A dear Palestinian friend (ooh, he has Palestinian friends?!) responded with this:
—–Original Message—–
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2008 10:19 AM
Subject: RE: Does anyone remember Guernica?The Palestinian conflict under Bush is like two bookends: It started out with his buddy Sharon bombing the hell out of Palestinians, and is ending in the same manner. The man is not only intellectually challenged, but is insanely evil. If there is a hell (I’ve been having serious doubts about the heaven and hell stories), then he will roast eternally there.
To which I replied: …my doubting friend, heaven and hell are all we have; there are eternities of unrequited justice to be meted out some day. If they do not exist, then we have no hope, or our hope is irrational. This too shall pass; we have less than a month of our national nightmare, our dangerous dalliance with “The Dark Side,” as the de facto president Dick Cheney muttered shortly after 9-11. Obama won’t be our messiah, but at least the American people had the sense to change course from our disastrous adventures in Iraq. Think about it: for the first time in our relatively short history we have elected an openly anti-war candidate, and a mixed-race one at that. Who would have thought that the son of a black Kenyan and a white Kansas would defeat the Clintonista juggernaut and then the dirty-tricks and deepest pockets of the Republicans? There is always hope, my friend, or there is nothing. I, too, hope that there are special hells for the worst offenders like Bush and Cheney and Sharon and Netanyahoo and the all those television evangelists and pulpit pounders and flag wavers who have gorged themselves on the sincerity of ignorant Americans.