Today someone at the University of Texas wrote a letter to the school newspaper stating how they were sick of hearing everyone talking about how good Ann Richards was because they are against the death penalty and while Governor she didn’t stop an execution of some murderer. This, only a few days after her death. I wanted to share with you a letter that I sent in today to this same paper. : “In his letter Quent Reese used the death of governorAnn Richards to make his point about the death penalty being wrong. I can understand how someone could have strong feelings about this subject but how dare he bad mouth such a great lady when so many of us are dealing with her loss. To me Ann Richards was the greatest governor Texas has ever had because she opened the doors of government to all the people. Perhaps he would have preferred Clayton Williams to have won the governors race instead. Remember Clayton Williams? He is the right winger who said that a woman should relax and enjoy it when being raped. Today we have the far left telling us how we should relax and enjoy it when being murdered. This reminded me of when I worked with a bunch of far right republicans at the Center for Electromagnetic. When the news came out about John Lennon being killed there were several of them that couldn’t help but tell me how wonderful they thought it was that he had be murdered, just to make me upset. To the far left and the far right I would just like to say that you have the right to say whatever you like. You are both exactly the same. I can’t help but wonder what makes these people think that they are winning points for there side by kicking us when were down. The answer of course is that they don’t care about winning points. They only want to spew out there extreme ignorance until we all must endure the stench that they must live with ever day. After reading this letter I am now even more convinced that we must always have the death penalty. Thank God for Govenor Ann Richards. Russell Berwick U.T.Staff"

Yesterday I attended the memorial service for Governor Ann Richards at the Erwin Center at the University of Texas. Before the service the weather was dark and overcast but after was sunny and beautiful. It seemed as if Ann had gone to heaven and flooded the skies with her beautiful soul. Listening to the speakers reminded me of just how important this wonderful lady was. I can remember well how she saved us all from that nightmare Clayton Williams who ran against her for governor. He was the one that said that woman should relax and enjoy it when being raped. Clayton Williams to me seemed like so many narrow minded good old boy types that I’ve encountered growing up here. It’s because of good people like her that many can now say with pride that they are also Texans. It wasn’t always like that as I recall. I remember along time ago when people would even laugh at you when you told them you were from Texas. Today it’s Texas this and Texas that till you wonder if you can overdose from the word. If any Texan ever wonders why we live in such a great state, just remember Ann Richards.

Continuing my story of why I call this blog, “The Extreme Centrist.” When I last posted I had been talking about some of the things that happened to me in the late 60’s. When 1970 came around I noticed that there were many more people that joined the peace freak movement. Some of these same people were the ones that had been fighting us earlier. It was such a big difference than back in the late 60’s. There wasn’t as much hate that was directed towards us now, which was great. Of course this was Texas so there were still many that hated us only now there were more of us. There is safety in numbers which made things seem much better. It was a little bit of a shock at first. Now being a freak had become somewhat popular with many. I started going to Reagan High school at this time. I remember some friends and myself were walking to school for the first time when we were stopped by some red necks. They told us our hair was too long and that we would have a hard time with them. I don’t think they understood that having a hard time was normal to us. Things were pretty tame compared to junior high. The school still had a dress code so the dean of boys would call me in to measure my hair from time to time.. Growing up in this hostile environment had become the norm. To us it seemed like all the school and police wanted was to throw us in jail and throw away the key. We were big pot smokers and in Texas back then you could be put in jail for life for just a joint. This usually only happened to the Mexican Americans but not always. Walking around with pot in your pocket was taking a big risk. We always had a group that would sometimes go smoke during breaks. Usually we did it in a parked car or in the bushes. This continued all through high school. It seems funny now but even in the 60’s we were sure that pot would be legalized because it was so harmless. They would always say that they needed more time to study it before legalizing it. Some 38 years later and were still waiting. We just couldn’t understand how alcohol could be legal and not pot. Today the laws for alcohol have become tougher and the laws for pot looser. Back then drinking was seen as being good. I remember one time when my mom came into my room and while getting something out of my closet a