Pardon the Interruption...

For various reasons I've abandoned this blog for the past month. I've missed the heck out of it and intend to begin feeding the blog with regularity again.

For the dozen or two of you who come here often looking for real-life examples of how not to write, my apologies. I've been off being who I am when I'm not a blogger. I've been doing really fun things, and this is perhaps the most fun: I went to Washington DC, amongst other reasons, to let the President know I'm not fond of how he's been conducting himself. 250,000 of my closest friends showed up as well, and it was both quite somber, and quite a party. And sometimes those two elements were in close proximity to one another.

Another odd fact about that trip to DC: I took my 16 year-old daughter. My sister-in-law found out about this and e-mailed my wife questioning why we'd allow our baby to go to "that communist freak show." I didn't have the heart to tell her that nearly everyone I met there was further away from a freak show than she is.

But to the main business here: My fellow Americans, let me entreat upon you this...you're aware of, and perhaps have often made the claim yourself that America's the land of the free. To which I ask, how do you know? Let me guess that your first reaction is surprise.

"What do you mean how do I know?? This is America!"

Right you are. But all those things in the constitution about free speech...if you never challenge the prevailing paradigm, you're not being free. If you play along as you always have, and as nearly everyone does, then you're not making your country live up to its claims.

So that's what we did. Just hundreds of yards from the White House, a quarter million of us gathered to tell the President that we in no way, shape or form supported what he was doing in Iraq. I can report that our nation did not fall to its knees. Cats and dogs were not fornicating in the streets. The sun rose in the east, and set in the west after a day of very civil disobedience.

My daughter had a great time, too. Against my better judgment, she got onstage after Cindy Sheehan spoke and greeted her. Ms. Sheehan gave her a long, warm hug, then signed my daughter's Code Pink sweatshirt. I don't know as much about Code Pink as I might, but I love their slogan"

Stop the Next War Now

Such wisdom there! The idea that being anti-war is not an affectation you put on in the lead-up to the war, but a climate for dialogue and action that your create year round, year-in, year-out.

During the visit we also went to the Kennedy Center for a play, did a couple of Smithsonian Museums, some of the monuments, and rode the Metro like pros. It was a fabulous father/daughter time.

I'd like to urge all of you who are seriously thinking about getting old: while that's a viable option, you might consider methods to keep you younger. Heading off to the nation's capitol with your teenager, galavanting around town, and joining a 1/4 million-person anti-war march can take 2 or 3 years off of you.

And more importantly, there's something so patriotic about measuring your country's claims about itself...and finding out that on that day and in that place it measured up. It made the forefathers proud of what they'd created.

But just like the Code Pink ladies who work hard year 'round to keep us from going to war, we Americans need to fight year 'round to be sure the land of the free really is free. Your participation, however can help, would be most appreciated.