I thank everyone who came out into the streets of our cities to protest the wars. I wish I had been there with you. We must overcome our dismay and depression about being shunted into "free speech" cages and the over-all regimentation of society that keeps us in our houses. The flight to Washington to protest strips every traveler's dignity and casts a constantly-renewing pall of fear over most of us. The masses used to believe we had clout and merely had to demonstrate our solidarity. We were b[r]ushed off so many times that our creative spirit has mostly been quenched. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see the "squashed" head of Mr. Cheney-in-effigy held aloft as Macduff held Macbeth's head aloft. We don't need the draft to activate us. We need to confront our fear of the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, the almighty police, and all the anti-terrorist paraphernalia we have permitted to consume us. Our whole society has gone mad with what we've been told through the weapons of mass deception about jihad, about heartless decapitations, about Osama. We are the elephant terrorized by the mouse. Our current wars in Iraq as well as in Afghanistan and Pakistan are absorbing our U.S. tax dollars, dollars that we need for affordable housing, jobs creation, a healthcare system for everyone, and public education without the indoctrination of NCLB. The federal budget for 2011 allots $876 billion for current military spending (not to mention the $33 billion in additional funding), that's 48% of total federal spending. The federal government has many more responsibilities than what Mr. Bush used to reiterate, to protect us from foreign attack. Join WRL and resist war altogether! So, thank you everyone who did brave up and get out in the streets to tell Mr. Obama (and the Republicans, and the Teabaggers) that there's a thing more important than health care. _________________