Today, Fred Rogers died. Mr. Rogers was an important part of my life. From him I learned how crayons are made, that "make-believe" is important, and that you should like yourself. Yes, I learned that from many other places, including my parents, but Mr. Rogers made it his goal to teach everyone that. His show is educational, informative, relaxed, and fun. So few childrens' shows are anymore. Most are just ads for toys. Yeah, I watched transformers, but I was upset if I missed Mr. Rogers. This was a man who wrote all of his scripts by hand on yellow legal pads, and went to seminary on his lunch-break. You almost never saw him off the show, because he had no desire for fame or star status. He wanted to teach kids the best he was able. He did.
His death brings sadness to millions of people who grew up with him. Yet I take some comfort in the memory that when my grandfather died, one of the ways my parents helped me was with a booklet that Mr. Rodgers had written about dealing with death as a child. The man understood that life is temporary, and that we have to do the best we can with what we have. I can only hope that when I have children, I can find someone like him to help me know how to teach them like my parents did, and that when I reach the end of my life, I can feel that I made even a small part of the difference that Mr. Rogers did. http://pbskids.org/rogers/

So... it's been a while since I updated, but judging by the total lack of responses I usually get, there's only 3 people reading this and they're my parents and brother. Is anyone esle reading this nonsense? Even if you're not, that doesn't mean I'll stop writing it.
So I've been reading a lot of the stuff at Orson Scott Card's website. If you get a chance, read his essays on the current war situation. They make a lot of sense, in a way that I don't think most people see things.
As far as that goes, what do I think of the war? ("Wait" you say, "shouldn't that be 'what do you think about the war?'") Um... no, it's not your web page now is it. I think that the US has an obligation to defend itself and its allies. I think we should use diplomatic means whenever possible and only use force as a last resort. However, I also think that if we say we are going to use force, we should use it. And not only should we use force when it's called for, we should use massive, overwhelming force. We should not use force against a government that protects it's people and leaves its neighbors to their own lives. But when a government is killing it's own people or attacking it's neighbors we should say "Stop now, or else we will eliminate your government and occupy your country until every citizen is given the opportunity to decide who they want in charge." If they want a king, or dictator, that's up to them, but when they start killing people, we stop them. I realize things are more complicated than that on the whole, but something needs to be done, and sitting on our thumbs isn't getting anything accomplished. How can we do this? I don't know, I'm a theatre technician, but someone out there must have some ideas that will work. Maybe every memeber nation of the UN should transfer a percentage of it's military to the UN's control, give the UN the ability to enforce their mandate. These troops would wear only the insignia of the UN, and any country that interfered with them would be embargoed... or something. Any ideas?