Perhaps you and your girlfriend would enjoy and benefit from reading Gibran's The Prophet. Like Cary, his approach to the mystery of love is one of humility and wonder:

...if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.

To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;

To return home at eventide with gratitude;

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

As a teacher and a mother of teens, I imagine you are a decent human being just as you are right now. Some comments here are abrasive, but the arrogance of youth is fleeting and, to my mind, endearing. Oh, for the chance to be young and "full of myself" just for a day. I envy you your potential and wide horizons. Best wishes to you both.

"Who, other than each other, is listening to these people any more?" If only that was anywhere close to true!

As a teacher in an Arizona high school, I hear what students in half-a-dozen social studies classes have to say on a daily basis, and it petrifies me. The kids are for the most part parroting what they hear at home, and what I'm hearing is a lot of complacent, flag-waving ignorance. The lack of critical thinking is appalling.

Sadly, I must guard what I say while teaching VERY carefully. If I urge students to think rather than blindly accept, or to seek peaceful solutions before choosing war, I could lose my job. It makes me all the more aware of how vital a role Glenn, Bob Somerby and others play in setting the record straight. Whenever possible, we must vigorously dispute distortions and falsehoods, or they will be accepted by people who may have good will, but who can't or won't evaluate what they hear or read.

I wish I could dismiss the morons with a wave of my hand, but they are very powerful, and voters listen to them.

Thank you for the heartening words. It had not occurred to me before that a mind disciplined to think and write in more complex sentences might naturally begin to expand in reasoning and in perspective. I don't suppose it's a given, but surely it happens to some. I will remember that even when I must censor my own ideas, teaching language structure will help some of them to arrive at fresh new ideas of their own, and even more important, to support them.

I am looking forward to reading your blog, by the way. It sounds like just my cup of tea.

Take care,

Please excuse my oversimplifying a complex issue; I typically read without commenting because I feel like I'm out of my depth. I feel as if all I can do is wring my hands in despair. When Glenn points out such examples of shoddy journalism, do any of you email the authors of the poorly-written piece in question, to protest their unreflective stenography of Bushco talking points? Or is that just a useless waste of time?

What I find most disheartening is that my friends and relatives all think I'm a crackpot, and start rolling their eyes if I say anything about the lack of media oversight of this administration. I'd email them links to the stuff I read that makes me so fearful about the state of democracy in this country, but I've already been asked to cease and desist. No one seems to want to know; their interest is in seeing who will be voted off the latest singing or dancing contest on TV.

Are we all just voices crying in the wilderness? Will no one listen to the prophets? Hate to be so melodramatic on a gorgeous Saturday morning...

I'm more limited in what I can do. As sole support of a family of five, I can't afford to do anything that could get me fired! Currently, public school teachers must be very careful. A court decision in Indiana recently said that we are the mouthpiece of the government, and dismissals based on political differences are legit.

I've spent some time volunteering for MoveOn, but not much and not recently. I'm naturally articulate, and would like to do more to influence my colleagues and neighbors, but the lack of interest in such conversations (even from fellow teachers!) is not very encouraging.

Will we all just have to content ourselves with saying, "I told you so!" later?

I appreciate your responding; sometimes I feel quite alone. At such times, I gain strength from reading Glenn's columns and the insightful comments left by so many.

Take care,