I slept surprisingly well on my fold up bed at Emmanuel last night, and the alarm woke me at 5.30. The Family Promise bus comes at 6 to pick up the guests, so we don't give them breakfast on weekdays. A police car pulled into our car park just before 6, and I went out to tell him we were hosting Family Promise this week, and he said it was on his computer. I guess he pulled in to make sure the bus turned up, and I appreciated that. If the bus hadn't turned up I would have been glad to have turned to him. The police here are really, really good, I can't talk too highly of them.
The Mystery of the Disappearing Plane has now - officially - become a criminal investigation. It is being said here that the US should be handling it, the Malaysians are way in over their head. And I think they've got a point. And the way in which grieving Chinese relatives are being forcibly dragged out of the press conference for making a noise is nothing short of outrageous. I have also learned that it isn't necessary to climb to 45,000 feet to kill the passengers. The pilot can actually decompress the pressure in the cabin, from the cockpit. It is macabre to think of the plane flying on to goodness-knows-where with all those dead passengers in the back.
I took this picture yesterday. I love seeing these ceremonies, I find them incredibly moving. The citation is read out (that's what is happening in the picture) detailing exactly what the hero did to be awarded the Medal of Honour. There were 24 of them, all black or Hispanic, or Asian, who had been passed over in the past for an honour because of their race. Only three of them were still alive, the others were all awarded posthumously. At the end Obama invited the three to stand on the stage together, and they had a very, very long round of applause.
Like I said, it was very moving. And I have so much admiration for the US military, it is why I am happy to help fund raise for their care packages at the Senior Centre. A point of view I don't think goes down very well with the Democrats. Donna, who dropped off my cake box on Monday looked at me with shock and horror when I showed her the raffle prize I'd won, and said I was going to donate it to the Senior Centre for a raffle for veterans. She said she was a peacenik. How can anyone be a peacenik in the 21st century? What the US military are doing, what they have been doing for twelve long years since 9/11, is fighting a global war on terror, which affects all of us. And I am as willing as an American to thank them for their service.
And with that I'll jump off my soapbox.
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