I actually sat down to write the President last night.

I have written to Congressmen and others in my life- even to the CEO of Sara Lee (when I was 5) to thank them for making such "yummy cakes", but never had anything to say to the President of the United States until yesterday. And when I sat down, all motivated to write a letter of encouragement to the Man, it all flowed out like I had waited my entire life to tell him what I thought.

I thanked him for being the first politician I had ever seen who made an unpopular decision in a time when a leader was desperately needed, and sticking with that decision, even though popular opinion has only soured more. I am grateful on behalf of peaceful Iraqis, who would not be able to stomach our invasion a second time, only for us to pull out early a second time and leave them for dead. These people have gone through enough. We started a mess (that needed to happen, unfortunately) and we MUST work with them to clean it up. Pulling out is a mistake, and I say this with a brother over there right now. No one gets this more than he does.

They all tell us that we're watching a different war than what the media conveys. They see charitable works and humanitarian efforts that we in the States only saw with Katrina victims. Just last week, my brother was in the Iraqi prisons asking the prisoners about their conditions, telling them that someone was there for them to counsel. I'm proud of him, and I'm sure he's not the only one. It really pisses me off that Americans get a bad rep, when any other nation would have locked them up and thrown away the key (or hell, just shot them all)

I scoured the White House website looking for the President's opinion on a Senate-proposed Constitutional amendment banning flag burning. I wanted to see if his opinion matched mine. I couldn't find anything, and since I don't watch the news, if anyone knows his opinion on this, please post it here. I included in my letter my thoughts on flag burning. My version in the letter was much more brief and well-thought than what I will submit below, but I thought it might be noteworthy to mention my thoughts on Peer2all for posterity:

Flag burning hurts. I take serious offense to it. I view it to be perhaps the most desecrating action one can take and I see it as a slap in my face. Seeing someone burn an American flag makes my blood boil. It raises my temper and gets me good and pissed off. But none of that works me up more than I would be if my freedoms were taken from me. As a good citizen of this Nation, I have the freedom to express myself or my feelings to my friends, my family, my government, and anyone else who will listen. That is a freedom given to me by the Constitution. And no matter how much I hate that someone can burn our Nation in effigy through anger, I respect it, because they are using that same freedom I use by writing in this blog. They use the same freedoms to express their anger that I do in hating them for it. There's something strangely ironic that I admire what I hate, but right now, it's where I stand. Making a Contsitutional amendment banning flag burning as an expression of protest will begin a slippery slope over what agressions cannot be used as expression. (not to mention that the military regularly destroys flags-- not as an expression, but as an honorary method of destruction to soiled or torn flags no longer fit for service). Don't get me wrong, it would be great if people couldn't ever burn flags again, but I don't see it stopping there, which is why I have to oppose such a decision.

Okay, so if I have any readers left, I will share the good news that all the mosaics are finally up on the walls at C3. It only took an extra 15 days to get things ready, but the show is on. Oh. it's on.

Press time, baby! Time to get myself in the news and let the city know about it. The folks at C3 have been really helpful in getting my name out, and commission requests are coming in too. There is still a lot on my mind, but having this burden off my plate is a huge help. I update Brickworkz about 4 times a day as I think of more stuff to add, so definitely make it a regular bookmark. I hope to have interactivity on there sometime soon as well.

Somehow in the past few months, I forgot to mention that I officially graduated with my MBA- my brother came down with his wife for a Richmond tour before we all drove to B'more for the ceremony one saturday morning. I can't believe I forgot to write about that. I really didn't want to go at all, but looking back (of course, isn't it always this way?) I'm glad I did. I earned that degree, damnit, and since I'm going to spend the rest of my natural life paying for the thing, I might as well get the pomp and circumstance that comes along with it. The standing ovation for the one doctoral graduate got me completely respecting and pondering a PhD, but that was only for a fleeting moment. I don't know why the heck I'd need it. So maybe sometime when I'm bed-ridden I will explore that as an option. I can't stress enough to people how valuable it is to continue learning.

Legitimate Beef is back, after an extended break! With Chris now in his own detached house, we can be WAY louder and much more obnoxious at later hours. No more downstairs neighbors hitting broomstick handles on their ceiling to get us to stop wailing. No folks, we're back, and this time... we're all original. Tonight, we laid down our first original. (lyrics and vocals by yours truly) Paul and Chris did really well on this one too- this was a great collaboration. Makes me really happy.

it's catchy too. damned catchy.