Attended a lecture on urban planning and public space making tonight. Interesting. Learned about what makes a good “village” or “town center.” Cool stuff.

Today we started bombing Iraq. When are people, everywhere, going to learn that it's not national pride that we need, but international pride. Yes I'm proud to be an American, sometimes. But I'm a lot more proud to be a human. I'm proud to be a citizen of the earth. When are we all going to wake up and start realizing that? Join together and really start kicking ass and helping each other as a collective of humans rather than these little tribes of “I'm right, they’re wrong” mentality against each other. If I hear the word “evil” one more time, from either side..... 

Makes you want to stick your head out the window and scream, “this is fucked up people!” like in that old movie from the seventies Network. You know, looking forward and pretending to look back at all of this, it is just a fucking nightmare right now. Especially for America. We have lost our pride because of it. We had a shot. At really standing up and showing the world that we weren't the big bullies that everyone claimed we were. That we were going to be the exception to the rule of what a super power or what a world empire was like. I think we lost that shot today. I am receiving emails and instant messages from friends in many other countries who are just horrified at what they are seeing on their own news about it. They are obviously getting a much different perspective on their own news of it than we are here in America. Lets not kid ourselves for a minute. This is not being glorified in most other civilized nations around the world like it is here in America. For us it's more like, “today I have sergeant William whatever from bumfuck usa and he is going to talk to us a little about the tanks our brave troops are driving....” and then every once in a while you see a little blurb about all the protests going on around the world, as if they are about as insignificant as Britney spears birthday. 

And in the meantime I get these emails from friends in other countries. “Fishy, I feel so bad about the poor Iraqi people. Their whole city is on fire. There are explosions twenty stories high all over their city. What are they thinking right now? Are there even any survivors left?” and as Americans we are just kind of sitting here helpless. “Well uh yea we know. Sorry about that.”

O.k. enough of that.  

Here's a little tidbit from a friend from Iran who now lives in Seattle:

Good morning Fishy,
Today, at 4:59pm my time, at the start of Spring Equinox, the new Iranian year begins. It is called Nowrooz (new life) and it is a beautiful celebration of new beginnings.
I am so happy to have my mom and dad here this year; my brother also arrived last night from California so I have a full house of loved ones and I absolutely love it : )

We gather around a beautiful table which we've set up, called Haft Seen, and wait for the count down to Spring (similar to your New Year's Eve count down). Then everyone kisses and hugs, wishes each other happy new year and the adults give little kids, crisp new unfolded dollar bills (could be any amount) .... We have a yummy traditional family dinner and just spend time enjoying each other's company.

Isn't life so interesting and weird.... 2 neighboring countries; Iranians will be celebrating New Year and Iraqi people fear for their lives; it fills my heart with both joy and sadness.

With the beginning of Nowrooz,  I pray for peace, love, happiness, health and prosperity for all beings on this beautiful planet we call home.

Aid-e-shoma-mobarak (happy New Year),Fishy azizam (my dear Fishy)