Senator Kerry: disgusting

Kerry: Snow, McCain 'Nut-Jobs' for Criticizing Military Education Comments
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
October 31, 2006


(CNSNews.com) - Raising eyebrows and infuriating conservatives, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in a speech Monday encouraged young people to get an education or "get stuck in Iraq."

"Education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well," Kerry told students in Pasadena while campaigning for California gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides.

"If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq," he added.

The comment set off a firestorm on conservative websites, with some commentators accusing him of "elitism," and of "smearing" the troops by implying that they are uneducated.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) called on Kerry to apologize Tuesday.

In a statement posted on his political action committee's website, McCain said Kerry "owes an apology to the many thousands of Americans serving in Iraq, who answered their country's call because they are patriots and not because of any deficiencies in their education."

"The suggestion that only the least educated Americans would agree to serve in the military and fight in Iraq, is an insult to every soldier serving in combat," McCain said.

In a statement released Tuesday, Kerry accused White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and "assorted right-wing nut-jobs" of distorting the comments "to divert attention from their disastrous record."

"If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy," Kerry said. "I'm sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did."

Snow told a press briefing Tuesday Kerry "not only owes an apology to those who are serving, but also to the families of those who've given their lives in this."

"This is an absolute insult, and I'm a little astonished that he didn't figure it out already." Snow added.

The national commander of the American Legion also called on Kerry to apologize for his comments.

"As a constituent of Senator Kerry's I am disappointed. As leader of The American Legion, I am outraged," said National Commander Paul A. Morin in a statement."

A generation ago, Sen. Kerry slandered his comrades in Vietnam by saying that they were rapists and murderers. It wasn't true then and his warped view of today's heroes isn't true now," said Morin.

"While The American Legion shares the senator's appreciation for education, the troops in Iraq represent the most sophisticated, technologically superior military that the world has ever seen," Morin said. "I think there is a thing or two that they could teach most college professors and campus elitists about the way the world works.

Morin also called on Kerry and "his comrades in Congress" to approve the GI bill "so all of today's military members - reserves and guard included - can achieve the educational aspirations that the senator so highly values."

"The senator's false and outrageous attack was over-the-top and he should apologize now," Morin concluded.


I am going to do my best, at least initially, to put aside the "liberal" and "conservative" comments. Really.

Because this goes beyond politics. Well, at least for a second anyway. :)

I sincerely find this to be one of the most bone-headed remarks of this century. You know, people criticize the President for some of the stupid things he's said over the past few years and well--admittedly, he has indeed said and done some assinine things in his tenure as Commander-in-Chief. This goes without saying.

But despite Bush happily chatting with journalists about "The Google," or choking on pretzels, or being distracted by hanging lighting in the middle of a press conference as a cat would be distracted by a ball of yarn, this Kerry comment takes the cake in the "stupid" column.

First off, I will say this: I half-jokingly make fun of my employer, the Air Force, all the time. I'm pissed that I'm going to be jobless because of moronic senior leadership who make dickheaded decisions and waste money left and right.

But I will also say the following: I am ashamed to have not served in the United States military.

Yeah, you read correctly. I'm ASHAMED of myself.

I wish I could have the same level of respect for myself as I do for those who have served in our military. But I don't.

You know why?

Because my lazy ass went to college instead. I drank beer, ate pizza, guzzled vodka, did the occasional term paper (all while doing nothing but bitching about it the entire time), discussed philisophical jargon, drank more beer, passed out on random people's couches, and oh yeah--drank beer.

And then, even after I graduated college, I didn't enter the military as an officer. No way. Instead, I sat on my ass for a couple of months and finally landed a job as a government contractor doing cushy writing and editing work.

When 9/11 happened, I thought about it. I thought about fighting for my country. But did I do it? Nope.

And a lot of people out there thought about it and didn't do it for their own personal reasons. And believe me--I ain't judgin' anyone for not joining the military. That's your business 110%. That's not what this is about.

But do you know ultimately why I didn't choose to join our Armed Forces?

Because I'm a lazy bastard. That, and perhaps I'm more cowardly than I care to admit. Because I chose to accept that somewhat cushy desk job rather than be willing to get my sorry ass over to Iraq or Afganistan if I were to be ordered to do so.

The people that are in our military deserve a thousand times more respect than they get. But instead, they have some "senator" (and I use that term loosely) making retarded comments that seem to incinuate that fighting for our wonderful country in the Armed Forces is some sort of BAD THING. As if being sent over to Iraq is punishment for being "stupid in school" or not going out and getting a college education.