bottle of vodka roll out onto the floor. I thought that I was in trouble but my mom was happy because it was alcohol and not some illegal drug. We could always buy alcohol with no problem. There were a few stores that would sell to me without asking my age even though you had to be 21 at the time. Later when I turned 18 it became legal for 18 year olds to buy it. People thought that if you could go to Viet Nam and die then you should be able to by alcohol. They changed it back to 21 after I turned 21 so again I was lucky to be my age. Also I had an older brother that would buy if for me. I remember one time when my older brother had a whole bag full of alcohol that he purchased for us when the police pulled us over. They took my brother in for some warrant they had on him and they let me take the bag full of alcohol. That’s how lax the law was back then when it came to alcohol. We had no problem drinking and driving back then. Not at all like today. We liked to go to the drive in movies and drink and have fun. That was never a problem even though we were so young. Today I won’t even have one drink and then drive because I am too worried about getting thrown into jail. Back then we also started doing harder drugs. The most popular was LSD because it was so cheap and would get you so high. I remember that I would save up some of my lunch money and would buy some for Friday night. It only cost about a dollar fifty or two dollars back then. I would do it on Friday because I couldn’t wait for Saturday and I needed to do it on a night when I could stay up late. The acid was so much stronger back then because it had a lot of strychnine in it. People would even jump from buildings to try and fly because it was so strong and not like it is today. I remember that after a trip we would always tell ourselves that we would never do it again but after a few days we were ready to go again. It seemed like a bad dream that we couldn’t escape and we couldn’t understand why we kept doing it. Of course this was just part of being a freak back then. We always would notice how a person would change after doing this drug. Like when the band the Who wrote there song, “The Acid Queen,” and talked about this. It was a strange thing that only we knew about. People would say that we were experimenting with drugs back then. This was very true because we didn’t know that some drugs were worst than others. After we smoked pot and saw that everything bad that they were saying about it was untrue, we couldn’t believe anything they told us. We had to find out the hard way. Some bands would try and warn the other kids by writing songs like, “Speed Kills,” by Canned Heat for instance. If we heard one of our guys say something bad about a drug then we could believe them. The only way we knew speed was bad was by doing it and dying. We were like experimental rats trying different drugs to find out what was good and what was bad. I remember that I was really sick of school and thought about dropping out. My parents let me go check out a school in the country for freaks called Greenbrier. They had it very easy there and would just hang out and go swimming and have fun. My parents told me that they wanted to move to my grandparents place near the lake outside of Austin. They said that fewer credits were needed there so I stayed in school. I was however pretty worried about going to a school with a bunch of red necks. I thought that I would have a harder time there but the people there were very nice. The red necks there were more like freaks than the red necks in Austin. These people were real cowboys and not like the fake cowboys in Austin. They liked to get high and have fun like we did. In the country that’s about all there is to do. The school however was always trying to bust us. They had people spying on us and could tell us where and when we had been smoking. One time after getting high at school the vice principal called me and another guy into his office. He told us to empty our pockets or he would have the police come in and empty them for us. I wasn’t holding but my friend was. I began to stall for time while my friend placed the pot into his sock. Then while I was talking and stalling for time my friend said go ahead and search us. They searched us but found nothing. Another time when I was driving home a DPS officer pulled me over. He had his gun out and pointed at me. He said he pulled me over for a missing tail light. By now the cops knew who I was and I’m sure that’s why I was pulled over and treated that way. They found a few joints and put me into jail with some crazy guy. His girlfriend had jumped out of the truck while it was moving. He kept yelling for a smoke ever hour, so I would get one too. This jail looked like it was around during the civil war days. They let me go the next day and later put me on probation for a year. I remember the lawyer that they gave me was some big red neck that also had a custom made club like the police in my previous posting. It had a bull’s eye on it and he said that it was for beating up hippies. The judge asked me if I like to smoke bananas which I thought was strange. He seemed to think it was funny but I didn’t. These people were very different than the Austin police and there laws were much tougher. Somehow I made through high school and moved back to town. I can remember well when the Ramones put