to PK on this day: memories passed on to me, now a witness to the wonder and the terror of it all: the crack and the scream.

Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

I'll be damned if its true.

Thank you for this nice little essay. It sums up how I feel about it quite well, and helps me put it into perspective. Love and warmth and humor trumps filth, yes indeed, every time.

provided a nice break from correcting essays for my philosophical writing class. It was like going from slogging through mud to walking down a clear trail!

Refreshed by your example, I turn once more to enter the swamp.

of Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass), where he even somehow includes the trolls who hoot out at us amidst the whole glorious mess and mass of it all, all the strange and wonderful voices on the intertubes in the midst of life:

"Ever the hard and unsunk ground,

Ever the eaters and drinkers . . . ever the upward and downward sun . . . ever the air and ceasing tides,

Ever myself and my neighbors, refreshing and wicked and real,

Ever the old inexplicable query . . . ever the thorned thumb--that breath of itches and thirsts,

Ever the vexers hoot! hoot! hoot! till we find where the sly one hides and bring him forth;

Ever love . . . "

"Aslan raised his head and shook his mane. Instantly a glorious feast appeared on the Dwarf’s knees: pies and tongues and pigeons and trifles and ices, and each dwarf had a goblet of good wine in his right hand. But it wasn’t much use. They began eating and drinking greedily enough, but it was clear they couldn’t taste it properly. They thought they were eating and drinking only the sort of things you might find in a stable. One said he was trying to eat hay and another said he had got a bit of an old turnip and a third said he’d found a raw cabbage leaf. And they raised golden goblets of rich red wine to their lips and said “Ugh! Fancy drinking dirty water out of a trough that a donkey has been at! Never thought we’d come to this” . . . “You see,” said Aslan, “They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they can not be taken out . . . “ C.S. Lewis

Thanks again for your clear thoughts on this. You are making me think of Mencius this morning (the ancient Chinese philosopher, one of my favorites—we recently covered him in our first year ideas course, and so he comes to mind). He wrote:

Mencius said: "All men have a sense of commiseration. The ancient kings had this commiserating heart and hence a

commiserating government. When a commiserating government is conducted from a commiserating heart, one can rule the

whole empire as if one were turning it on one's palm. Why I say all men have a sense of commiseration is this: Here is a man who suddenly notices a child about to fall into a well. Invariably he will feel a sense of alarm and compassion. And this is notfor the purpose of gaining the favor of the child's parents, or seeking the approbation, of his neighbors and friends, or for fearof blame should he fail to rescue it. Thus we see that no man is without a sense of compassion, or a sense of shame, or a sense of courtesy, or a sense of right and wrong. The sense of compassion is the beginning of humanity; the sense of shame is the beginning of human-heartedness; the sense of courtesy is the beginning of correct behaviour; the sense of right and wrong is the

beginning of wisdom. Every man has within himself these four beginnings, just as he has four limbs. Since everyone has

these four beginnings within him, the man who considers himself incapable of exercising them is destroying himself. If he considers his sovereign incapable of exercising them, he is likewise destroying his sovereign. Let every man but attend to

expanding and developing these four beginnings that are in our very being, and they will issue forth like a conflagration

being kindled and a spring being opened up. If they can be fully developed, these virtues are capable of safeguarding all

within the four seas; if allowed to remain undeveloped, they will not suffice even for serving one's parents." [II A: 6]

According to Mencius, we must think with our "heart-mind": good reasoning does not leave out the essential affective elements of our humanity.

Thanks again, Glenn, for taking the time to argue all this out with these folks.

What you wrote seemed very clear to me and nothing to be ashamed of. I think your bulb seemed bright enough to me, anyway, to understand what you were getting at. But then, I am what is known as a close reader of texts.

for you story. I always loved listening to your father on Sunday mornings, and reading what he wrote. I as so very glad he got to see Obama win. Best wishes to you and your family.

do they have for keeping him in the cell with the lights on, etc., after it has become clear he is innocent? Is there some evidence that puts his innocence in doubt so that there are hoping for some last minute confession to justify their torture of him? Are they simply insane? I cannot comprehend this situation at all. One tries not to demonize one's opponents, but in this case it is hard not to simply say the Bush administration is simply evil. How would they defend this? Why on earth do they continue to torture him?