For those accustomed to quality writing and insightful analysis, come back tomorrow. Today is just quiet solace Wednesday, which is code for musings that will have a very short shelf life and perhaps even less value.
I just don’t feel like discussing politics with all of the suffering going on. Politics will return tomorrow.
Hurricane Irene is devastating so many lives, and news cycles tend to move quickly. So I implore Americans not to forget these people from North Carolina to New Hampshire who have suffered. North Carolina and Virginia had the most deaths, while Vermont suffered flood damage that could take months if not years to recover from. Areas in New York where I have family got rocked.
Irene has barely begun to subside, and Hurricane Katia is on its way.
Because Irene affected so many people, there is a tendency to forget about other people in parts of the country who are also hurting. Do not forget those in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Joplin, Missouri, or Minot, North Dakota. They are our neighbors, and they need us.
Around the world, pain does not go away just because we rightfully turn inward in these tough times. Syrian thug Bashar Assad celebrated the end of Ramadan by murdering a few more of his own citizens. Despite proclamations of “victory” in Libya, several graves have found people shot execution-style. These are war crimes, and the early evidence shows that it was loyalists to Khadafi who committed them. Khadafi is nowhere to be found, but his henchmen are still murdering people.
Tensions have again flared between Israel and the Palesimians. Europe is on the verge of financial collapse. Drug and gun violence in Mexico is worse than ever, as some of our own guns were used to kill one of our own border agents.
The American economy is not recovering, and now many more people are have lost everything due to the hurricane.
As of this moment, I am one of the lucky ones. I flew yesterday from Chicago to Cleveland, and had a roof over my head in both places. Tomorrow I fly to Charleston, South Carolina. I am safe. Far too many others cannot say the same.
So today I just want what so many others want. They will not get it. I count my blessings that I will.
Tranquility is what I need today. So see you all tomorrow.
Time for some quiet solace.
eric