Can't believe it's already been 15 years... I still have that day etched in my memory and I'm starting to be ok with it... I'm starting to understand what happened. I can't accept that your demons took you away from me (even though we were never really close or together) and I was too proud to reach out when (unknown to me) it really mattered. I don't think that'll ever go away and I'm starting to fully come to term with it.

Look what I found... pictures of you in high school... in California.

But really, president of the French club? And Spanish?

I've learned over the years how hard it is to live on your terms but how essential it is to do so.

This song is the best representation of how I see the world today.

We've forgotten how to be kind, how to take religion as a tool of compassion and learning. Forgetting that what makes us different is a strength to be appreciated and not something to be afraid of or discriminate on the basis on.

We forget that it's never ok to mock those who are different or who are not like us. You mock those who have a different definition of love and don't consider that your children or those who you know and care about may be in those groups now or in the future.

We fight over abortion... to me the answer is simple: if you don't want abortions don't have them (and don't be afraid if you're a christian and have a child out of wedlock, it's still ok). If you're so set against other people having abortions offer to care for the mother during pregnancy (foot the medical bills and the care for the mother) and adopt the child once it's born. The fact that you don't do this tells me you're not pro-life because you don't give a shit what happens after the baby is born, you only care that the fetus is carried to term and to hell with what happens to the mother, to hell with having to choose between the baby and the mother.

We cling to political power and we forget that we don't get to take those things when it's time to go. Whoever dies with the most toys is still dead and, if you so believe, you will be judged by your actions, by how you showed compassion and not just how much money you gave to charity or your church, on how you treated the sick the elderly and those around you who had real need and not on how you protected yourself when it came to pay more taxes in order for others to be able to afford healthcare.

We wanted political change and we didn't care that we put an abusive, misogynist, weak man in power. All that mattered was who got to choose the next justice of the Supreme Court, eh?

As we spend the last day of a 4-day weekend let's reflect on what made the United States what it is (or was?). Whatever our differences we are all part of the same country and we should treat each other accordingly.

That's Just The Way It Is
Phil Collins

All day long he was fighting for you
And he didn't even know your name
Young men come and young men go
But life goes on just the same

And I don't know why
Why do we keep holding on
I don't know why
Pretending to be oh so strong
Oh why
Is there something I don't know
Or something very wrong, with you and me
or maybe

That's the way it is, there's nothing I can do,
That's just the way it is.

They've been waiting for word to come down
They've been waiting for you night and day
They won't wait any longer for you
It may already be too late

And I don't know why...

You see the dying, you feel the pain
What have you got to say
If we agree that we can disagree
We could stop all of this today

It's been your life for as long as you can remember
But you cannot fight no more
You must want to look your son in the eyes
When he asks you what you did it for

'Cos all day long he was fighting for you 
And he didn't even know your name
Young men come and young men go
But life goes on just the same

I don't know why...