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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

rshowalter - 08:41pm Apr 26, 2001 EST (#2643 of 2645)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I don't glorify everything about Bob Kerrey. He's definitely "a little lower than the angels."

But he has a sense, at least roughly proportionate, about what murder is.

Vistica's piece ends: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/25/magazine/25KERREY.html

(Kerrey) wrote poetry and painted in watercolors. In the center of one landscape watercolor, Kerrey wrote in black marker the words of Emily Dickinson.

Remorse is Memory awake,
Her companies astir, -
A presence of departed acts
At window and at door.

Its past set down before the soul,
And lighted with a match,
Perusal to facilitate
Of its condensed despatch.

Remorse is cureless, -- the disease
Not even God can heal;
For 'tis His institution, --
The complement of Hell.

Knowing the horror and the deception connected to Kerrey's case, and not discounting it, I think that Kerrey's life has been an important American life.

I've said that, though I did not vote for G.W. Bush, I would have voted for Colin Powell or for John McCain over Gore.

Knowing what I know now, I might have voted for Kerrey, too.

The Cold War ought to be over.

Kerrey may be a liar, a monster, and a murderer. But he's got sense enough to be repelled by murder. He can count.

If more Americans could rise to this level of moral sensitivity, current grave risks to the survival of the whole world could be ended.

rshowalter - 08:42pm Apr 26, 2001 EST (#2644 of 2645)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Poem: Tell Me Lies About Vietnam http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee79f4e/1858

rshowalter - 08:50pm Apr 26, 2001 EST (#2645 of 2645)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I'm knocking off for tonight. It would be good for us to get rid of some nightmare risks, and make room for the virtues of warmth, and love, and life. We should have less of Dr. Strangelove, and more of Mary Poppins in the world.

I'll try to get some of the ugliness here out of my mind, and think of a favorite waltz of mine -- "Let's Go Fly a Kite "

We ought to have the wisdom, and the wit, to find ways to get rid of the shadow of the end of the world.

And so make room for love and joy.

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