Nicholas Kristof built a school

In Cambodia.

And I built a blog, to sort of combat this building of schools on the other side of the planet.

Or to combat the idea that makes an American (or Canadian, the two of which, by my being Canadian-American, are interchangeable, and therefore on Your House is Burning "American" will be known to mean "North American") build a school in Cambodia (or Zambia for that matter). That idea is:
They need us.

OK, not combat it, but counter it:
We need you.

We, here, close by, your neighbors, countrymen and women, children. Yes, even the sex trade workers here in our part of the world, Mr. Kristof, need you. We need all of our talent, all of our skill, just to have our part of the world straightened out. And even that's a stretch. Really we need all of our talent, skill, and resources just to keep our part of the world from descending beyond the topsy-turvy turmoil it currently enjoys.

I wrote a lyric, it goes like this:
So why we worried about
sweat-shopped south Asian kids
when our own are
killin' themselves before they've
lived to double digits?
Why are we leaving our babies
alone in burning buildings
goingnext door to check
on the welare of the
neighbours children

And so my blog is born, Your House Is Burning. I'll try to keep up on the news about people from my part of the world helping people on the other side of the planet, and not the people around the bend.

That sounds harsh, and it's 3:26am so I'm not going to get into an explanation, but I'll say something quick.

I'm not against anybody, not the Zambians, the Cambodians, or anyone else. I'm pro-American*.

With that said, I'm also, as the talk-of-the-day calls us, a progressive. My views and my stance on helping those close as opposed to those far-removed are not based on race, or xenophobia, or Isolationism (people shouldn't be forced to do so). They are based on my own personal reflection, discussions with many intelligent, and often adversarial people, and sometimes cold calculation.

The fact that these views of mine are at complete odds with most liberals (Liberals, in Canada) unlike all my other views (complete odds, I said) has got me to thinking about it in more detail. I feel a little like Dennis Miller must have, except without the money so there's nothing to fear about my turning over to the dark side.

I plan to share more than most will want to take in, and I feel Kristof will likely be the subject of many posts. So I felt it appropriate that he help ring in the new Blog. Also, I met a young woman who tip-toed around knowing a writer for the NYTimes, and if it's not Kristof my first guess was wrong. Maybe she (or he, or both) can come by and let me know.

Oh, I forgot, my 3:42 reply to Kristof's NYTimes blog post "We start a school in Cambodia" :
Start a school in North Dakota. One that works.

Get your kids out of your burning house. After you've done that you can go and check on the neighbors.

PS This blog will also likely encounter periods of other politics, Vancouver Canucks, writing/performing and other various posts, but mostly I'll stick to my stereotypically Republican stance that is the basis for this blog. Especially if people start to read and that's what they want. It's all about the people.

*remember, "North-AMERICAN"