First off, if I had the nads to join the military, I'd be privileged to fight for this country, despite some of the absolute fucktards that live in it. It's no punishment; it's an honor.

Our servicemen and women, even if they never set foot on foreign soil or shoot a gun at some raving lunatic to save their own lives or the lives of their comrades, sacrifice so much every day to protect us. They are PREPARED to do things we couldn't even comprehend.

And goddamn it, most of the servicemen and women I've encountered are some of the smartest folks I've ever met. I work with engineers, program managers, doctors, nurses, information officers, information technology managers, public affairs officers, lawyers, battle strategists, pilots and acquisition managers at this Base, and they all have a level of knowledge I couldn't gain a fraction of if I did nothing but study for the rest of my days.

These servicemen and women were called, in one way or another, to defend their country in any way they knew how--not because of any sort of deficiency in their education.

Senator Kerry: you may have fought in Vietnam, but you've forgotten, in your elitist senatorial mind, what these folks have sacrificed for you as of recent. If you truly remembered your military days, you wouldn't make such a mentally challenged remark because you would recall all that you sacrificed during those days in Nam.

And then, to make yourself look like less of the shithead that you actually are, you blame the President for the war. Not that Georgie doesn't have his faults, but it disgusts me that you actually made the attempt to sidetrack your own bullshit comment by blaming the people who actually had the balls to call you on how much bullshit it actually was.

Be a fucking MAN. Apologize to the people you, in essence, called stupid, who are actually the bravest, smartest people we will ever know. And then, pull your head out of your ass and thank them for the sacrifices they've made.

I've never had a whole lot of respect for you, Senator Kerry. But now, you just plain disgust me.

PB and Fluff.

So, nothing really uber-exciting has happened this past week. This is the reason for my not writing. I really have very little substance-wise to write about now, actually--but I feel the need to update this thing for one reason or another.

I have two phone interviews for jobs in Boston. I'm not thrilled that the companies which decided to contact me are in the city, because it's a bitch of a commute from southern NH to Boston every morning. Route 93 is a goddamned nightmare, unless you manage to get on the road before 4:30 every morning.

And since y'all already know I love sleep so much, that ain't happenin'.

But I'm at least going to hear what they have to say. You never know--there may be some sort of work-at-home-a-couple-of-days-a-week option, which would be great. Or, if they have a flex-time option, that may work, too.

My neighbor across the street let me know of the position located in Cambridge (just outside of the city on the Somerville line). It sounds pretty decent, but involves some level of recruiting, which typically means that the position will involve a mediocre salary with a commission draw. Many recruiting-types of positions work that way. I wouldn't mind recruiting so much if it just offered me a decent salary. But the concept of commissions scare me. There's something about not having a definite amount in my paycheck every two weeks that gives me the creeps. I want to know what to expect. But we'll see; it may be one of those positions that offers salary only, because only one portion of it is recruiting.

The other position is with a PR firm downtown. After hearing that I would be unemployed in about a month, I simply sent my resume out to every company I could find within a 30 mile radius. So, I saw an opening on Craigslist (where else?) for a PR Strategist position that required 5-7 years of experience. I knew I didn't have a snowball's chance in Hell, but I submitted it anyway, along with a writing sample. Lo and behold--I get a phone call from the firm and they want to hear more about me. Part of me is excited that a company was interested in hearing from a candidate with only 2 years experience in the full-time work world. But after noticing that the e-mails from the executive assistant were sent at 9:17 pm on Friday and 5:49 pm on Sunday, I'm quite apprehensive.

You see, I will work my butt off during the week (provided I am given work to do). I'll work the typical 8-4/8-5 schedule no problem and have no issues staying late on occasion during the week for a special project. However, I don't care if this position offers me 100k per year (which won't happen), I will not take anything that requires me to stay late every damn Friday and work on weekends.

So, if the executive assistant works these insane hours, I'm worried that they will require me to do similiarly. Not interested. Sorry for wanting a life. I'm just not into working 70-90 hours a week for ANY pay. The day my work takes over my entire life will be the day I put a bullet into my head.

But for right now, I AM excited that I'm already getting callbacks. It makes me feel a little better about my employment situation. I'm still worried sick, but hey--that's just my unreasonable self.

