d'Ecosse
Greetings, once again, from Glasgow, Scotland! Our RyanAir flight from Beauvais to Prestwick landed 35 minutes early - an unexpected but perfectly welcome gift of bonus time in Scotland. (I’m just hoping our return flight isn’t 35 minutes early!)
I’ve got a really odd combination of feelings being back here. It’s comfortable — staying at Adelaide’s, eating familiar foods, seeing people I know — but it’s also a bit uncanny — businesses have closed, other have opened, there are new faces. And to top it off, it’s bright, sunny, and rather warm! What happened to the rainy, gray Glasgow I knew and loved? No, honestly, this is a change I can live with!
And something else that’s making life strange today are the anti-war demonstrations. Sure, in France there have been marches and protests. (I even picked up a huge banner after one had cleared our street.) But because their signs have been in French or some other probably insignificant reason I had basically been able to ignore them. Here is Scotland (both in Edinburgh this morning and now in Glasgow) it’s more than a little unsettling to see these demonstrators calling for Bush and Blair to end this war.
I generally consider myself a pacifist and am not at all gung-ho about these recent attacks, but too see first-hand hundreds if not thousands of protestors in the streets waving Iraqi flags, calling out for peace, and voicing their opinions is very bizarre. I arrived in Scotland not long after the September 11th attacks. The US and the UK have been allies for a long time, and for all intents and purposes, still are. But the people, the average citizens, of both countries, in significant numbers, aren’t happy with how their respective governments are handling the situation. Sure, the British support their troops just as we Americans support ours, but that definitely doesn’t mean the masses support the war.
God, give us peace!