Impulse

I thought I would drop in to say that I will be probably be offline for several days as Sarah and I will be in Kentucky for the holidays. Maybe I will have a moment or two to fire up my dad’s machine with the rockin’ 28.8 dial-up and post a few entries. We’re all packed and I should probably be sound asleep at this point, but I have been surfing web logs and news/politics sites for the first time in a while and my juices are flowing.

I keep thinking of the famous Joseph Stalin quote: “A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.” I think a lot of us have an abstract understanding of Saddam’s atrocities. “He gassed Kurds,” for example. And we know that there were thousands of casualties when Iraq and Iran battled in the 80’s. Kuwait. Brutal punishment for those who publish, speak out, or live freely. Or maybe I’m just fuzzy on a lot of the details. No matter. This important moment in witnessing democracy and justice in action will produce a lot of stories. I’ve noticed that when Iraqi exiles in Detroit, Montreal, and other places (not to mention Iraqis themselves) comment on his capture, they often

December 19th, 2003