My title is intended to be falsely provocative--just trying to garner attention & perhaps a little chuckle. You seem to enjoy discussion more than your average--well, "bear" ain't the word . . . but I digress.

Isn't there a pretty demonstrable difference between what happens when a deliberative body votes to send the force of arms into another country, vs. what happens when some cat, be he blue in the blood or not, chugs down a mess of booze, then runs his car off a bridge, resulting in the death of his passenger?

You might say that just as professional soldiers know what they are getting into when they join up with the military, so does the young socialite know what she is getting into when she climbs into the passenger seat of a car being piloted by a drunken member of the nation's elite. To me, it's the running home to the mansion after the wreck that makes the difference.

There has to be some separation between that which we are personally responsible for, vs. that which we are responsible for by dint of carrying out our duly elected duties.

This nation is responsible for much of the trouble it finds itself in--as a result of our refusal to avoid--and outright embrace of--"foreign entanglements." We should not have interfered with Iran in the 50's, or Iraq by way of delivering the weapons we later accused Saddam of using, or, or, or . . . but now that we're here, as you say sir, morality precludes simply washing our hands of the matter.

On the morning after Kopechne's tragic death by drowning in Ted Kennedy's passenger seat, I wonder what the water from his family's golden tap felt like on his hands, his body. I fear that in light of the man's accomplishments later in life, many would interpret that particular morning's shower as a kind of baptism.

Well, maybe it was. But perhaps some baptisms do more to set the stain than remove it. I think there is more than one valid viewpoint here--

As for the mention of the pollution of . . . well, everything . . . on our watch, or our corporate structure's watch, our government's watch . . . I'll agree that we're in a bad place from which we've yet to find the skyhook. Maybe if we just keep downing the martinis & dancing with the sorority girls . . . eventually, if we have the right names, the right mix of us will get poured into the Senate, from which exalted position we'll dispense perfect law & order.

Herring405