Here’s another post that I forgot to publish about the Iraq war from Les, my friend in the army.
What has happened to this nation’s ability to become angry? What has happened to our righteous indignation over the death of our Soldiers? Where is the public outcry when terrorists detonate a tank full of chlorine on a crowd of civilians, burning their lungs and subjecting them to a horrible death over next few days as they choke to death on their own mucous? How about when they hack the heads off of our citizens with a blade that is deliberately so dull it takes several swings before it comes off? How about when they lob mortars with a careless disregard and blow up a playground full of kids? Or how about the man who gives a ticking time bomb to a ten year old kid that detonates on him, blowing of his hands and peppering him with shrapnel? I have seen all of these events, and what makes the news, people crying that we should get out. Have we become so cowardly that when evil raises its head we run and hide? It didn’t used to be this way, there was once a time when any one of these would have had people lining up to get the enemy, when crimes like these would not stand before the righteous. The News and the public should be calling for blood and vengeance on the people who would act with such malevolence. Instead of calls for withdrawal, there should be accusations that we have not prosecuted this war aggressively enough. Instead of bemoaning the loss of our service members, we should be kicking down doors in pursuit of those behind their deaths. There should be no question that that those who would dare to harm our citizens will be hounded like the dogs they are. It does not matter why we have gone to war at this point, what matters is that there are evil men here that need to be stopped. If we can longer find righteous anger within ourselves than perhaps “land of the free, and home of the brave,†is the last lament of a dying nation.
I’ve recently moved to within a mile of work and am living in a fun neighborhood where I can walk to everything. I think I’ve only driven 4 times in the last month. My wife just sold her car, so we’re down to one car for two people and we hardly use it. Initially I’d hoped to ride my bike more than drive my car, but now I walk since things are really too close to even bother with a bike. It’s sweet.
We got into Yosemite Park around 6 and setup camp at Camp 4. It was still early in the season but there wasn’t really any snow in the valley. There were even some people I could see climbing El Capitan. There were also some people bouldering right in our camp. Maybe one day I’ll go back to climb. It was suprisingly chilly at night considering how warm it was when we got there. Brendan’s sleeping bag wasn’t up to the temperature as well as it should have been.
The next day we went to the ranger station to get a hike recommendation. The ranger said he couldn’t recommend an overnight hike, but he could describe what was available. We chose to hike the Yosemite Falls trail and he seemed to hint that was a good choice. It turned out that it definitely was.
It took us 3-4 hours to go 3.2 miles. It was pretty steep and we stopped often for views of the valley and the waterfall and to eat. Once we got to a trail split we dropped our packs behind some trees and hiked to the falls overlook. I’m always impressed with the trails that people manage to build into cliffs and rock. From the waterfall lookout we could see the Yosemite point lookout and it was higher and better looking than where we were, so we headed for it. We had to hike through a little snow, but the view was well worth the short hike.
We went back to our packs and hiked up the other trail a little way before Brendan’s sixth sense led him to the most awesome backcountry campsite. It was a few hundred feet off the trail, wasn’t covered in snow and had a primitive firepit built with plenty of dry fuel nearby in the form of pinecones, needles and a fallen tree that had dry rotting wood that you could simply pull out from the underside of it. I was able to get the fire started on the first light with nothing but a lighter and what I found near camp. We setup camp and Kim lay in the hammock while Brendan and I played frisbee amongst the boulders. We ate all the rest of our Backpacker Pantry food plus cheese and chocolate. Yum.
After another chilly night we headed back down since we had to be back to Sacramento for our 6PM flight. About half way down I decided to run ahead and return our bear canister to save time. People thought I was crazy running down a steep trail with a full pack on. I thought it was fun, but my legs hurt a bit the next few days. Before leaving the valley we took a dip in the river running through it. Refreshing.
We met Brendan’s parents briefly at their house before heading to the airport with some lilacs that Brendan’s mom gave Kim. Apparently nobody tries to stop you from taking plants out of California, but I suspect it would be different going in. That was a busy spring break week.