out there first album back in 1976. My younger brother and my room mate sat me and my girlfriend down and asked us to listen to this album. They didn’t do anything to show weather they liked it or not. After hearing it I stated that I liked it because it was loud and getting back to basics. My girlfriend however didn’t like it. This was the beginning of the end for her and I. We would split up some five years later. I was really into punk and new wave but she could never get into it like me and this caused some problems. She would go to the punk club with me but she liked the older rock. Back then there were very few of us punk rockers so people would always tell us how much they hated punk. My younger brother and my room mate would copied the Ramones first album and would play it to people that had never heard punk. I remember well how they would look in shock after playing one of there songs. It was like they didn’t know what to think. They would just sit there with there mouths open. Soon after that I and my girlfriend moved to Houston because there were few jobs in Austin at that time. There was only one punk club in Houston at that time. It was called, “Rock Island.” We would usually just call it, “The Island.” We had a lot of good times there. At first there were some pucks that were to the right. They would sometimes wear Nazi symbols. There were also punks like I that though that Nazi stuff was uncool. There was a kind of war between us. There were bands like, “The Dead Kennedy’s, “that wrote songs like, “ Nazi Punks Fuck Off”, or Elvis Costello's " What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding",which shows how this little war played out. We were more to the left and more liberal than these boot boy, or skin head types. After some time most people sided with us. Some of the punks would say that they hated hippies but I was never like that. To me punks were hippies that moved on to the next thing. I remember that my older brother was angry with me for being punk because he would listen to these hippie hater types and think that I was like that. I think that people were just tired of the same old rock and needed something different. What I didn’t like was that the regular rock groups always had this very fancy equipment and tried to sound perfect. I remember that back then I would tell people that punk sounded better on a cheap stereo. I didn’t really believe this, I only said this to make a point about rock not being so fancy and to maybe piss off the punk haters. Sometimes I would come back to Austin to visit my friends and family. I remember one time when I saw the Dead Kennedy’s play at the Ritz in Austin. I was really high on acid and coke. I was usually in the front near the band when I watched a band play. At one point the lead singer Jello Biafra jump into the crowd near me. He went down to the floor when I jumped on top of him and yelled into his mike. After doing this I looked behind me and saw a wave of other people about to do the same. Not liking what I saw I knew that the only way I could stop from being buried was to get Jello back up on his feet. I grabbed him by his sweaty arm with my right hand and started hitting people with my left elbow until I could get him back up on the stage. That was really weird when you’re tripping. Back then I remember that I would slam dance so much that I would often start bleeding. At this same show when the first band the Dicks were playing I wrote my initial on the stage in my blood. I remember one of the band members looking at me with a strange look while I was doing this. When that show was over I was totally soaked from head to toe in my own sweat. I think that the punk club in Houston was maybe a little wilder because I would try and hit the guitar strings which they didn’t care for in Austin. I did that to another band in Austin called the Big Boys at a club call Liberty Lunch. The guitar player jumped off the stage and tried to kick my ass. I was also tripping at this show. I ducked and moved away before he could find me. Somehow I became attached to a vine that was growing on the wooden fence. Thinking that someone had tied me to the fence I pulled the vine until a large section of the fence fell down. The bouncers could tell that I was messed up so they let me go. I feel bad now that I was so wild and did something that the group didn’t like. I wish I could say that I’m sorry but I think that it’s better that I just say nothing. I sometime see the guy that tried to kick my ass and even have talked with him but I never bring this up. I wonder if he remembers me. I hope not but think he does. He works at U.T. like me. After that I stopped doing that. I saw the Big Boys play at a club called Raul’s which was one of the best shows I’ve seen. I was also tripping and with my girlfriend and her two sisters. This was a time when punk was new and I remember that people would pay to come in the club and then stare at the crowd and then leave. They wouldn’t even sit down. There was this endless line of people that keep coming in, then look then leave. I felt like someone in a freak show. I moved back to Austin in 1981. I lived with some friends in a large old house. One time we threw a party and the same thing happened there. There was this endless line of people that would come in, look around a little then move on. I remember myself and a few