Maybe someone can explain to me why so many journalists and politicians are clamoring for diplomacy, for negotiations, for terms of agreement, and.......unbelievably.......for a U. N. resolution.  Unless someone has been living in a cave for the past few decades and is totally ignorant of the events that have unfolded in the Middle East during that time, he/she must know that terrorists have no use for diplomacy, that their set-in-stone goals leave no room for negotiations, that they do not honor terms of agreement, and that a U. N. resolution does exist that covers the present situation.......only Hezbollah hasn't honored it any more than it would honor a new one.

U. N. Security Council Resolution 1559 contains a provision that calls for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias, including Hezbollah.  I believe the resolution is now two years old, and Hezbollah has neither disbanded nor disarmed itself.  If anything, it has grown in strength and numbers.  So.....why does the so-called "international community" believe that anything the U. N. does will have any lasting effect?  I just hope we won't be seeing any more requests for one of those "land for peace" arrangements, since it should be evident to everyone by now that Hezbollah doesn't want part of Israel.  Their goal is to take ALL of Israel.    

I think I understand (although I don't condone) the reasons why some countries choose to remain silent.  And of course I understand the compliance of the nations who simply hate the U. S. and will oppose us on just about any issue.  I also understand (although I am shocked by it) the complacence of the American people, who are torn between what the administration tells them and what they read in the media.  What I don't understand is the attitude of the  media and our liberal politicians.   Since I can't bring myself to believe that the liberal media hates Bush so much that it would completely and deliberately obliterate the truth, then I have to assume they are simply blinded to it.  And that in itself is mind-boggling.

Most of the people I talk to don't think of themselves as Republicans or Democrats.   Their views are often mixed and cannot be placed in either a conservative or liberal mold.  In fact, all of them have only one thing common:  they're confused.  They don't know who or what to believe.  Do they believe the President, even though the media has made them distrustful of his administration?  Or do they believe the media, which blames the President for the war on terror (and just about everything else) and insists that things would be oh so much better if we just brought the troops home?  In the end......people choose to believe what they WANT to believe.  And they would rather believe that there are simple solutions to the problem.

"Our aggression is only making  things worse," they say.   "If we use diplomacy instead of exhibiting a military presence in Iraq, we will be able to co-exist peacefully with the terrorists." 

Oh.....really??

Why is it so hard for some people to understand that this is not a war between nations?  This is not a war that can be fought in a conventional way.  This is a war with people who are scattered in every major country of the planet.....ready to strike from within at a moment's notice.  Their religion may have different denominations.  Their ideologies may conflict.  Their leaders may despise each other.  But, they are united by one common cause:  their hatred for Americans and their way of life.  They don't want peaceful co-existence.  They simply want us eradicated from the face of the planet. 

So.....tell me how you're going to "negotiate" with this type of enemy.  The U. N.?  Go ahead and bring them in.  Let them come up with yet another worthless resolution.  Let them place a nice little band-aid on a wound so large that it will be bleeding again within weeks or months.  

I suppose I should start this blog by writing a little about myself and how I feel about the United States of America.  I'm a baby boomer born in 1947 and grew up in a working class family that emigrated to the United States from Cuba in 1956.  For those who are historically challenged, 1956 was three years before Fidel Castro's regime began its 47-year devastation of a tiny nation that was once the pride of the Caribbean.  Thus, we were not refugees.  We belonged to the first wave of Cuban immigrants.....those who were fortunate to escape the horror of a bloody revolution but not the pain of knowing that we could never again return to our homeland.

At this point I will freely admit the pain of exile is not something I share with those who still long for their native country.  It would have been nice to see Cuba once again before I die, but a tyrant has made that impossible.  I feel sad and outraged when I see photos of the poverty that Cubans face -- the decaying buildings, the lack of food, the violation of human rights....... but it has been too long for me to feel more than a distant connection to the island that was once my home.  The United States has been my home for 50 of my 59 years, and I accept the fact that I will never see Cuba again.  I am, in every sense, an American.

My family came here not just looking for freedom and a better way of life.  We came determined to learn English, to embrace American customs and traditions, and to become -- in every way -- Americans.  That's how it was in 1956.  That was the attitude of the shiny-eyed immigrants who left their homelands carrying little more than a willingness to work hard to achieve the American dream.  In 1956 there was no bilingual education......and for that I will forever be grateful.  My siblings and I were thrust into a classroom where only English was spoken.....and it was sink or swim.  To describe how well that system worked, perhaps I should just say that we picked up the language so quickly that none of us remember "learning" English.  That way, I won't have to get into a 6-page-long dissertation about the inequities of the infamous Bilingual Education Act of 1968.   

One of my first memories of our new life in the U. S. is riding the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.  Our parents had told us the story of "the Lady" and how she welcomed immigrants from all over the world to her shores.  I was proud to be welcomed.....proud to learn and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.....proud to learn about the forefathers who gave their lives for the creation of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.  The more I learned about my new nation's history, the more I realized (and our parents reminded us constantly) how lucky we were to live in America.

Sound corny??

Yeah, maybe so.  But oh, how I wish I could infect today's immigrants with that same corniness!!  How I wish I could make them feel loyalty to the country that has given them so much in return!  How I wish I could make them understand that this beautiful land is much more than a place to earn money to send back home.....much more than a place to live in while preserving their own heritage.  How I wish I could preserve that proverbial melting pot, which has sadly evolved into a salad whose separate ingredients refuse to blend together to maintain national unity.  If someone doesn't make that wish come true, we risk losing the meaning of the words "one nation, under God, indivisible".

For those reading this blog, I should warn you that I am intransigent when it comes to anything I consider to be disloyal or disrespectful to this nation.  I am (to the point of being tiresome, I've been told) sentimental about the values this nation stands for......and the symbols that represent it.  I have knocked on a neighbor's door to politely ask him to replace a torn and tattered flag flying from his roof (which he willingly did) and entangled myself verbally with an employee who wiped her hands on the flag of a government agency because she couldn't find paper towels in the bathroom.  I stand up and hold my hand to my heart when I recite the Pledge of Allegiance or salute the flag.   I still get goosepimples when I hear the Star-Spangled Banner, especially when played in a stadium by a full orchestra.  And I ache when I see the signs of our nation becoming more and more divided.

There is a lot more that I could write about myself, but for the purposes of this blog, this is all you need to know..  This will be a forum for my rants and raves on everything that affects the world around me, from the things I love to the burrs under my saddle.......and making no apologies for my Christian-based conservative views and my love for my country.