This is the first day in my life that I've been ashamed to be an American. The majority of our citizens chose to support a preemptive unilateral war. There was no vote counting debacle. There were no lies about weapons of mass destruction and alleged connections between Osama bin Laden and Iraq. No. There was no mistake. My compatriots have spoken.

I find it astounding that gay marriage is a moral issue, while the destruction of thousands of lives is acceptable. One friend told me that fewer Iraqis will starve because of the US involvement. That's not good enough. Not good enough to put Americans in harm's way. Not good enough to completely disrupt the lives of innocent Iraqis. Maybe Americans don't understand what it is to have a war on their own soil. After all, we haven't experienced that in 150 years. Although Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were tragic, they were isolated incidents. Our schools, churches, and other institutions were not completely destroyed. We didn't have bombs falling from the sky on a daily basis. Other countries haven't had that luxury. Maybe that's why most other nations weren't ready to embrace the Iraqi invasion.

Are those in the Mid-West and the South so removed from things that they don't understand? Perhaps in their small towns they don't have contact with people of different cultures, and they don't see that the "enemies" are human beings trying to raise their families, just as we are? Have they lost their compassion for humanity?

The post-election analysts say that those that supported Bush did so because they thought he would keep us safer or because they were voting for morality. In the case of security, I can only say that nobody can truly protect us, though it helps if we don't anger the entire world. As for morality, progressives need to take a hard look at what's going on. The Right does not have a monopoly on morals. And moral issues do not end at abortion, stem cell research, and gay marriage. War, civil liberties, helping the poor, and the environment - these are moral issues. It's my firm belief that religious people across the country have been fooled.

When I woke this morning, my first instinct was to move to Canada. But if progressives move, where does that leave the US? It's our responsibility to do the right thing - to stay here and fight for freedom and for those who can't fight for themselves. Karl Rove took morality and turned it inside out to win an election. Let's take it back.

"This is the (e:peep) mafia. You haven't been attending our meetings. Don't you know that once you join, you can never leave. Show up to the Pink or else.."

Okay, so that wasn't exactly verbatim. But (e:jill) and (e:mike) were certainly trying to stir up some trouble last night.

(E:peeps) are down and they haven't seen each other. All signs point to an epeep night out. Maybe we should try another Thursday night at the Pink. According to (e:strip), even Republicans like it there.

And to help us all cheer up - how about some winter outings? Anyone interested in cross-country skiing or ice skating?

Let's get the morale back up around here.