2004

Well, another year will be gone in just a few hours. And it seems like a good time to start my web log.

I will turn 50 next Month, a 1/2 century of living one Earth has left me with more questions than answers, but as long as there is still some mystery there is still some reason to keep searching for the answer to it all. I know it has to be something more then "bang the rocks together" or "42".

A hundred thousand people killed by a wave in Indonesia. Somehow I can't find the same grieving in my heart for those 100,000 as I feel for the 15,000 killed in Iraq. I suppose that it is the difference of being killed by acts of nature or acts of Man. Perhaps it is that I think that they should have expected it. I live in Alaska and I expect that every decade or so there will be a large Earthquake or a Volcano will erupt nearby and throw my life into turmoil. If I lived in the area of Krakatoa I would expect some extreme Earth changes from time to time. In 1883 almost 35,000 people were killed by the waves from that explosion, I'd guess a greater percentage of the population at the time than the latest body count.

Welcome to Planet Earth, watch your ass.

I grieve for the people that were killed, and for those that are yet to die from starvation and sickness, but I can't help but wonder at the Governments in the area that are so short sighted and greedy that they could not be bothered to put Seismic detectors in the Indian Ocean. I hear them calling to Americans for Millions of dollars in aid to help them now, and calling us names because we only offer $35,000,000.00 to start. I don't recall hearing about any offers from the Indoneasian nations to help with the crisis of 9/11/2001, and I have yet to see any of them sending troops into the fray in Iraq to help bring Democracy to the Arabs. Should we help? Yes, anywhere thee is great human suffering we should offr what aid we can. Then we should take our vacations in Hawaii instead of Phuket, Microsoft and other great American companies should bring their "customer service" help lines home from India and hire Americans. And every time one of those countries that screams for aid from America votes against us in the United Nations they should have all American Aid suspended immediatly.