fact that many people I thought I knew online have been doing the same will not either.

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