friends were sitting in my room wearing sun glasses at this party of ours. At one point the female lead singer of a band called D- Day asked us why we were all wearing sun glasses. I told her that we were all tripping and that we didn’t want to show our eyes. I think she then understood. At this time my younger brother, a friend and myself formed a band we called The Land Sharks. We were hardly a band though because our instruments were almost always in the pawn shop. We called the band that because we were always hungry and poor because we would spend all of our money on drugs. Later another band in Austin called themselves The Land Sharks too but we were the first. We had a motto also that when like this. Live to eat, eat to live. We were hardly a band because we would mostly just play the song Louie Louie because Iggy Pop told his audience that his band would only play Louie Louie if they didn’t stop throwing bottles at the band in one of there live albums. I think that album was called Raw Power. We thought that this was funny so we did it as a joke and also because we didn’t want to try too hard. I just wanted to talk about the hippie days and the punk days to make a point. When I was a hippie I was to the left but not like the pacifist types. I was more to the right of these people. When I was a punk I was not to the right like some were and some wanted the punk movement to be. I was more to the left and what the movement finally became. I am to the center but in an extreme way. And this is why I call this blog The Extreme Centrist. When I was watching something on TV the people made an interesting point that made sense to me. One of the people said that they believe that we are heading into a new dark age and that people should write down there story. They said that they thought that nobody would read what they wrote during this Dark Age but that in the future they may. I have this same belief only I think that we are heading into a DEVO period. Like the band DEVO that named there band after D- Evolution, or evolution in reverse. I look at all these young people now dressed like hippies and punks which is a little strange because we were at one time such a small group that was disliked so much. Another thing is that people like me grew up with the threat of the Russians attacking us as far back as I can remember. It was so wonderful seeing the Berlin wall come down at long last. I thought that now we have this threat almost gone that nothing can stand in our way in having peace at long long last. I thought that now the young peace freaks were grown and running things that things would finally get better. That is why I hate these Isloma Fascist so much. Just when things are about to be perfect, here come these fascist with there hateful senseless excuse for war. Doing unthinkable things to humans in the name of God. Even woman and children are not off limits to these perverts of religion. Now look at us, we try so hard to not kill woman and children while they try so hard to kill ours. Whatever we do is wrong and they always get a free pass. Can you even imagine how pissed off God must be. Like I stated before, I believe that God is far away and can’t help us or hurt us until we die. I can’t help but believe that God would want us to kill these perverts and send them to him as soon as possible. So I feel I must do what I’ve always done and speak up. Like always, people will think that I’m wrong but like always I will turn out to be right in the end. Like always people will come around to my way of thinking sooner or later no matter how much they fight me now. I guess in a way I feel it’s my duty to speak up again. Now I’m old and I can see that I may not be around much longer. My younger brother died a couple of years ago. My older brother is in a nursing home unable to walk. My health has been rapidly declining as I get older so I feel that I should speak up while I can. Today I don’t do all the drugs like I did in the past and live a very tame life with my wife. Doctors have told me that I suffer from depression so I take Prozac which has made my life better. I’ve never been like normal people. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to have a normal life. If there’s one thing I have learned is that it can always be much worst. I know that it’s important to be thankful for what I have because we are very lucky to live in this wonderful country that believes in freedom for all.

Today is 9-11-06 and I thought that I would share with you a song that I wrote about 9-11. It's called, "A Different Light." I can hear all the people say, everything has changed, somehow nothing will ever be the same. You'll never understand if you don't know what I mean. Some things are hard for the mind to see. I'm seeing things through a different light. Something just doesn't seem right. This all happened overnight? I'm seeing things through a different light. I'm seeing things in a different way. Seeing the truth can blind you they say. It's too late now to turn the other way. I'm seeing things in a different way. I'm seeing things the way they is. Like a fillet fish, without the bizz. So real, the smell can make you dizz. I'm seeing things the way they is. I'm seeing things through a different light. I've changed like I've been in a fight. Why must I feel so uptight? I'm seeing things through a different light.

