Patrick and I had a Date Night last night, and saw the most powerful movie I've seen in a long time--Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11." I usually don't talk about politics on this journal, very intentionally, but in this case, I can't help it. I loved this film. It was a very personal, very angry movie, which, I think, irritated a lot of people, including liberals--who often prefer "our kind of people" to speak calmly and softly and leave the emotional rhetoric to the other side. But we're talking about sleaze, corruption, and the murder of thousands of people. We should be emotional. We should be enraged. You may not agree with all the implications Michael Moore suggests from the facts he presents, but the facts on their own are outrageous. And the coverage of the death toll in Iraq--the Iraqi civilians murdered, as well as the young American soldiers first sent in to commit murder and then, in many cases, murdered themselves--as well as the effects on the Iraqi and American communities of all those deaths--is just heartbreaking. I cried as I watched this movie. It brought up all the feelings of anger and helplessness that American politics have inspired in me for the past several years. I hope those politics can change. I hope this movie, and its popularity, can be part of a movement to change them. I hope it helps to change the attitude that "patriotism" means unquestioning acceptance of all the actions of whatever current administration happens to be in power. I know that it's not likely that my hopes will come true.

In the meantime, we're making tomato basil soup, which is high on my list of comfort foods.