Random Thoughts From Marybeth

New Day and a New World

I feel as though I woke up to a new world this morning.

I remember how happy and proud I was the first time I voted. Even so, it didn't come close to how Mohammed and Omar of Iraq the Model describe their feelings about voting today.

Not that the voting has gone on without violence. There have been attacks and people have died for trying to exercise their new right to vote. But even the news stories that shout "violence", "bloodied by attacks", or list the numbers killed in their headlines go on to tell within the articles about the higher than expected turnout. Every article that I have read so far but one has told about the joy and pride Iraqis are feeling. The one exception is an article by Robert Fisk. No surprise there. There's a reason that taking apart idiotic rantings piece by piece is called "fisking".

Even Kofi Annan sounds, um, less than negative. Speaking in Nigeria, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Sunday's balloting "the first step" toward democracy. "It's a beginning, not an end," he said.