I thought that I may write about why I call this the Extreme Centrist and go back in time from the beginning. I guess the first time I felt the need to put the word out was back in Pearce Jr. High School in Austin Texas back in 1969 when I and a few friends put out a small underground newspaper. We only put out two papers before we had to stop because of financial reasons. Our first paper was simply called The Free Press and the second was called Nirvana. Today it's no big deal for young people to put out an underground paper, but back then it was. I did the art work and some writing. After our first paper the school told us that we could no longer hand out our paper on school grounds. We were also told that we could be sued for an article we wrote in which we pretended to have an interview with one of our coaches but didn't really. It was done in a funny way so I think that saved us from a law suit. We were young and thought that free speech meant that we could write whatever we wished. The local newspaper wrote an article about us which made my parents and the school pretty upset at us. We later went to an underground paper called," The Rag" near U.T. to ask for suggestion on how we could keep our paper going. They offered as much help as they could but we just couldn't come up with the funds to keep it going. I was pretty far left at that time and against the war. Back then they had the draft which everyone hated. This was my main reason for my hating the war. It was very unfair because if you had enough money you could always find a way out, which meant that us poorer guys ended up being the ones having to fight and die. Another thing was that nobody could give us a clear reason for us being there. We didn't trust the guys that we were fighting for. It seemed like everyone was the enemy and no one could be trusted. Some of the guys that came back from Viet Nam would tell us that if you wanted to live then you should shoot at everything that moved. Also the war was fought with limited warfare which meant that they couldn't fire at ships that would bring them fuel and arms and other such rules which made it seem as if they never wanted the war to end. Later the draft ended when I turned 18 so I was very lucky. I remember that 1968 and 69 there were very few of us freaks, or what you may call hippies. We were way out numbered and were hated very much. You have to remember that America had never lost a war so we were treated like traders for trying to stop it. One day a freak couple asked to have a meeting with our small band of freaks, so we had one at a friend's house. They told us a story about how some rednecks chased them into the woods, beat them and smeared feces all over them. After telling us this sad story they wanted to make it very clear that they didn't want to discourage us but only to thank us for being so brave and standing up to so many. Back then the government would look the other way when people wanted to beat us or even kill us. It was as if it were legal to kill hippies back then because the government would always protect those people that came after us. We were treated the same way they used to treat blacks back in the old days. It felt like they missed those old days and needed some other group to hate. They still hated blacks but couldn't attack them like they used to so they went after the next best thing which was us. They would say things like, blacks can't help being black but whites that helped blacks were to be hated even more than they. I remember supporting the Black Panthers and trying to get other blacks to support them. We would tell them that if they didn't support them we would call them Uncle Toms. I don't remember having to call anyone that. I would help with my art work skills, like drawing a large fist with the words Black Power on the back of a friends wind breaker and stuff like that. Being young freaks we felt that it was our duty to try and be a little more radical because the older freaks could very easily be killed for doing the same thing. Like when you see very young people throwing rocks at army troops in some troubled region of the world. We could get away with a lot more than the older guys. That's not to say that we were super radicals or something. We were just your average radicals of the time. We would sometime be called Yippies in those days. Some of the things that I remember we did were things like pulling down the flag half mask on Memorial Day or perhaps it may have been Veterians Day. I believe they didn't call it Memorial Day back then. I know you must be thinking that the flag should have been half mask on that day but I think they hated that we would wear our black armbands so they keep it up. One day I remember coming to school wearing a large red, white and blue banner like a cape. We would get into arguments about the war, legalizing pot, going on fasts, and writing anti war stuff on the chalk boards and just a bunch of stuff like that which drove them crazy. I can remember once when a few of us were standing around the main hallway when slowly we began to notice that a large number of unfriendly people were surrounding us. I also noticed some teachers look at us and then duck into a room, like they were affriad to interfear. The croud began to get nearer and nearer making it impossible to escape. All of a sudden we began to start