Other than that, I've been somewhat boring. Hung out with Jeff Friday night, which was fun. But honestly, the remainder of the weekend was pretty dull. I'm trying to prepare myself for unemployment (whether is becomes a reality or not) by spending as little as possible. So I stayed in much of the weekend, or did cheap or free things when I DID go out. I went for a couple of walks, visited the kitties at the shelter, wrote some poetry, and read a lot--in addition to looking for gainful employment, of course. I love wind, and the windy weather here really exhilerated me. I actually went for a walk in the wind and pouring rain. I came back completely drenched, but it was fun and it helped me to clear my head.

I must have looked like a fucking lunatic out on the road talking a leisurely stroll, though.

Last night I went to go have some Indian food with Tim. I haven't seen him in like, forever, and I figured I could splurge a little since I've been so good with my spending lately. Besides, from the outside, the place looked like a dive--and again, it's Indian food--so I figured it would be relatively inexpensive.

We walk in and the place is beautiful. Nicely decorated, waiters with napkins folded over their arms, etc. I instantly think to myself, "Shit. This place is gonna cost me some bank." We sit down and I'm right. The last thing I want to do was spend $13.95 on some Chicken Mikhni (or whatever the fuck it's called), but I didn't want to look cheap, so I sucked it up and dealt with it. It was okay, but certainly not worth $13.95. More like $3.95--which is what I was EXPECTING TO PAY IN THE FIRST PLACE!

So....I'll be enjoying peanut butter and fluff sandwiches for lunch all week. Yay.

Would you like fries with that?

Last week was interesting. It was chock-filled with a couple of great--but more not-so-great--occurances I feel the need to share in a play-by-play fashion:

Last Sunday: Did pretty much nothing for most of the morning and afternoon. Saw the kitties at the shelter, gave them their meds. Took my parents to the 99 for their anniversary (I think choosing the 99 is ridiculous, too...but hey--that's what they wanted). It didn't matter anyway; my Dad never lets me pay for any meal, even if it IS an anniversary/birthday/other random day of celebration gift.

Last Monday: Lame. Just took care of some stupid administrative work that I've been putting off for a while now. It really won't serve any purpose and it doesn't matter if I did it or just took all the paperwork and threw it away. Sent away for some grad school information from Harvard Divinity and Tufts. Realized I had no money I wanted to devote to grad school at this point in time. Organized my personal home files. I repeat: lame.

Last Tuesday: Started off the day with fire drill #1 for the week. Really fun considering I didn't bring a coat and the morning was a little chilly. Finished up some award write-ups. These are dreadfully boring and I felt kinda crappy with horrendous allergies most of the day, so the effort I put into them was minimal (I admit). Looked for full and part-time work, as I was thinking of how I'd ultimately like to find a different full-time job soon and since my per diem job really isn't producing any hours, I'd like a steadier part-time gig. Met Jeff for dinner at....yes...the 99. Quite enjoyable time as we actually sat for roughly 4 hours in the restaurant and talked. Kinda forgot about feeling crappy. :)

Last Wednesday: Yet another lame day at work. Was asked to do more award write-ups. Yay. Found out one of my articles would be published in Defense Link News (Pentagon/Dept. of Defense publication). This is a big deal for a measily base journalist, so I'm pretty thrilled. So was my boss. Was then ironically informed by my boss that his boss likely wouldn't renew my contract through no fault of my own (they have no MONEY, you see), which means I need to get my ass in gear and look for a full-time job (something I should be doing right now but have chosen to write this instead) because the chances of my having my old one come December 5th are minimal. How fucking special. I've only been looking/interviewing for a less shitty job for an entire year now without any luck. Now I have a month and a half to find one. I go home at the end of the day and spend hours upon hours looking for and applying to other positions that sound halfway decent. I'm sure as the time gets closer I'll start thinking of waitressing/retail. The concept of that makes me cringe and I cry a little bit.

Last Thursday: Still reeling from lack-of-job notification. Proceed to interview some AF major for some lame-ass article. But really, who cares at this point? Ponder not going and just saying "to hell with it." I go anyway. Get locked out of building for an hour and a half because some sergeant decided to start an anthrax-infestation rumor in our building after finding AJAX ON THE FLOOR OF THE JANITOR'S CLOSET. Real fucking brilliant. I approach some airman about what's going on, to which she promptly screams at me to "get back." Apparently I could be contaminated, too, so I can't go anywhere. What a joke. At least let me back into my building. I'll take my goddamned chances at this point. Eventually realize that leaving this place won't be that bad after all.

