John’s Blog

Wow. The Prime Minister is in NYC at the UN and so the military stages a coup. You think this sort of thing doesn’t happen these days — pretty freaky. Kathy & I were there in 2000 — really terrific place, we thought, although there were concerns even back then about corruption of Thaksin Shinawatra, their PM. Weird to see tanks rolling in anywhere, but especially in a place you’ve visited.

on the way home from my library board meeting, NPR was playing a talk by bill clinton. i was absolutely blown away by his level of thought, the coherency of his views, and the relevance to my life. i was particularly struck by the thought that it’s pretty scary that i’ve grown so accustomed to all the crap that’s going on in Washington these days that a throwaway speech by a former president was a revelation because it made me want to understand more, to be better, to have a real discourse with kathy, my friends, everyone.

on a day that i wanted to be thinking of americans and america, and instead found myself thinking of partisanship and political posturing, really and truly, it just about made me weep.