shouting,"hell no we won't go,"which was one of one of our anti war cries of the time. We keeped it up until even the teachers couldn't pretend not notice us any more. This was clearly a smart move. One time there were a higher number police cars driving around our school as if they knew something was about to happen. The principals office asked that we have a meeting between the three groups, the blacks the freaks and the straights. We called them the straights because they didn't get high like we did. It had nothing to do with being gay. They would call themselves the silent majority because they were the majority and not as vocal as we were. I remember that before we could even begin the meeting that we had to get the straights to not call the blacks, niggers. They finally agreed and we could now let in the blacks. There were two people representing each group. I would be one of the freaks. We talk things out and had a good meeting in which we agreed not to fight. This is one time the school did something good for a change. There were a large number of blacks at my school so we were glad to have them as an ally. You would think that all of the blacks would like us but there were a few that hated us. At first I couldn't understand this but later figured it out. You see these blacks were too afraid to show there anger to the majority but found there courage when they saw a small group like us. Most of the protests and speeches were done at the University of Texas where we made our paper with the help of my friends professor dad. I went to two large protests at that time. One started from U.T. and ended up at the capitol. The other was near the capitol but wasn't a legal protest like the other. The police would arrest you if you got off the sidewalk. I'll never forget seeing every kind of cop there was looking like they wanted to beat us so badly. I remember feeling a little scared when I first saw them but later became brave with a kind of mob mentality. A few of us would give pig calls to the police because we would call them the pigs back then and we wanted to make them angry. Another time , myself and some friends were driving around out in the country when we were pulled over by some sheriffs department guys. They were telling us that we were breaking laws that I'm sure they were making up. As they were leaving I called them "pig assholes." They turned around and grabbed me and threw me into the front seat of there car. I was in between both of them. They looked down and asked me which club I would like to be beaten with. One club was there offical club and the other was a custom made one.This was one of those times when your brain is racing to think of a way to save your ass. All of a sudden I said that I was speaking to the girl driving and not them. I don't know if they may have believed me or if there were too many witnesses or they just wanted to scare me, but they let me go. Most of the people then were very nonviolent. I remember that I would think of the nonviolent pacifist as being like Jesus people because they were so peaceful and not like us yippie types. These are the same kind of people that are today's anti war protesters. They will always be against war until they literally see the enemy is coming for them. So unless someone is after there head, don't expect them to change. If people today wonder why there are so few anti war protesters with this new war, it's because they only have the support of these pacifist types. People like me who were more to the center may not be with them this time. Anybody who thinks that today's war and the Viet Nam war are somehow the same, have no idea of what there talking about. I can see how a pacifist may see them as being the same because they hate all wars or any kind of killing for whatever reason. Americans never wanted to have to kill in World War II, for instance, but where would we be today if we had not. To me the far right and the far left are the same. Both are too far out there to be taken seriously. Sure it's entertaining to listen to the far right or far left radio shows. I don't think anybody would be entertained by listening to a center view radio show. The far right started the hate radio and later the left made Air America to try and combat them. The right would say that the media is too far left so they came up with there radio to combat them. I think that the main media is a little to the left and so I can see why they started this hate radio war. The difference is that the right uses hate to get people to listen. I understand why the left felt the need to fight back with there own hate radio. I also understand why they feel they should be Bush bashers after the way the right bashed Clinton. I can't blame them one bit but somehow wish that they would have been the bigger person and not have tried to become the same as they are. If people can't understand why the left only has one radio station and the right has many, it's because the left are trying to be like something they aren't. To me the left have a kinder nature and are a bit out of there element. The same way Jesus was a kinder type. I think most people would agree that Jesus was to the left. He loved the poor and the unwanted which caused the religion to be such a huge revolution all over the world. A simple idea that spread like wildfire. Most people understood, in there