Posted June 23rd, 2004 by Michelle

God, we are so fucked. I mean, even if we get Bush out of the White House, we have decades and decades of clean-up to do. I know I get irrational and ridiculous about all of this, but sometimes that is better than absolutely losing hope and bawling all over my keyboard at work. I was just looking at the pictures of Kim Sun-Il’s parents, taken at the moment they found out their son had been beheaded in Iraq.

I just feel so hopeless, so defeated, because for millions of Americans it just doesn’t matter what Bush does, or for what he is responsible. I’m eventually going to talk to my little old landlady about voting this November, and in my mind there is a scenario played out not unlike a conversation my mom had with my great Aunt Donna. My mom made some offhand comment about the war and Bush, and my Aunt Donna asked her to not speak about Bush that way in her home, or something to that extent. Because it doesn’t matter what Bush does, my Aunt Donna, one of the coolest women alive, is going to vote for him. Not only that, she doesn’t even want to talk about it. In her case, it’s hopeless.

Okay, so let’s say we do get the ultimate Evil-Doer out of the White House. Then what? Where do we begin to address the seething hatred for the US? Clearly this hatred, particularly regarding Israel, goes back many years, but where do we begin? Or is that simply too far ahead to deal with right now? Maybe every ounce of focus must go towards getting Kerry elected.

I don’t know. Clearly Kim Sun-Il is just one man, and thousands of innocent Iraqis are dead, and hundreds of Americans, but it is still so hard to see his parents’ grief, and to think that I am in some small way responsible, even if only by association.