im really pleased to hear from all of you who took time to write, it must have taken over an hour to read the last bunch of mail barry sent… its totally great to know that you all are as smart as you are… a lot of you were in agreement about the waste of energy involved in the drug war, i saw tom clancey on that dumb o’reilly show, he (clancey) is pretty far right but at least he had enough on the ball to say that the only way to keep the hordes of mexican workers from sneaking across the border to get jobs here is to help mexico prosper so that americans would want to go there for work… to that o’reilly, idiot that he is, replied ‘well thats up to mexico’ i guess that telethon last night with all the celebs was pretty much a first, ive never seen any one tv show on almost all channels at once i watched it for a little bit but got irrationaly sad seeing mohammad ali so stricken by illness and turned it off, this morning i woke up still feeling gloomy and depressed but reading the rest of the e-mails from all of you guys (id started them yesterday) turned my mood around everyone seems to be ‘on the same page’ as they say, like myself a lot of you expressed your confusion in trying to figure out your own feelings about whats happened… im kind of surprised that i find the situation as complicated as i do, i try to view lifes events in their simplicity and its frustrating to find myself looking at so many different views of the same things… on one hand i’ve been looking forward to some kind of great change in the way things are in the world, but being confronted with such a brutal reality is a lot more shocking than anything id imagined, (the idea of the post apocalyptic ‘road warrior’ world is appealing but the reality of death and destruction on a huge scale isnt) is this really a turning point? last night i even heard some straight guy on tv talking about this generation selling out to comfort and complacency (although he didnt use those words), this awareness is way overdue, everyone has bought into the ‘big lie’ to one extent or another; no one is well off until everyone is, the world is too small now, how can we be content with our tv’s and cars and all when there are whole countries of people who live below the level of our cats and dogs? all these differences are going to catch up, if not now eventually… im sorry to sound too preachy but this stuff is a reality… as far as the immediate future goes all the advice i can give is the same as before: none of you have to do anything you dont want to, dont stay in jobs you cant stand, survival isnt about being unhappy… try and change things, dont conform thanks again chris sat. sept. 22 ’01