Longest. Week. Ever.

Whew. It's only Thursday night (fingers crossed that "Grey's" is new - haven't checked yet), but I've been thinking it's Thursday all week long. Don't know why my wires are so crossed.

Could be the six inches of snow on the ground. Could be the nine million things I have to do. Could be the getting up a 5 am to go to the Y. Hmmmm.

As I was driving home today, listening to NPR, and all the talk about resolutions expressing our discontent and non-support of the mission in Iraq. All things I totally agree with, by the way, but I got to thinking a little more.

I wish I had a time machine. I've always said that I was born in the wrong generation. I'm a gen-Xer who probably would have been more at home as a flower child. Don't get me wrong, I don't wear gigantic bell-bottoms and peasant shirts and tie-dye all the time. (Okay, well, I am quite fond of tie-dye, but it's not a daily staple of my wardrobe.)

I just feel like I have an inner activist waiting to break free. It's part of the reason I don't work for The Wichita Eagle anymore. When you're a member of the mainstream media, you can't put signs in your yard supporting initiatives or candidates, can't put bumper stickers on your car, you can't speak at public meetings. It's all a part of ethics - and a good part. But, if you're like me, and you have that inner activist, it's hard to shake the part of you that wants to be a citizen, like every other person in the country.

We are a nation at war. But are we really a NATION at war? Sure, men and women of our country are in Iraq fighting a war right now, but what has that changed about our daily lives?

Way too many people still drive gas-guzzling SUVs, Repubs and Dems are still making everything so incredibly partisan that nothing seems to get accomplished, and most of us are spending a hell of a lot more than we are making.

Thankfully, there is no draft like there was in Vietnam. Obviously, I wasn't around during that era, but I've read, heard and seen it in history books, novels, movies, and old newspaper reports. Back then, people actually seemed to have war at the forefront of their brains. Anyone (any male, anyway) that they knew was in danger of being sent to fight a war we shouldn't have been involved in. Is that the difference between yesterday and today?

Imagine if we had to ration today as they did during World War II. THEN, the protests would begin. "What? I can't drive my Hummer to my son's soccer practice? We have to CONSERVE gas?" There'd be riots in the streets over that one.

In our society today, do we have to see an immediate effect on our own friends and family and ourselves before we care what is happening in the world? With all the technology available, we've never been more tuned in than we are today. But all that "tuning in" is making us tune out one another.

I have to live on this planet for about 50 more years - what's it going to be like then?