What This Country Needs is Another Good War

It was before our time, but we still grew up in its shadow, W.W.II, the last good war. It brought the country together, while every war since then has rent the country asunder. I used to think they did that in purpose, but now I'm not so sure. With Russia out of the picture, they couldn't be in league with the Commies anymore. Russia seems to be back in the picture again but, without Communism, there would be no more reason for our leaders to betray us to the Russians than to betray us to the Italians or the Greeks. So whose side are they on? The Muslims don't have a side, they've got lots of sides, and so do the Americans. What we need is for the whole world to be divided into two sides, the good guys and the bad guys. Make everybody wear uniforms, or at least two different kinds of hats, then everybody would know where they belonged, and didn't belong.

I was still a card carrying Libertarian back in 2000, so I didn't care who won the presidential election. As far as I was concerned, one was as bad as the other. Then came 9-11 and that changed everything, or so I thought at the time. The Libertarians were saying that it was all our fault for getting involved in the Middle East in the first place. While there may have been some truth to that, it was no time to bring it up. First we needed to teach those terrorists a lesson and put them back in their place, then we could go back to arguing about American politics again. The Libertarians didn't see it that way, so we parted company. Fifteen years later, half of that under the Republicans and half of it under the Democrats, the terrorists are more arrogant and farther out of their place than ever. The tail is still wagging the dog, and all the dog can do is chew on its own foot.

Our garage has never been used for a garage, it's a furnace room, workshop, storage area, and smoking lounge but, for some reason, we still call it the garage. It's kind of a porch in the summer because I leave the big door open a lot of the time, particularly when I've got the propane grill going just outside. There are no passers by, at least not any human ones. Before old Splash died in 2008, We used to say howdy to each other and make small talk while I grilled supper and the blue jays stole Splash's dog food. Now the pen stands empty, but the blue jays still sit on the fence waiting in vain for me to fill the dog feeder again. I guess old habits die hard.

The front of the house faces away from the road, and dense vegetation blocks sight of the road from the house unless you go up on the roof and look right down the power line. Cars don't go whizzing by because the road dead ends in the junkyard just past our driveway. The neighbors might stroll by occasionally, but we can't see them and they can't see us. It seems like your balcony could serve as kind of a porch too. If you wanted to say howdy to somebody, you could just text them wherever they are. You could also mount a telescope on the railing and look through the windows of the other tall buildings around you. Who knows, you might see an attractive lady looking back at you through her telescope, and she might hold up a sign with her phone number on it. I seem to remember seeing that in a movie or TV show, so it must be possible.