You Know you Live in a Small Town When...

...the main route through town is closed with no more than a "Road Closed" sign and a barricade with the understanding that you know the circuitous route around the construction site.

Sayreville and the towns around it developed in that old school, piece meal way so the roads don't all line up. Actually you'll have entirely different logic structures for road naming and direction side by side. It is pretty frustrating when you first move here - especially if you grew up up north where things were a little more planned.

That said it pleases me now that I know my way around (basically).

Wake Up Call

I continue to hope that Americans will get past their outrage about the lives lost on 9/11 and stop to think why the terrorists and those who support them hate us so much. If we, as a nation, could get a handle on how we look and how we actually behave in other areas of the world we might stand a chance at stemming the violence.

But as much as I hope we can, I don't really believe we will. We're too complacent and too self-referential a society for that. Instead we will probably continue to be outraged victims of acts we can't or won't see the provocations for.

I am not saying that this type of violence is ever justified or that the death of innocent people is ever justified. I am saying that we, as a nation, aren't viewed as passive and innocent and that it is the covert actions and public policies of our government that help create the negativity. there will always be someone to rally against a people, but it's a lot easier when they consistently behave badly.

Al Qaeda plotter tells jury of his hatred for Americans from CNN.com.

For Poetry Month - an oldie

We're bringing out the dead.
Burying the men we could
Have been,
If we'd only started
Sooner,
Younger,
If ever,
To embrace and rebel.
Heaping the discarded dreams
High on the coffin,
We're using fallen icons and lies
As our rosaries.

Oddly, I haven't written anything since Mr Bear and I started dating. Mostly now I'm playing with directly visual things.