"Glenna Rose" wrote in message
news:fc.003d09410231090d3b9aca002b3f1551.23109b6@p mug.org...
Australia has always been one of my hoped-for travel destinations so it
matters what you folks think of us.

Until fairly recently Australians mostly had a fairly positive view of the
USA. There is that history of allies during war and economic cooperation.
However recent polls have shown that our opinion of you is now much lower,
the main issue being the Iraq war and the main cause being GWB.

Hopefully, you folks don't believe
the media reports (read: government reports) about the support for the war
by those in the U.S. I suspect those support percentages are inflated or
carefully "collected." While we in our area are not notorious current
administration supporters, there was only one person I knew who supported
the invasion. Irony? She professes to be a christian (lower case
deliberate) - which brings me to a sign posted pre-invasion at our local
raceway, "Who would Jesus bomb?"

Oz is a largely secular State. Anybody who wants to mix politcs and
religion is likely to be considerd by the great majority as not doing the
right thing or a religious nutcase. Rarely religious leaders cross this
line and when they do are often roundly condemned for it. The influence of
the religious right on USA politics is not well known here but the cause for
much head shaking among those who know about it.

Of course, none of her children are in
the military - though the way things are going, the draft will catch her
youngest. (Did I say "draft?" If our current administration attacks Iraq
as well, where do people think these troops are going to come from?)

Since a child and learning of Hitler's "actions" regarding large segments
of Germany and neighboring countries population, I wondered how the people
of that country could allow their government to do such horrible things.
Tragically, we are getting a lesson in that now with what our own
administration is doing. It (he!) keeps telling us that we are "safer"
now when reality indicates to me that it is exactly what "we" are doing
that is breeding hatred and more terrorists.

Our PM didn't have majority support for the war when it all started and has
less now. He will get his comeuppance at the next election in about 2
months.

....snip....


The garden is my life line. I take care of it, and it responds. Usually,
that response is good food to eat. The least I get from it is being
closer to where the entire world (especially our "developed" nations)
needs to be, in tune with nature. The wonder of watching things grow is
necessary to our own internal harmony.

I am not sure about necessary but for many it does add to their harmony.

It was my garden which helped me
take major steps towards the very difficult adjustment after my son's
death, being reminded every day how things really can continue and even
flourish in spite of us humans.


It's hard to be angry or sad when you immerse yourself in the world of
growing things. To me it is nearly as good as surfing (which I cannot do
anymore) because it fills your senses with the immediate and the beautiful
and occupies your body with the physical thus diverting the mind from its
internal problems. Surfing and growing are both powerful modes of active
meditation of more practical value to health than focussing on pie in the
sky when you die.

David