Rochester, NY

9:45 AM

Time is short and my brain is focused on my writing, but there are a few things going on. I read the paper today. I don’t like to do that (other than sports) because then I am filled with thoughts that I have no power over. I saw we reached 1,000 soldiers killed in Iraq. I must have grown immune to the stories because it didn’t have much of an affect on me. It’s been going on for a lengthy time and there are stories in there often. How can I be immune to it? It’s not right, but I think a lot of us have.

Then I read about our $422 billion deficit. There are all sorts of meanings about the deficit. But, I am not sure how you can tell me, “Well, it’s better than $477 million that was forecasted.” Wow, not very strong logic there. We went from a $236 billion surplus with Clinton (and I cannot stand him as a liar) to $422 billion deficit, in 4 years. How do you lose $658 billion? How can our senate our hosue allow it? If that was a business or a household, we would laugh at how poorly they managed their money.

I am not political (maybe I am as I write this), but I want to know what is going to be done about these things. All I heard from the NYC convention was how great Bush was on terror. And I guess he’s been pretty good. But will Kerry not do a thing about it? I think the war on terror will have to be fought by whoever is in. What I want to know about are jobs, healthcare, and the economy. Neither of them say much, other than it’s growing, or I’ll make it better.

As a writer I was always told to “show, don’t tell.” These guys tell you the world, but don’t have anything tangible to show. Is this how we are supposed to decide who is worthy of the most important job in our country? Something is wrong.

As for military service: Kerry was in Vietnam. Bush was not. Kerry saw gunfire and death. Bush saw an air base in Alabama. Enough said. Is that so complicated? Why all of the drama back and forth.

Elections should be about character building, not character assassination.

And I’m back off the pedestal and back to my writing. Enjoy the day.