More Fires and the election of 2010

So we are still alive after the 2010 midterm election. I had said I would write an article about being hopeful and instead I've been sick this weekend. I am hopeful for many reasons, women give me hope - we now no longer question women running for office and here we had the choice of two women for governor. I also get hope from this, the internet. I do not think that we realize the powerful effect it is having in the world and in our lives. The Tea Party also gives me reason to hope, I have long belonged to third parties and they have had to struggle on the sidelines. I do not like the platform of the Tea Party but they have managed to back people and have them in office, even if they do not have a separate party. Now more people are talking about third parties in a positive way. I also am now aware that people are talking about cutting the defense budget, there is no way to do cuts without cutting down on defense and examining our use of the military. Which takes me back to Dad in 1943 in the mountains of Oregon fighting forest fires instead of wars. He writes about that and how he likes them and the different shades of blue of Kalamath Lake. Oregon is amazing, we went through there by train a few years ago, so many trees, I bought a tree book so we could identify them on the way back. We kept having to wait for freight trains.