Still hot, hazy, humid……
The summer is hot, and the living is easy, for some one supposes. Back from the island retreat yesterday after a good week of relaxation, writing, and inevitable yard work. Swam a lot, hosted a great family with three young girls, who found places on the island that even I, with 25 years of ownership, did not know existed. As, for example, a spot under a grove of cedars which became, suddenly, a spot that had to be readied for the imminent arrival of a group of faeries. Now the two older girls worked at this project for some time, and as they did I marveled at the inherent creativity of young minds — far more inventive than anything TV, DVD, or ‘Net could do. Harry Potter was at work here, for sure, as well as legends of aboriginal dream-catchers (one of which accompanied the group as they worked). And, of course, they were disappointed when the faeries failed to show….but they taught the adults present a lesson in hope and imagination. The vignette still makes me smile, and will for some time.
The weather was interesting–hot,hot,hot–and also stormy at times….and as they say, at the end of the storm there’s a golden sky…..and here are three photos showing the variety of post-storm sunset beauty…..
Home to a phone call from a colleague, asking me to call her, and then finding out the sad news that a colleague in PHED, Larry Wolfe, had passed suddenly last Friday night, after taking a jog near his home. His wife Michelle was with him when he died, and the saddest thing of all is that he died in his prime–only fifty-five, and a fine scientist, passionate colleague, and inveterate altruist. He was currently President of the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, and also a bellwether for the School of PHED physiology program. Multitudes of students, especially first-year, will recall his commitment to teaching and to individual accomplishment. His death, at far too young an age, reminds us to live life to the fullest, each and every day, even if that day is not the greatest day….
And also a farewell to Corinne Worthy, mom to a raft of Frontenac Secondary School offspring-athletes during the 1980s, who died at 77 last Friday, and also to Jake Edwards, the man who for decades at Queen’s was synonymous with the School of Physical and Health Education. He lived to 93, and died while playing golf with his daughter.
And the war goes on in Iraq, and now in Britain. Both President George W. Bush and Tony Blair deny any connection between the war undertaken to overthrow Saddam Hussein and the bombings that become more and more prevalent in more and more countries. What Bush has done, and what the British lapdog has supported, is to create a focal point for Islamic discontent of ALL varieties, both in Iraq and throughout the world. If the great majority of Muslims abhor the violence of suicide bombing, a growing number see its justification in the Anglo-American Coalition of the Willing’s clumsy and horrendous presence. That presence, over time, strips bare fault lines of race and culture across Europe–yes, across Europe–and attracts young men to oppose it with their entire being. Hence the adversaries of the Bush/Blair invasion–which was touted at its inception as Liberation but now appears to many Iraqis as heavy-handed Occupation–have the advantage of a common foe.
Scarier yet, when one considers the born-again Bush andhis evangelical base, Iraq is attracting radicals from all corners of the Arab world. “It’s over there, and not over here,” ran the refrain that served Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, et al., for so long. But now it is here, and getting closer to North America. The emergence of home-grown enemies of British and American policy should give pause: future rounds of terrorist attack may well come from within, rather than outside Britain and the United States. And even if bombs do not go off, it is enough for perpetrators to penetrate security on soft targets–the last group of bombers, reminiscent of novelist Jimmy Breslin’s gang that couldn’t shoot straight, provided an object lesson.
So messrs. Bush and Blair, rethink your argument that no link exists between your policies in Iraq and the Middle East generally, and the increased terrorist activity of the past couple of years. It’s not rocket science–it’s only the need for both of you to admit that your war in Iraq was and remains a colossal and open-ended error. Where your policies lead, who knows, but the balance sheet in the war on terror is growing heavy in red ink, and the blood and gore splashed all over front pages and net sites daily.
PS–Headline today, alongside the miracle of Pearson airport, “14 Marines Die in Iraq.”
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn.
More to come……