normal service will resumed shortly

Got a bit of stuff going on at the moment so I may not be getting to v v b on a regular basis. I know all 3 of you will be devastated. For today, some more snippets only.

First, how Canadians have gone down in my estimation (shit, most Canucks I have known could drink me under the table, eh Sharon?).

Of more substance, sort of, this letter in today's SMH:

"We are self-funded retirees in our 70s. We have raised our children and now view with pride their contributions to their community and to the cause of humanity everywhere.

Since our retirement we have worked as volunteers for the Royal Blind Society, Meals on Wheels, an AIDS respite centre, bush regeneration and a library home delivery service for the housebound. We have been privileged, despite personal tragedies, to enjoy a life of respect and friendship.

Why is it, then, that viewing the evening news fills us with rage? Is it because the picture of a starving child in Darfur tortures us because we cannot provide meaningful help? Is it because the suffering of a Palestinian mother, watching food that her child desperately needs rot on the other side of an Israeli blockade, challenges our comfortable existence? Is it because thousands of our fellow humans lack even the basic infrastructure to maintain civilised life?

Or is it because of the blind belief that weapons are more important than schools, hospitals and decent housing, (government expenditure certainly suggests so)?

It is all of these things, and yet it is none of them. Our rage derives from the fact that contemporary political leadership everywhere contradicts the truths that our lives have taught us. In the times of our darkest personal tragedies we were sustained by the love of people around us, and the hundreds of acts of human kindness this involved. We have tried over the years to pass on those kindnesses. To believe that bombs, barriers and bullets, or increasing personal wealth in limited sections of the population, will have the same restorative effect, flies in the face of history.

Is there a leader anywhere in this sad world with the capability and the willingness to pursue an alternative vision and to give hope to a couple of older Australians?

And how can we, and hundreds more like us, help?

Pat and Don Brown Narrabeen"

Now that really resonates. Good on you, Pat and Don. Many of us don't know how to help.