heart, that this was Gods messenger, or even the son of God as many believe. To me the lesson of Jesus is that kindness is greater than hate. I see people as having two sides and only one can be greater. I think that each person should have this understanding in there heart but also each person needs to be able to listen to the other side when it is needed. Life isn't always a bed of roses. No matter how much love you may have for Jesus one needs to be ready to put down there cross and pick up a gun when called. One can not turn the other cheek when one doesn't have a head. One can not spread the word of God when one is dead. As with every war, both sides clam that God is on there side. Ask yourself this question, do you believe God is a kind merciful God or a curl hateful God. As for myself I believe that no one may ever know for sure until they die. I also believe that if you would like to know the answer then just look into your own heart. I don't believe like most that God controls everything that happens on earth. I believe that if there is a God he is far from us and can not help us or hurt us until we die. I believe that God is counting on us all to choose the correct answer by simply looking into your own heart because we are the same. Like us, I believe God has two sides but one must be greater than the other. We all have the ability to be good or bad. I sometimes feel like life is a big test and if we want to have a good place in the next life then we must choose wisely. Maybe you feel the same way. Like this war in Iraq. The easy thing for me to do would be to jump on the anti war anti Bush bandwagon. The only problem is, is that I feel deep in my heart that this would be the wrong decision for me to make. We help create this monster call Saddam Hussein. We sold him arms because we hated Iran so much. The left like to point this out. Most of us have seen the infamous photo of Rumsfield shaking Saddams hand that the left like to show. I believe that this is the reason we should be the ones to destroy him. If not us, then who? After he invaded Kuwait I think it was or duty to send him back home. I believe that the current war there is just part II of the first war because he didn't live up to his agreement by not allowing the U.N. inspectors to do there job. Everyone thought that he had weapons of mass destruction. Even the U.N. thought he had them. Now people will say that we should have known better. There are so many Monday morning quarterbacks with 20/ 20 hindsight. They will tell you that they knew what nobody else knew, which is such a joke. They will also say that this war is about oil. There is truth in this statement also. It's true that America is hook on oil just as it's true that Iraq is the pusher. When we saw Saddam pay suicide bombers for killing Israelis, then it's not hard to figure out where the money is coming from. Seeing these people being blown to bits and knowing where the funding is coming from is just too much for many in this country. Hearing about the rape rooms and all the different ways of torture and all the mass graves, it's hard to think that we had nothing to do with it. I know that there are many who could care less about there people. It's very easy for them to look the other way and say it's not our problem. I can't understand how these same people will say how we made this monster Saddam and yet think that it's not our problem. It's like setting someone's house on fire and saying that's it's not my problem. Yes I understand that there are many bad people in charge of countries, but it's different when we have blood on our hands, like many on the left like to point out. My worry is that the Democratic Party will be seen as being too weak at fighting this new kind of war. I think that many in our party are blinded by hate for George W. Bush that they see him as the enemy and not the Islamo fascist. They will even tell you this themselves. This war isn't going too magically disappear when we have a Democratic president in office. How is it going to help us if we are attacked when we are running things and not be attacked when the Republicans are in charge? I've heard many people say that Bush planed and carried out 9-11. That Bush blew up the levies in New Orleans, that he caused global warming. You name it, Bush caused it. These same people will then say that Bush is a moron. Which is it? Either he's the smartest person in the world or he's the dumbest. All of these kinds of statements will be used in the future to show how we cared more about hating Bush then face the true problem which was going on before Bush was elected. They will even say that we are helping the fascist. They are already saying that. Yesterday I heard a man say, Democrats kill marines, on the radio. This is what I'm talking about. This will be one of there bumper stickers, if it isn't already. Like it or not Bush is our leader. When we endlessly attack the leader of our country then it's not hard to see why they feel this way. Of course we need to speak up when we don't agree but who's going to listen when so many keep crying wolf day after day. Why should they listen? Why can't we put or differences aside and focus on the real problem. It's only a matter of time before they hit us again. Maybe if we work together then we may be able to stop some of there attacks and save alot of American lives.