They All Look Alike

I'm sure this day and age it's politically incorrect to say of an ethnic group or race other than our own, "They all look alike". I took some time today to browse through photos of children who are war casualties from the middle east. One is from Iraq, one Israeli, one Palestinian and one Lebanese. You know what? It's true. This is about as politically incorrect as the world can get. Yet - they do all look alike.

It is said our youth are the future of the world. Has this not always been the case? Hasn't the ideal always been to make the world better for our children? Never mind the massive debt our government is running up for them to assume. Never mind that with every poorly structured policy we try to force on the world, dissent ensues. Our style of diplomacy these days seems to be "our way or the highway". Right, wrong or indifferent.

The blame game is out of control. Every side has its rational. Only the Pope seems willing to stand up to the plate and shout "Enough!" Unfortunately he doesn't have an army to back him up. But then the last thing we need is another army.

Again its being said how cynical our own college kids are about politics and politicians. And again Jon Stewart is being blamed since 50% of these kids watch his show. I was heartened this morning when Chris Matthews asked his panelists if they believed Stewart was in fact to blame and to a person they said no - the politicians were doing it quite well all by themselves. And it was no slouch of a panel - Katty Kaye from BBC News; Andrea Mitchell, NBC; Dan Rather, former CBS anchor, and David Brooks of the New York Times.

It might be well for all the politicians enmeshed in this mess to look not only to themselves and their ambitions, but also to the future for their young while there still are some. We perhaps should heed the lyrics from the Disney tune -

It's A Small World

it's a world of laughter, a world or tears
its a world of hopes, its a world of fear
theres so much that we share
that its time we're aware
its a small world after all

Keep an eye on them. Castro is an old man and ailing. We've been at odds with Cuba for a very long time. Chavez in Venezuela carries a lot of influence there and is no friend of the U.S. I would hate to have to add Cuban children to the series of photos.