Last Friday: Fire drill #2 occurs just as I'm walking into my building at 7:45. Knowing this will be a while, I walk back to my car and go get a tea at Dunks. I shouldn't spend the money considering I'll be unemployed soon, but hey--what the fuck, right? Sat in car, enjoyed tea, listened to my favorite morning radio show until 8:30. Sit at my desk while continuing to realize how badly this place sucks. I loathe the Air Force. I loathe my boss's boss even more. I dream of the day when I actually tell off a general on December 5. No one has the nerve to do that. Except moi. :) Enjoyed another night out with Jeff--definitely lifted my spirits a lot after a rough week.

Last Saturday: Slept in. A lot. I'm too ashamed to admit how late, though. Babysat in the afternoon/evening, since my parents went out with the couples from across the way and SOMEONE had to watch their rugrats so why not have Karen do it? I don't typically like kids a whole lot but these kids were pretty awesome. It was as if I was watching two little adults. The couples returned back at 10-ish, sent the kids to bed, and many of us got drunk (except for my parents). This is the first time my pretty-damn-conservative parents have actually seen me drunk. I'm chuckling again at the thought of it, mainly because I'm 24 and they're still mortified at the thought of my touching liquor.

Yesterday: Hung out with Ry and D. I'm one of those terrible people who has never seen the "Back to the Future" series, so we watched those and ate delicious ravioli and turkey roll-ups. Random meal choices, but ever-so-tasty. Overall a very low-key day--something I so desperately needed.

So yeah. That's it. I'm excited about a few things, and still very depressed about others--namely a prospective period of unemployment. But things could definitely be worse and I'm trying not to feel sorry for myself. I'm still in that relative "funk" I mentioned a few weeks ago...but hey--once I get accustomed to the phrase, "Would you like fries with that?", I'm sure I'll be fine. :)

Air Force: Aim High. Kiss my soon-to-be-unemployed ass.

So, to those who do not know this, I presently work as a government contractor, in the public affairs/journalism arena, for the Air Force.

I italicized "presently" because I won't be working there after 5 December.

This is NOT of my own doing. While I kind of hate my job, and have been looking for another one on and off for quite some time, I did not want to leave by 5 December.

I wanted to leave on my own terms, with another fucking job lined up.

But now, despite the fact that my articles have just been published in some of the top military publications (in fact, I just had an article featured this week in THE top Department of Defense publication), and I have been distinguished as "a crucial member of the public affairs team" by the number-one public affairs officer in the entire Air Force, and have received an award for my "insightful investigational journalism skills," I am conveniently being released from my contract.

You see, the Air Force just doesn't have the money.

It has money to spend on people who snooze on the job, who don't show up to work, who are assholes for lack of a better term and who don't care about the product they put out.

It has money to spend on completely useless and outdated programs, which are constantly failing every time they are tested.

It has money to spend on people who already make far too much money in their paychecks every week, by awarding them raises for poor performance.

But it no longer has the money to spend on people who actually give a shit about the product they research for hours/days/months and proudly put their name on.

It no longer has the money to give to offices who go above and beyond the call of duty to work hard to provide a very popular governmental publication that has been heralded by senior leadership for its informative genius. Instead, the Air Force cuts the funding for these offices whose people actually don't sleep on the job, aren't complete and utter shitheads, and do good things for the country.

The Air Force is filled to the brim with asshole generals who make terrible decisions based on politics. That means you too, Rooney.

Thanks for the kick in the ass for all the hard work I've done over the past couple of years.

Aim high?

I hope someone AIMS an airplane HIGH up your ass.

Old Man Eyebrows.

OK, so the people that have known me for a while also probably know that I have some degree of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Not with regard to EVERYTHING, but with a lot of things. And while I am on a medication for this weirdness, these are just a few of the things I still have issues with:

Personal hygiene. I suppose that there are worse things to be obsessed with. But honestly, I would shower 12 times a day if I could. I used to shower 3 times a day, sometimes more, before I went on my meds. And I would walk out of the shower and immediately feel dirty again. So, needless to say, anytime I did ANYTHING--whether it would be washing some dishes in the sink, or vaccuuming a small room, or going to the grocery store--I'd have to shower afterwards. I ALWAYS felt as if I had dirt all over me or I smelled bad. Now that I'm on meds (which I don't take as regularly as I should, but still take them somewhat on schedule), I only shower once or twice per day, mainly because my parents threatened to kill me for nearly drying out the well.

