when i was a child, my grandmother instilled one guiding principle in my brother and i, when you go someplace, leave it in a better condition than when you arrived. for us boys, this usually applied to camping, or to staying at her house for the weekend. as i've gotten older, i've tried to apply this to the rest of my life, with the side-effect that i expect others to do the same.
i certainly expect my elected officials to hold themselves to the standards which i and the rest of thier constituents hold themselves. i expect that if they don't hold themselves to at least the same standard as the public, that it is the people's duty to do something about it, whether it be simply reminding them, or kicking them out of office.
i do not agree with president bush's war in iraq. it seems ludicrous to wage war on a whole country just because of one man or a small group of men. i believe that mr. bush himself stated about the same when addressing the terrorist attacks on new york and washington d.c.
but, i can't go back in time and change what the u.s. has done. all i can ask is that we make it right. we destroyed iraq's infrastructure, we are obligated to rebuild it at least to the level it was at prior to the war in iraq, even prior to the gulf war. part of this infrastructure is the oil pipeline. part of rebuilding it, is putting control of it back in the hands of its rightful owners.
please, mr. president, do right by your people. do right by your country. do right by me and my grandmother.
