Jason, I was wondering if the reason you were not posting over the summer was because you were asking yourself questions about "war and laughter?" And if it took you that summer time to figure it out? Or was it just a heavy workload elsewhere?

'Cause I know that kind of feeling - where you become stationary and well, you're not helpless - you just...know that it won't matter if you speak up, or write, or try to change things because things won't budge.

This is home, there is nowhere to run. We can't leave. We can't let go. I won't choose to, "get busy dying", ever. But how can man live in this state of not quite emergency not quite order? It pulls on the soul and tears inside, and I don't have an answer; not knowing pulls at me even harder. I know that I've never been happier. But when I lie down to sleep, that happiness turns to sadness, because I know that things aren't changing and our governments are truly getting busy dying, moment by moment, cave-in by cave-in, in the name of appeasement. Our representatives need to understand that the ultimate appeasement our *enemies* seek is national suicide; our annihilation. And that every so called "step forward to peace" they give to terrorists, to militant Islam, to Iraq, to Iran, to Saudi Arabia and their underground cronies, is a step they take towards our own destruction.

Terror fears life as most others fear death.

Editor's Note: I wasn't writing for several months for two reasons. In my day job, I'm now managing a department, and to actually get stuff done and manage people is damn time-consuming. But the main reason for not writing is sort of what you were guessing. Part of it is the feeling that what one says will have no impact on what our idiotic government is going to do. But the main part is what I wrote in this editorial. As a writer, or should I say thinking human being, I'm only interested in writing something that isn't obvious. Most of the time, anything that can be written about this non-war is, or should be, obvious to anyone with a brain. (Read almost any columnist, even a good one, and ask yourself if you've learned anything.) Trying to convince people why they shouldn't sink the boat isn't something I'm interested in, even if I'm sitting in it next to them. I will gladly curse them off, but I'm not going to stoop so low as to treat them as reasoning human beings. The sad thing is, the longer the time that has passed since September 11, the easier it is for me to write. Although I'm far from complacent, it's easier to write when you don't feel the need to watch the news 24/7 just to make sure NYC is still around. An absence of attacks gives even me the illusion of safety. Of course, the reality is that the chances of another attack actually increase with each passing day. (JR)

November 1, 2002 at 01:20:43