Clutter. I hate clutter. Especially unnecessary clutter. It is perhaps the reason why I always feel uncomfortable in my own home. You see, my parents LOVE knick-knacks of any variety and adorn their home in them. I have a select few in my room, but not many. And I keep them clean. If I didn't dust my house (which I admittedly don't even do that well as I tend to miss large areas), they would be covered with years worth of dust. As a result, I feel the need to keep the random clutter to a minimum. My room is small and while I don't have THAT much stuff, the stuff I DO have seems more prominent in my tiny room, causing me to always feel as if the room is cluttered, when in actuality, it isn't. Clothes on the floor drive me nuts, too. Laurie--I'm sorry for picking up all of the clothes you put on the floor in our hotel room last weekend. I'm crazy. Blame it on that.

Hand-washing. Despite taking meds for this, I still feel the need to wash my hands about 30-40 times per day, especially at work. My hand-washing tendencies are still ridiculously out of control. My hands and cuticles are already dry, cracked and bleeding from a combination of colder weather and copious hand-washing. And I'm not a fan of hand-lotion because anything I put it on my hands makes them automatically feel dirty and I just have to wash them 3 minutes later. So, I'm screwed.

And finally, eyebrows. Holy shit. Crazy eyebrows drive me bonkers. Now, when I say that I am obsessed with tweezing, I truly mean it. I tweeze my eyebrows at least 3-4 times per day. I keep a pair of tweezers in the car because the natural light is optimal for those pesky little fine hairs. I tweeze in traffic every morning. Not only do I keep tweezers in my car, I keep a tiny pair of scissors so that I can trim my ridiculously long eyebrow hairs. Seriously, I have old man eyebrow hairs.

You know what I mean, too--old men's eyebrow hairs are typically ludicrously long and they refuse to groom them in any way once these gentlemen hit 70 years of age. I don't fucking get it.
So, anyway, despite tweezing and trimming my eyebrows, they still seem so horribly fucking unkempt to me. And my skin is so damn pale that no matter how much I tweeze, even the finest, little dark brown eyebrow hairs seem so noticeable to me.

I think my tweezing compulsion comes from one day, pulling my head out of my ass and looking at a picture of myself closely, only to realize that my eyebrows looked like enormous catepillars crawling along the upper portion of my face. WHAT THE FUCK? WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME HOW RETARDED I LOOKED? So, it consequently clicked in my head that I needed to make my brows as thin and as PERFECT as humanly possible.

You may ask why I don't get them waxed. Here's the answer: they start to grow in the VERY NEXT DAMN DAY. It's a waste of money. And wherever I go, the waxer never makes them look right anyway, so I finally said "screw it."

So, anyway, eyebrows are my archnemesis. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why it isn't stylish for a woman to shave her eyebrows completely off. I mean, many of us shave our pits. We shave our legs. Hell, many of us even shave our arms (yours truly included, even though I hardly had ape-arms). Why, for the love of Buddha, can we not develop an eyebrow-shaving feminine mandate?

Maybe, just maybe, the old men would follow suit.

I do NOT heart amaretto. Until next weekend anyway...

So, this probably won't be a long post, but because I'm bored here at work (yet again) and haven't posted for a week or so, I thought I'd write something for y'all to read.

Went to Montreal this long weekend with Laurie, Jess and Karen #2 (Jess's mom). The weather was perfect, the shopping was great. The men were ugly but the scenery was nice. The food kinda sucked, but the booze was delightful.

The booze was delightful until Sunday night. Or should I say 'Monday morning.'

Holy crap.

We all went to the Montreal casino. And I loathe gambling because I'm part Jewish and like to keep hoardes of money to myself (yeah, I just kinda made fun of Jews there; deal with it). So, in order to be slightly amused at a type of place I don't usually enjoy, I decided to get a little buzz on. I slowly nursed my drink consisting of an unusual (but tasty) concoction of amaretto and coke. Everybody else had the "harder" liquors going on--vodka, tequila and the like--but I just wasn't feeling that so I felt that amaretto would be a pretty safe bet.

And it WAS pretty safe, until I got ahold of the shot menu. That's when I found the amaretto and orange juice shot. Most people would say that this sounds pretty gross, but to me it sounded wonderful because I'm up for mixing amaretto with pretty much anything.

So I order one and apprehensively drink it, and soon realize that it is indeed quite tasty. I order one more...and then two at a time. After4 or 5 of these shots and a couple amarettos and cokes, I'm definitely getting a good buzz on (keep in mind my tolerance has since subsided since my college days and I'm a relatively little girl).

As much as I loathe gambling, I decide that I MUST be amidst the bright, shiny, dinging and singing slot machine fury. So I get $60 worth of quarters and blow them all in an hour--all the while getting a few more of those yummy OJ and amaretto shots in between changing seats.

