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Friday, September 14, 2001

Another string of songs, a perfect trifecta if you ask me, set me off on an emotional binge heading south on MoPac today. On 101.5, a normally hard-to-heavy rock/alternative station played back-to-back-to-back:
U2 -- I don't know the name, but it's off the new album, and essentially is "Stuck in the Moment, and You Can't Get Out of It"
Live -- "Lightning Crashes"
REM -- "Everybody Hurts"

Then the DJ quoted the Golden Rule from all the major religions, including Islam, each essentially saying "Treat others the way you want to be treated". And that's true.

But, later, after reading several other news clippings, posts, arguments and emails, I thought of something else. It's as easy to say "I wish everyone would just get along; I wish there was world peace" as it is to say "We should bomb the bastards back to hell." The difficult part is trying to know when you actually have to stand up and fight, and perhaps die for your beliefs. These terrorists believed they were at that point with us -- so what is our response? Is this one of those time that we HAVE to fight? Because sometimes you have to -- HAVE TO -- fight. The colonists HAD to fight the British, or we wouldn't be a country right now; as isolationist as the US was trying to be, once Pearl Harbor was bombed, we HAD to join WWII, which ended up eventually turning the cause from the Axis to the Allies, and turning the US into the global superpower (but now, not quite as invulnerable as a "superpower" might be believed to be).

I'm not arguing one way or the other regarding our immediate situation, because it's so difficult to pull ourselves out of the 'now' and look at it objectively. But I think this point is inescapable: you can try diplomacy, you can try sanctions, you can try empathy, you can try understanding, and you can try everything else, and hopefully a combination of all that will eventually work. But at some point there is only one answer left, and that answer is force, that answer is violence, that answer is war. It's tragic, but true. You cannot let yourself (as a person or as a country) be weakened to the point of serious injury or death and not stand up and fight back.
3:46:27 PM

Wednesday, September 12, 2001
I have never been at such a loss for words in my life. I can't come close to explaining how I feel: anger, sorrow, rage, astonishment, none of these words even come close. And music is continually setting me off in tears: Congress singing God Bless America on the steps of the Capitol last night, hearing KGSR play "American Tune" with Willie Nelson on vocal and Paul Simon on guitar ("Well I'm Allright, I'm Allright"). Jesus. I'm not, and I probably won't be for awhile. But, it's getting better. And it will get a lot better when we catch the bastards who set this up.
10:40:21 AM

Tuesday, September 11, 2001
God help us.
9:38:25 AM

Thursday, September 06, 2001
Oh, and that stuff about vegetarians was a joke. I love vegetarian friends. It's great. When appetizers come, they get the celery and I get the buffalo wings. When the entree comes, there's always more seconds of steak, burgers, chicken and fish. It's a win-win baby!
10:23:07 AM
I don't freaking believe this! A little over a month ago, we were in first place and looked to cruise into the World Cup. Now it looks like we need two solid wins, or we aren't going -- the US could miss the World Cup after Going 4-0-1 in their first 5 qualifiers. Come on guys! The only good news is that our last two opponents have little or nothing to play for, Trinidad-Tobago is mathematically out, and Jamaica is a hair's breadth from being out. But, still, it shouldn't have to come to this.
10:21:54 AM

Wednesday, September 05, 2001
With "Friends" like these . . .
BJ is becoming a vegetarian.
Matt and Jake haven't posted in months, and
Greg, well, Greg's the most problematic -- You are not authorized to view this page!!! What the hell kind of friend is that? ;-)
I guess you really can't go home again.
4:43:50 PM

Tuesday, September 04, 2001
Lots of stuff to publish from our Wisconsin trip. Highlights:
* The Huttons and the Johnsons are two of the nicest families ever. Great fun for four straight days, meticulously planned and expertly crafted. I really had a blast.
* My mom is a great baby-sitter. It felt so good to just drink, laugh, and have fun without worrying constantly about Jack. (We worried sometimes, but not constantly; well, maybe not worried, but we sure missed him; he's a great little guy -- SIDE NOTE: Jack's first day of daycare was today. I think Mama took it pretty hard (a little waterworks was reported to me by Miss Peggy, Jack's daycare provider) but he's got two foxy mamas sharing the room with him, Alissa and Emmie, both about two months old. So I hope Jack likes younger women. He was fussy, but he always is in his first days at a place. He's going to really like it I think in a day or two. So many fun kids.
* God wants his churches air-conditioned. He told me so when I was hallucinating from dehydration at the front of this church, sweating bullets, but smiling. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but it was definitely hot. And a three-piece, wool tuxedo does nothing to help the heat.
* I won the prize for shortest drive in the golfing contest. It went about 30 yards, beating Dan Lambe by about 4 feet. I was proud of it -- some people didn't win anything. Oh sure, it's not a sexy victory, but a victory just the same.
* Related note: I am not a good golfer. Wow. I mean really. I thought I was getting better. I'm not. Ugh. Really horrendous.
* At the wedding reception, they had a neat tradition where instead of clinking glasses to get the bride and groom to kiss, your table had to serenade them with a love song. My table began it, did another in the middle, and finished it. I mean really finished it. As in potentially finishing the tradition to anyone who heard it. Here was our playlist:
1st -- Summer Loving, from Grease
2nd -- I'm a Believer, by the Monkees, now heard in the film Shrek
3rd (and this was several glasses of champagne and wine into the evening) -- A medley: (a) The first stanza of "The Rose", then we blew out our individual candles from the table, paused, then (b) "Like a Virgin", and to wrap it up "Baby Got Back" -- the refrain, uttered many a time by my good friend Kip Dokken over the years, "I like Big Butts and I cannot Lie." Yeah. So ended the singing. Then we danced. And we probaby beat that to death too. Remember how good a golfer I am -- I'm about as good a dancer. Except I sweat a lot more dancing.
Probably more stories to come, I'm just having a mind-freeze right now.
4:30:59 PM