Personally, I'm more engaged in this election than I have been in a LONG
time.

[In the interest of honesty, I have declared myself Democratic in this
election and am eager for an administration change. I admired Mr. Bush in the days following 9/11 but am appalled by most of his policies and the vision I think he has for our country. (And, understand, I come from a long line of
Republicans!)]

With Iowa over and New Hampshire behind us, we have Super Tuesday in front of us and at that point we probably will have a clear Democratic leader. It's an interesting ride.

Across the pond in England, major figures at the BBC are falling on their
figurative swords and resigning. The BBC Chair went yesterday and the very
famous Greg Dyke went today. A 1000 plus BBC employees walked off their jobs and stood outside his office, demanding his return.

At a cocktail party earlier this evening I was with Paul Duffen, Chair of
NPG Group, a British company. I commented that the walkout seemed more French than British and he nodded while admitting that Brits are becoming more
unpredictable every day - rather like the French, which is surprising everyone.

This figurative falling upon swords is the result of the Hutton Report that
exonerated the Blair Government in the death of David Kelley [remember the
flap about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?] and put the blame on the
BBC. I have friends who work there who aren't sure the venerable Beeb will even survive this. I fell asleep last night watching BBC World News but was so
tired that the significance of the first resignations didn't register with me
until this morning.

Far away in the Levant [the nice archaic term for Mesopotamia, that place
currently known as Iraq] soldiers of both Iraq and the U.S. continue to die
while a top Al Qaeda operative was arrested there. A point for the arrest but it
does illustrate that Iraq is now the playground of our 9/11 "friends".

And while all of this is happening our own personal lives go on and while
all the major issues touch us, it is the reality of the moment of our lives that
marks us most. Out on Long Island, John McCormick, the man I claim as my
godfather, lies in intensive care after open-heart surgery, a surgery that went
well but then went bad soon after.

Last Saturday night I participated in an American ritual - going to the
airport to pick up family members at the moment of a family emergency. I picked up John's son Michael and his sister Sarah, who is the glue that holds many lives together. I will die remembering her coming toward me, slight and
inherently elegant, both delighted to see me and in pain due to the event that brought us together.

Sarah is a school social worker in New Mexico who works with the hardest
cases. Sarah is also a professional storyteller; as we mobilized to invade Iraq
she struck a note for peacefulness by recording a series of stories, "Holding
Up the Sky: Peace Tales for Children." [If you want to know more, please go
to www.peacetales.org and you'll even see a couple of pictures of Sarah.] She
is my oldest friend in the world.

She is not famous. But she is an individual who is making a difference in
the world and who stands up for her beliefs with actual efforts. She is an
inspiration to me. While candidates campaign to change the world, Sarah makes
personal moves to do the same, within the realm of the world in which she lives.

If more of us did the same, it would be a different sort of world.