First off I love you more than I love life.  This was very hard to read all the way through and I'm sorry that my grief has had the impact on you and your brother and daddy that it has.  Life is so multifaceted in so many ways and more than anything I wanted this Iraq horror to end for us all, for all of our friends, for my country, for the world...and I hurt so badly about it all you are right, I have done a very poor job of practicing what I preach.  I have not allowed the adult self within me to run this show and it has become a carnival.  I'm laughing now because don't I always tell you when the student is ready the teacher will appear?  Nobody here wants what I teach right now because I wasn't meant to be the teacher here and when this student was ready my teacher appeared.  Love you always!  Love you to the moon and back!  Love you to the stars and back!  Love you to the end of the universe and back!  I will do better from here, I promise.  I won't waste my energy anymore because I am afraid and feel alone, there is so much more at stake.  I am not a mistake and my energy is a very precious commodity given to me by my creator.  I ask the universe to forgive me for squandering what was given to me while so many suffer.  This is not where I was meant to be and this is not what I was meant to be doing and I will be a better mom from this place onward too....no more waste, no more squandering.  I am so humbled to be your student today.  This is why I am a parent and why I am your mom and wanted to be your mom, so that this day might happen, and it has.  I am blessed.  My cup runneth over and over again.

PMS Purchase More Shoes

Dear B,

I just have to stick my nose in here and tell you what a wise young woman you're becoming.  So many times, we moms wonder if our children are even listening to what we say when we try to teach them about living a good and happy life, and here you are, putting it into action.  I can tell from reading this that you are a lot like your mom, in all the best ways.

You are all very lucky to have each other.

Xoxo,
CG  

Real life.  Ain't it grand?

Just live it and be happy MT, Mr. MT, Bean and Little Dude.

{{{family}}}

"Don't waste your time on the clowns, watch the real show"

no one, nor anything can love like a mother ; )

bless you

wado

"what a wonderful world"- Louis Armstrong

Your love and appreciation for your mother is palpable.  It's an honor to read your words.  I hope that someday, when I have children, they will care about me as much as you care about your mother.

Take good care of her, okay?

ProgressiveHistorians: History and Politics Of, By, and For the People

I am really disappointed that it seems like some posters have no compassion for someone that is in pain.  Do you have to get the last word?  Do you need to badger someone to DEATH?  Can you find it in yourselves to accept that there are differences in opinion and that yours might not be the only correct one?

Are we adults?  Have we no empathy or compassion?

I am really troubled by this.

"Don't waste your time on the clowns, watch the real show"

The individual agents of any sector of our sanctioned society are scapegoating. They may be perfectly accurate in their complaints but their holier-than-thou attitude is a failing of both analysis and empathy.

Let me tell you, growing up I knew a number of real scumbags, the absolute pits, who had fought in Vietnam and felt it amusing to lament (in the tenor of bragging) to me, a child, about the things they'd done there. Which I for the longest time didn't even believe although knowing them I should have.

But we have a thing called freedom of association in this country and it should apply not one iota less to people in the official service of the country. What it means is that people must be judged on their individual actions, intent, and life otherwise. They could be judged based on association with through some perspective or other, but they shouldn't be. It isn't in keeping with our core principles.

"Don't waste your time on the clowns, watch the real show"

I just hope my daughter cares as much for me when she reaches your age as you care for your mom.

People often compare the current war with the Vietnam War.  I don't think that is completely accurate.  People then did blame the soldiers, but only from misunderstanding.  It took Daniel Ellsberg to show us that they had been misled into that war, just like this one.  But by the time he did that, people had already formed their opinions, and disliked the soldiers.  

I really believe, that in this war, many more people believe that the soldiers are victims, as much as the Iraqis.  Granted, there are people who still live with a mindset more appropriate to the late 60's-early70's.  Our job is to convince them otherwise.

Two good essays for you to read.

The first one was written in August of 2003, 5 months into the Iraq War.  It was a speech given to the Veterans for Peace National Convention held in San Francisco, by William Rivers Pitt.  Most of the speech is about the fraudulent politics that dragged our men to war, but it begins by setting the atmosphere during the Vietnam War (Pitt's father was a Vietnam Veteran.)  The mindset of the people in the airport is the mindset that is no longer appropriate today.

The second essay was published about two weeks ago at In These Times.  A more modern view of things.

Read them both, if you can get through them. They will show you that your mom is not wrong.

But you deserve a lot of praise for being such a good and caring daughter.

My hope is that you will listen to the wise words of your daughter.

Doesn't information itself have a liberal bias? Steven Colbert

I want to rescind my rating on the first comment if not physically, then in words.

No one here has intentionally hurt anyone. Everyone must find their space. The world is a big place and within it, space abounds.

"green grass and high tides forever"