I haven't been blogging as frequently as I would like. And not just because I've been playing with my iphone for the last few weeks.

I'm in a dark mood today. I apologize in advance. Liz and I attended a vigil tonight over in Westwood across from the Federal Building. We didn't take any still photos but I shot a lot of HD video, which hopefully I'll cut into something in the next week or so. Attendance wasn't up up what it was expected to be. And an angry right-winger who was there to protest the Code Pink group (which helped organize this particular vigil, apparently) on grounds that weren't entirely clear obnoxiously got in everybody's face and put a bit of a damper on the event. Still, it's satisfying on a certain level to feel like one has participated and helped to make a statement.

These days the media is saying that the economy supersedes the war in Iraq 2-1 as an issue weighing on the minds of American voters. Maybe so. It's human nature to focus on the the stresses and worries that most impact our families and our everyday lives. But the conflict in Iraq and the misguided so-called "War on Terror" continue, sapping our strength and our resources, killing and maiming what's left of our armed forces, costing us untold hundreds of billions of dollars and billing it to future generations, and breeding terrorists who want Americans dead faster than we can ever dream of catching or killing them.

I don't feel much like ranting tonight. I think that most everyone has heard it all before. Yet the war goes on, because we as a nation allow it to.

Most of us are too busy with our everyday lives and concerns and struggles to expend much energy to express our opinions or try to make a difference. Many of us have opinions but don't feel comfortable sharing them, or doing anything to promote them; or we feel like it's not our job or responsibility.

I don't particularly enjoy getting up on my soapbox either. But the revelation I had awhile ago is that, in a sense, we all have an obligation to participate. The generations that came before us sacrificed and risked so much in order to protect our fragile democracy that it's part of our collective birthright as American citizens. With privilege comes responsibility.

I'm trying not to sound preachy. I sign petitions and blog and write to my members of congress; I'm not Thomas Jefferson. I'm just trying to say, you know, as MLK said, there come times in our lives when silence is betrayal. It's easy to be cynical, and hate politics, and think your single voice doesn't matter.

But elections have consequences and policy decisions have real-life effects on the life and death of millions of people.

Following is a link to some of the consequences of the US Government's decision to bomb and invade Iraq, a country that did not attack the United States. Think before you click. They're some of the worst images I've ever seen. They're far worse than any horror movie. The first time I saw them, I totally lost my shit. If you're sensitive to graphic violence, don't look.

You'll never see them on the nightly news. But they're real. And they're the direct result of actions taken by your government in the name of "protecting your freedom."

Depleted Uranium-Related Birth Defects in Iraq

-jw