Beirut, Mediterrean Paradise

Then one day it wasn't. Imagine that.

The Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived and worked peacefully right up till their nation exploded and destroyed itself, seemingly, overnight.

I've read accounts of Christian engineers who lived in combat zones in Beirut but worked in non-combat zones. Other engineers were Muslim and he knew they probably did the similar things to what he did when he left work.

After work, he'd drive home, speeding throught areas that snipers had a line-of-sight from Muslim highrise buildings and man a rooftop mortar pit.

It makes as much sense as the Looneytunes cartoon where Foghorn and the dog punch in and are mortal enemies, then punch out and are congenial to each other (is it those two or am I forgetting an important part of my childhood? I'm now not sure).

I don't know what it takes to start a civil war, other than firing on Fort Sumpter, but when the snow flies, part of me breathes a sigh of relief that the good ol US of A made it through another year without any major civil strife. Then another part of me tells me I'm being unrealistic having concerns like that for my country.

But part of me sees this country being wound tighter and tighter. L.A. riots, creak-click, Clinton scandals, creeak-click, Republicans stealing an election, creeeak-click, war in Iraq, creeeeak-click, Minutemen watching the border, creeeeeeak-click.

Why do I breath a sigh of relief in the winter? Simply because I know that riots happen in the summer when it is warm out.

Do I worry needlessly?