Evil minds, evil ideas

I was actually quite offended by the world wide protests today on the Second Anniversary of the Iraq War. When I think of the ebullient Iraqis with their purple fingers, the Afghani women with visible faces standing in line to vote, and the hundreds of thousands of brave Lebanese protesting against their Syrian occupiers, I feel tremendous pride in what America has done. I think it's been a step forward for universal freedom, and is an extraordinary gift from our country to the world. Watching the protests also made me think of a 1949 Helen MacInnes Cold War era novel called Rest and Be Thankful. The book is set in Wyoming, and has a bunch of jaded New Yorkers being confronted with real America. With the exception of the covert Communist, who is incapable of seeing beauty or truth in the landscape and people around him, the New Yorkers have their eyes opened to the real America, unfiltered by French thinkers and Madison Avenue publications. It's a good read, both dated and timeless. The reason I mention the book is because of something MacInnes has one of her characters say about the covert Communist: "There is something evil in a mind that wishes ill-fortune on others who have done him no harm. I think it is all the more evil for disguising itself as idealism." I couldn't have said it better myself about today's protestors.