Lousy Anniversary

Three years ago when I took this photo, I could hardly believe we'd gone to war. It was kind of fun and kind of miserable to run around San Francisco that day, dancing in the street - War! UNH, What is it good for? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! - marching around the Mission and the Castro chanting and waving and all that. Sleep deprived. Goofy. Receiving free Cliff Bars from Food Not Bombs and giving interviews for Indy radio stations. Remarkably festive. It was San Francisco, after all. People were by and large happy to see protesters, even if it meant they'd be late to work. It's that kind of city. Weird to be so festive on such a day, though.

I'm feeling a lot less festive about it all now, three years later. I never dreamed this war would last so long. I think I have what Dave calls "Outrage Fatigue." I don't live in Iraq or anyplace nearby, and I don't have a kid or a husband or a parent over there, so I guess that means I have the luxury of fatigue, of tuning it all out when I'm tired of worrying about it. I'm tuning back in over the past few days, and it's reminding me that I've been tuned out, and that makes me feel really lousy. It scares the hell out of me: what's going on in the rest of America? Are we too drugged up on TV dramas and material consumption and prescription mood lifters and the daily grind to remember what's happening, to read the news, to take responsibility, to change? We've become slaves to our own comfort over here, haven't we?