Bushwhacked in Texas

I'm watching Frontline's definitive episode on the Iraq War -- what it call's "Bush's War." And it's infuriating. Downright infuriating. I'm not so much upset because I'm learning things I didn't already know. Rather, this has the feel of watching a video recording of someone slapping you. You lived it. You felt it. But seeing it on film pisses you off that much more.

How could reasonable people not have the same reaction? Of course, I ask that in a rhetorical manner. I'm from Texas, after all.

I've always had a difficult relationship with Texas. It's like family. You think they're crazy, and they often get on your nerves. But if anyone were ever to say something bad about them, you wouldn't hesitate to say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa." That's my crazy family.

Crazy as it is, and as much as it gets on my nerves, Texas has always been home ... until 2004. I'd never felt out of place in Texas until I went home for Thanksgiving that year. You see, GWB was re-elected president earlier that month, which was a devastating turn of events. But I was severely more dejected when I became aware that everyone in my family who was eligible to vote voted for Bush. For the first time, I felt like an outsider when I went home. Home was home no more.