Lately I've been suffering from what is being called post-partisan blues in the media. Have you noticed the stunned silence of all your liberal friends? I was sure Mr. Please Please was going to be good for an old fashioned, rabble rousing call to arms for the cause. Silence. From him. From everyone really. ME sent me a county by county map of election results that showed more red than a drag queen's pout. Funny, even the Republicans I know are keeping quiet. It's as if we were all so busy trying to make a decision, now that we have one we don't know how to proceed. After seeing tonight's documentary broadcast on HBO, I'm certain this war is not the answer for anyone. For an hour, the parents, siblings and wives of some of the 1,100 soldiers killed in Iraq read letters sent home during their tours. During the entire hour, I sat on the couch sobbing feeling as if I was going to throw up all over my mirrored Art Deco coffee table. Even afterwards, I couldn't readily stop. All of the soldiers were younger than I am now. Most were about the same age as RAZ or even younger. I would like to try to understand how a group of guys drowned in their own tank or blown up with a garage door opener detonated bomb is keeping me safe or making the world a better place. I really would like to be one of those people that has convictions like this because it would be easier to swallow this bitter pill. Every day I have to see images from the war, headshots of the fallen. I can keep that at a distance for the most part. Although, one photo kept me awake earlier this week. Add another one to that slideshow that runs in my head at night making it impossible to sleep when the news gets too bad. I'm not saying I'm against the military. My dad, two step-fathers, two uncles, both grandfathers, several granduncles and a great grandfather all served. What I'm against is all of the dying. Before this year, Veterans Day was just a postal holiday to me. Today, I am beginning to understand that war is some terrible shit and we need to respect the people who are there going through it.