John wrestles with last tuesday's tragedy. The following is the most poignant excerpt. The whole post in well worth reading.

I have a bad relationship with America. I feel used and abused by our system, and I will not support the ripe infection of our government with my life or my money if I can help it. Once i paid off my back taxes, I kind of washed my hands. I don’t feel like I owe any special debt to the country for allowing me what I consider the bare minimum of what every person should be allowed. To the contrary, the country by and large has wacky authoritarian forces puling to the right and the left. I exist apart from the government, and I spent the week wondering how American am I? I searched for a definition of American that did not exclude any valid point of view as almost any opinion has someone who can be considered a great American to champion it. n the end, I have decided an American is a citizen of the United States which I think is a good and honest view. It includes us all, and is more likely to pull us together than any feel good definition that leaves people out.

You're intelligent enough to figure out that my posting this doesn't necessarily constitute agreement or similar feeling, right? I can certainly understand where John is coming from, though.