Believe me, nobody with a tender heart and caring soul can forget the ugliness of the world just because it isn't in their face everyday. I just want to get away like everybody else. I have had vacations ruined because the bus drove by the poor areas on the way out. Just because I didn't see those poverty-stricken areas doesn't mean I didn't know how hard life was for some of them, or that I didn't care. This is why I don't care to ever travel any where again. I've had a lifetime full of ugliness, mine and everybody else's, and I don't want any more. I sure as hell don't want to see the ugliness in the form of "entertainment."

My heart was broken, and I broke down as a man should, when I saw neda's life drain from her. As a combat veteran I have seen to much of this happening to women and children, so if I'm seen as a pro-lifer, I have damn good reason to be

I wonder how anyone can sleep at night. Oh, and Angela, this play isn't about entertainment. Want that, go see Disney on Ice.

You all should consider the FOLLOWING story I keep in my "files":

Source:
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

Date: 08 Mar 2007
Iraq: Killings drive women to become suicide bombers

BAGHDAD, 8 March 2007 (IRIN) - Um Abdallah, 41, has a difficult task ahead of her - she has to learn how to use a gun and begin preparing for a day she believes is going to be one of God's forgiveness and revenge against foreign forces occupying her country.

"I'm going to be a suicide bomber in the name of God," Um Abdallah said. "I will be one of the Iraqis who will take revenge for all suffering that US and Iraqi militaries have caused in the past years and force them to leave the blessed land of Iraq.

"I know I will die but for a good reason. When I die I will be beside my loved ones who were killed without [good reason]," she added.

...

Um Abdallah is one of thousands of Iraqis who have lost their relatives in the past four years. Her two boys and one girl were killed during a US military attack in her neighbourhood.

"My husband was killed four months ago by Iraqi forces. Killed alongside him were my son-in-law and his two children. I cannot even remember how many bullets the children had in their bodies," she said.

She does not know exactly when she is going to detonate herself but she is sure she will be ready whenever she is asked.

More women are being encouraged to help the insurgency and sometimes even to become suicide bombers.

"They aren't being forced but they surrender easily to the pressure," said Ahlam al-Dujaili, chairman of the Defending Women Rights Organisation (DWRO), a local non-governmental agency.

Insurgents believe there are no differences between women and men when talking about God and the wish to become a martyr.

"We don't force people to do it. They look for our help and as Muslims we just help them realise their religious convictions. They are fighters who are seeking God's infinite forgiveness," said Abu Ra'ad, a spokesperson for al-Qaida, where Um Abdallah is getting support.


(I myself have a daughter her age.)

You all react with horror at what you hear. But what you SHOULD be doing is reacting with horror at YOUR OWN burdens of complicity in what it is that has ENGENDERED such horror!

Now everyone take notice, Lynn Nottage just showed us how it's done. Pick an injustice......and write a play. I love plays, I used to go to my children's plays when they were in kindergarten.

The Manhattan Theatre Club, what's an 8 ounce glass of fine European wine cost there now....about 20 bucks?