I got a letter in my email today, from an old friend of mine who lives down in New Orleans. It was a response to an email I'd forwarded out, "An Appology to Americans" written by Rick Mercer, a very funny, satirical Canadian comic. It was followed with slogans written on protest signs at a big peace rally held in Washington DC. One of my friends got very angry about the email, despite despising Bush and the stupidity of the US position on Iraq, but he was offended by Canadian's mocking the US. When I first opened Adam's email, I thought that the length of it suggested he was about to tear my head off, too. Afterall, when we first started talking, his idea of US politics was to wrap himself in the Confederate flag and dance like a monkey. Time caused him to open his eyes, though, and his world view broadened greatly. Now, I present his letter to me. Thank you, Adam, it blew me away.

well, as a native Louisianian, i can tell you that i usually care less about
national politics and more about when crawfish are in season (which they are
right now, and i would send you some if they werent such a perishable item).
i dont think we should bomb iraq. his father had his chance to dethrone
saddam and passed it right up. everybody thinks it's about disarming iraq
but it's always been about oil. the gas is one problem, and i can tell you
that i'm sick of paying a dollar and a half for the watered down stuff. we
have the technology for hybrid electric or hydrogen powered cars and you
know why we dont have them yet - because too many people would lose money.
the other problem is how to stop people from driving airplanes into tall
buildings, and i dont really have a straight answer for that one. and a lot
of people in this country who dont live in new york or california or any
other high profile state think that this shit can't and won't happen to
them, which is pretty dangerous thinking - timothy mcveigh did it in
Oklahoma, of all places.

and let's not even mention health care. i used to install computer
networks, and a lot of our clients were dentists. there was a piece of
paper posted by the front desk of one office that had a picture of the CEO
of a major HMO, and his salary (well over 17 million dollars/year) was
printed below his picture. it basically told customers that if they were
unhappy about the price of dental insurance, that they should remember that
guy and how much he makes, and that's the problem right there. health
insurance for the department store where i work is extremely expensive, and
that's just for you. dont even bring your family into it. i figure it
would be almost 40-50% of my check *every week*. but then if you dont have
it, a visit to the doctor will run you from $90-120. it almost makes you
sick ;) but you have average working people who can barely afford health
and dental insurance, and the guy who works for the HMO making a ridiculous
amount of money off of it.

i think we have a lot of things to fix in this country before we go meddling
in other countries' affairs. i myself could give a shit if n. korea wants
to play with nuclear power. it doesnt matter if you think they're crazy or
not, i find it hard to believe that they dont know it's impossible to "win"
an all out nuclear war. we should stop being the world police.

you know as well as i do how much things are screwed up in this country, and
although i bet canada has its share of greedy politicians, i think that i
want to move there some day, but only if i can get a steady supply of spicy
food and beer and seafood and live music. that is all that we know down
here and that's all that i care about.