This was a good start to Wednesday, as Garrison always is, some thoughtful comments too & lately here you have to wade through alot of stuff you don't want to get on you to find those.

My dad was a bombardier in WW2 & when I questioned him about his 32 missions he would, consistently & in deep solemnity, tell me that it was an unspeakable service he performed for his country. I always struggled with understanding that...and these days, at the age of 49, wiser & even respectfully, I find I still struggle with it.

Heckler: one who asks a question a)you don't want to answer & B)don't want anyone else to hear asked of you.

It's right there in every Republican'ts dictionary. Some things you just know without even looking.

I enjoyed Mr. Keillor's little tribute and I wish my mother were still around to share it with---she woulda had a good laugh.

Last night my 13 year old daughter asked from across the room what the spanish word miel meant. I answered "honey" and she responded, "What?" so I said again, "honey" and she said, "What! mother?"

That's my true story. Every day is mother's day. Some of them are really great and all of them are gifts.

I think I recall reading one of your comments where you mentioned that you are a writer. The post here certainly proves it. I know there are so many sad stories out there, so many, many horrors...and so much of these dominate our psyches that it can be a powerful exercise to feel heartened in our little corners without pulling wool to achieve the state. So I won't say thanks for sharing that---but I will long be haunted by the image evoked by your description of the lost boy whose mother failed him yet again in the courtroom that day---whose mother damned so many, including her own soul, guessing she had one.

Well told. Shudder. Shudder.

I also appreciated the link to Dawnt's blog, Joan. I think there is much to the educating voters premise that would be advantageous toward uniting these states, something I would very much like to see.

I stayed with this letters thread too, because there are some valid points amidst all this venom & I am, as I've always been, glad for the forum. Tough---well, it's been tough here in the salon too. Tough to stick it out with the divisive opinions. I suppose I don't get why it's so vicious. The anonymity of a computer is pretty deceptive, don't you think? I recently renewed & changed my screen name, it looks as if I'm newborn here, but I am here most days & without words.

Today I just wanted to post support for everyone here who wants competent government & speaks eloquent opinions. I was an Edwards supporter, frequently perturbed by Salon going the way of the other media & largely ignoring him. When he dropped out, just before we voted in Georgia, I had a tremendous struggle deciding between Obama & Clinton. I voted and ultimately decided that either one would adequately represent some of my beliefs. Since then I have been trying to rouse some of that passion I see here every day. In my office I listen to co-workers recite nightly television's talking points as if they were their own reasoned views and they are embarrassed to talk with any depth about these "beliefs" even when I ask softly & close my angry eyes. Because I do feel anger when people choose not to reason, whether it's for my side or some other side of any four sided box. I quickly grasp that I won't reach anyone by denigrating their method of arrival. The word ignorance implies a potentially hopeful outcome with some well-spoken information. Willfully ignorant is something sadder & more disturbing. I'm still trying to hold hopeful.

Why do we go on vacation, anyway?

Isn't it just all too easy to miss the entire point of leaving home...and then it's time to go back.

I am one of those people DisneyWorld left icy-cold from first sight, the cookie-cutter "perfection" of it, queues, the elbow to elbow folks with cameras, queues, the oversized cartoon figures and more queues under the hot sun--it seemed like hell to me while I was there, yet etched always in my memory is my daughter's face as she got her joy from it. When I think back on that week now, I only hope I didn't look as though I was in deep pain the whole time there.

I've resisted my own desire for a European vacation for the simple reason that I don't want to experience it as a tourist. Ah, that sounds arrogant, and maybe I deserve to only see the world through the words of others. That, at least, I am sure I will do.

On a recent trip to NYC I overheard a man, who identified himself as a traveler from Chicago, actually commenting to the concierge at our hotel that the people in the city seemed to have gotten friendlier since nine-eleven...

I was watching his eyes & I saw a flicker but he responded with the expected polish and warmly enough, "Sir, we have always been friendly here." Tourist love---all in a day's work for some.