And after that, all I remember is the following: dancing with a 75 year old man in a top hat to a crappy band, Jess slapping random people's asses in the casino (really hard, btw) and blaming it on me so they gave ME the I'm-going-to-kill-your-obnoxious-American-ass looks, and a long taxi-ride home with Jess hanging her head out the window like a golden retriever and asking people if they "had any Grey Poupon." Oh, and yeah--folding my wrap around my head like it was a turban and insisting I would go to the next club, the "Cock and Balls," (it's really called the "Cock and Bull", but calling it that "Cock and Balls" sounded funnier to four drunk women) as a white Muslim.

The rest is kind of a blur.

Now, remember how I said Amaretto and orange juice shots tasted REALLY good going down?

Well, they taste pretty shitty coming back up.

Yeah, while I rarely barf after a night of drinking, I barfed Sunday night/Monday morning like it was my full-time job and I was working overtime.

So, the moral of this whole story? Amaretto and OJ is NOT a good combination. And I won't ever do it again.

Until next weekend.

But dear GOD, do I heart Montreal.

What have the Amish ever done?

I'm greatly disturbed whenever I read about yet another school shooting. But it disturbed me to the core to read about how yet another gunman has targeted a strict Amish community in Pennsylvania.

And I ask myself, "What's next?"

People have already gone so far as to murder ordained clergymen of all faiths--that's "old news." The Jews have been targeted for centuries, with rabbis being some of the first to die at the hands of the Nazis in the Second World War. Catholic nuns and priests are killed on a daily basis in Asian and African nations, especially. Protestants have been persecuted for centuries for "turning against the true, Catholic Church." Islamic clerics, most of whom preach of peace and brotherhood, are gunned down too often in a retaliatory nature because of 9/11 or because of all the terror Muslim EXTREMISTS have expelled on the general populace.

And those all bothered me big-time. But this takes the cake.

I'm not saying that there haven't been "bad" Amish people who have committed crimes of various sorts. But they are typically such a God-fearing, peaceful people that I can't recall ever hearing of one significant Amish criminal.

Granted, they are a very small percentage of the American population. But so are Catholic priests--and you hear stories of how some of them molested children and how their Bishops knew about it and did nothing. Jewish rabbis only make up a small percentage of the population, but I can recall one or two who have been convicted of one bad crime or another. There aren't a TON of Protestant ministers, but you hear stories in the news of various crimes they've committed. And well, as sad as I am to say it, there are, unfortunately, many Islamic cleric-"men of God" who have acted considerably less-than-holy by advocating violence in its most extreme sense.

But these are the AMISH, for the love of God! They make quilts and jelly and homemade furniture. They live off the land and take care one another--refusing to partake in Social Security or welfare benefits for ANY reason. The drive BUGGIES. They don't believe in war, but in peace--even if it means they must die because of their refusal to participate in violence. They wear plain, simple clothes they make themselves. They light candles for illumination because they don't use electricity unless it's TRULY necessary for food preservation and such. They worship daily and many would even say that they worship "excessively." They pray constantly for we "normal people's" sorry asses who are so dependent upon electricity and running water and new cars and the latest fashion and the most expensive and well-known hair stylists, that we may enter the Kingdon of Heaven WITH them, despite the fact that we haven't lived as simply--and as devoutly--as they have.

They are unusual, yes. But if ANYONE didn't deserve this to happen to their community, it's the Amish. They don't deserve gunmen murdering their children execution-style. Not that ANYONE deserves that, really...but ESPECIALLY them.

You know what? If the man who gunned down these innocent children of these incredible families did that to MY kid, I'd hate him with all of my being. As unfair as it would be (and I fully admit that it would be unfair), I'd likely be mad at his family, too--maybe his parents did SOMETHING wrong while raising him?! Maybe his wife did SOMETHING to piss him off to THAT extent? It wouldn't even matter, really. My kid would be dead and I'd be apeshit and consequently, I'd want to find someone to take it out on.

But these wonderful people will pray for this man like they have never prayed before. They will pray that he is forgiven by God and enters the Kingdom of Heaven with them. They'll pray for his family and friends and will grieve not only for their OWN losses, but for the gunman's family's loss.

And then, they will forgive this person who so brutally killed their children. And they'll MEAN it.
And this is why I find the Amish an odd, but ever-so-incredible group of people. This is why these people are a million times better than I could ever hope to be.

And this is why the Amish, especially, just plain didn't deserve this evil to strike their community.