I can�t remember the last time I saw you laughing

Today someone told me, �People have perfectly normal days until they have the misfortune of running into you.� I smiled and said, �You say, �tomato,� I say, �fuck you.�� She rolled her eyes at me and my Principal gave me a look before I could fire off, �Right back at you, bitch.� It�s been one of those weeks and wouldn�t you get guess that it is the holiest week of the year. Today in school wasn�t so bad. We had our Easter Party. The boys and girl watched �The Prince of Egypt,� the Moses cartoon. They enjoyed it a lot and that�s a good thing because as beautifully as the story is told there are a lot inaccurate parts to the story. My students of course pointed every last one of the out. I haven�t been writing in here because of the family problems we�re having. I�ve been wrestling that demon. In addition to that unpleasantness I�ve been trying to find a way to write a tribute to my mentors as they are both retiring. I also didn�t get to see Dr. Rice testify but everyone I know on both sides of the spectrum said she did an excellent job. I have a picture of her by my desk because I didn�t vote for George W. Bush in 2000, I voted for Condi Rice. I also firmly believe that Richard Clark is an idiot because anyone who failed at his job and then writes an election year memoir is suspect in my opinion not to mention the fact that if he cared about his country more than his wallet he�d have spoken up a great deal sooner than right before the election. Additionally, someone working on terrorism in since the Reagan Administration shouldn�t criticize someone who had been on the job all of seven or eight months when shit hits the fan. He had been doing that job longer than I�ve been literate. If he had been doing his job perhaps the attacks preceding 9/11 could have been avoided or adequately responded to. 9/11 was the culmination of the errors of the Clinton years. The first World Trade Center bombing and the response to that, the barracks in Saudi Arabia being bombed twice, the East African Embassies, and then the Cole being bombed were all the miserable failures of a President with his pants down and advisors ill equipped to do their jobs. From what I�ve read of Dr. Rice�s testimony she�s right on the money. There wasn�t one good way to prevent this and the American people would never have accepted the policy needed to prevent it before 9/11. Liberals who read me, honestly, would you have reacted favorably to steps that should have been taken to track foreign nationals in this country before 9/11? You don�t like the Patriot Act now; you wouldn�t have supported it then, would you? Senator Clinton has even said as much. The changes that needed to take place would never have been accepted by our people. I have the unique position over many people in this community of having been a debater in college so I was out there talking about this issue, reading about and arguing it long before we were attacked. Secured transportation and government centers, surveillance of citizens or and guests in this country, and, migration restrictions aren�t the trappings of a free society. We wouldn�t have stood for it. We live in a changed world and it�s very a sad one. I don�t think regime change in Washington will work to fix it. Under Bush we�ve been attacked once and it was the worse attack ever but also under Bush we�ve been attacked once, we were attacked six times under the previous Administration where being hit by terrorists was an annual event. John Ashcroft is demonized, but honestly, how would you do his job differently and as effectively? He�s doing something very unpopular but he�s doing it well. I honestly believe that had Gore won the election that his Attorney General would be doing the same thing. Before you decry know that may of the tools being used in the war on terror were pioneered by Janet �shake it like a Polaroid picture� Reno. Echelon? That�s your girl Janet! Thank God (or whatever demon you worship) that she�s never had a �wardrobe malfunction.� I�m not saying we should all support Bush and blindly follow him where ever he leads but at the same time if you stepped back and looked at this situation you�d realize that we don�t really have a lot of options for action on our domestic front. There is enough blame to go around about this issue but what I think is most important is this: we all need to work together to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity; we have to fight this on a unified front. That doesn�t mean agreeing but I think that dropping the craziness is the first, best step we can take. The American people have done great things with their country and for the world; we can continue to do that. We can also continue to disagree but maintain civility. Motherfucker, my spell check recognizes �Condi Rice� but not �Chris Stewart.