I doubt a lot of things.  I am cynical about a lot of other things.  I am positive and unshaken about very few things – particularly where belief is involved. But I am also quite flexible in what I am willing to believe. I do not know how you rate yourself on the correctness or honesty of the current stories claiming the headlines. A few of my correspondents believe diametrically opposite from my positions. But that is all to the good.  It tests not only my willingness to believe certain things but also as to how correct I really am.  Belief is a powerful force in our universe.

For instance:  the Judith Miller imprisonment for refusing to reveal her sources until she was released from her promise to keep that source to herself.  The persecution of the prosecutors of this lady was a landmark attack on the inviolability of privacy. Other reporters have been jailed before, but the whole crew surrounding the Bush Presidency was involved in this one.  To open up a can of worms is appropriate for those not in power but inappropriate and criminal to those who are in power. I am willing to believe that Ms Miller’s jail time may have been a legal response to investigators but a harbinger to the revelations that are being made as we speak. I am willing to believe that disclosures will point to the liar-in-Chief, President Bush.

Speaking about Republican leaders, I must also state that I am willing to believe that Tom DeLay and Bill Frist have things to hide; that if fully disclosed they would be swept out of office by their fellow Republicans and a layer of protection removed from around the President will expose to those who actually believe he is a competent leader that he is, indeed, a smarmy, lying, ignorant poseur whose family connections brought him unearned prominence.  I am willing to believe all of this.

Finally, I am willing to believe that the current religious alliance of fundamentalists and political opportunists have speeded up the clock that is ticking about global warming.  The disbelief that science is the truth – all the mechanics and medical procedures to the contrary, the thirst for oil to convert into energy (pure science) and conquering entry into space for a closer look at heaven, has not shown us God’s dwelling place in a heavenly layer above our atmosphere.  I am willing to believe those who believe in supernatural claptrap cover their ignorance with an array of moral beliefs that cannot bear close scrutiny.  Yet, I do believe that most of the “DO NOTS” - rules that direct the lives of innocents actually are the fuel for much of the pain and suffering of people like Judith Miller. What really hurts is that the DeLays and the Frists are held up as saints even when their statues show their shoddy construction.