Comments received

"Unless there is oil in Sudan our government will not make any real effort to help. Perhaps if we weren't so occupied in Iraq we could actually defend humanity." (From MA in SC)
"We saw this (Hotel Rwanda) last week. Awesome movie. Hard to believe humans can be so cruel to each other." (From HC in SC)
#259 (05-20)
E-mail your comments
Check archives on left for earlier postings.

Sometimes in April

Watching this HBO original movie was like eating light at a buffet where you pick out a single dish from the many offered. This well-done film plucks one man’s story out of the totality of the 1994 Rwanda experience, and in the process tries to explain how this black holocaust started and why one part of a nation turned on another and massacred an estimated 800,000 men, women and children. In the Nazi era in Germany, and especially the Stalin era in the Soviet Union, there were those ordinary citizens who silently participated through “many forms of collaboration and compromise,” whereas in Rwanda, Hutu extremists and government personnel (including military) wielded machetes and fired guns on Tutsis and moderate Hutus – their brothers and sisters. “Sometimes in April” does a better job of exploring the inactivity of the west through several scenes of American political and military officials meeting, discussing and in the end doing nothing. This is a black mark on the Clinton foreign policy record. Similarly, another African nation, the Sudan, will be a black mark on the Bush foreign policy record unless action occurs immediately to end the current conflict. A UN peacekeeping force (proposed by a pending U.S. resolution) will be a useless gesture unless it takes on a peacemaking role to help end the conflict that has forced more than 2 million in the Darfur region of Sudan to flee their homes.
#258 (05-19)
E-mail your comments
Check archives on left for earlier postings.

Hotel Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda is a must see movie for those who ignored the plight of Tutsis and Hutus in that Central African country in 1994 when almost a million were slaughtered by Hutu extremists with the connivance of the French-backed Hutu government. "Those who ignored" means pretty much all of the civilized world, including the United States. The Hutu government in Rwanda was chafing at a United Nations supervised agreement that they share power with a Tutsi rebel group. I thought the performances by Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo outstanding. My regret is that I did not see the film earlier than yesterday (March 17, 2005).
HBO will enter this arena on Saturday, March 19, with "Sometimes in April," another reminder of this black holocaust.
#257 (05-18)
E-mail your comments
Check archives on left for earlier postings.

'tis an Irish Blessing

...for St. Patrick's Day
May those who love us, love us
And those that don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts;
And if He doesn’t turn their hearts
May He turn their ankles
So we’ll know them by their limping.
#256 (05-17)
E-mail your comments
Check archives on left for earlier postings.

Great news for Packer fans
Brett Favre will return for his 14th season as the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers - great news for Packers and their fans, not so good news for the rest of the league.
#255 (05-16)
E-mail your comments
Check archives on left for earlier postings.

Nixon sightings?
Has anyone reported any Nixon sightings lately? Reply by e-mail.
#254 (05-15)
E-mail your comments
Check archives on left for earlier postings.

Searching this web site

Blogger suggests allowing readers to search a site by adding the Google search bar but doesn't explain how to do that. The blogger bar searches your whole computer; not something you want everyone to be able to do.
#253 (05-14)
E-mail your comments
Check archives on left for earlier postings.

Condolences to families of slain RCMP
We send our condolences and thoughtful prayers out to the families of the four RCMP officers slain this week in Alberta, Canada, while investigating an illegal marijuana site.
#252 (05-13)
E-mail your comments
Check archives on left for earlier postings.