Some thoughts on recent commentary and events

Many thanks to our loyal readers and our insightful contributors for their thoughts and perspectives over the past month. Campaigning full time for the Virginia House of Delegates has taken its toll on my own contributions to RIPPLE OF HOPE, but I wanted to offer a couple of comments:

I think Shayna is exactly right with her analysis of the current situation in Iraq. We should be proud whenever we have some small role in increasing the ability of people to have a voice in their own governance, but we must not forget that we were sold a bill of goods when it comes to the reasons we invaded Iraq, and thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed or injured because of it.

On Alberto Gonzales, his role in the torture memos is deeply troubling, but at least he doesn't appear to be a right-wing religious zealot like John Ashcroft. The question is (and maybe somebody knows the answer), Will he remove that curtain from the statue of Justice?

I also wanted to mention how proud I am of the people of Ukraine. Thousands of them took to the streets to stand up for democracy, and they won. I'm very much reminded of watching the Berlin Wall fall live on the BBC when I was stationed with my family in Europe at the time. Orange is the new Red, White, and Blue.

I'm sure I write on behalf of all of our loyal readers when I express how much I appreciate the terrific ongoing commentary from our contributors. On a personal note, I want to publicly thank you for keeping up the find work while my energies are largely focused elsewhere.