Back in Canada and the madness abroad

I’m sitting with my door open at a motel in Perth Ontario. Cars and trucks are rushing by on a damp road outside after some rain has freshened up a muggy day. Back in Canada again and have just finished playing at the Stewart Park festival. It’s a lovely festival set in a park with a river running through. I’ve had a great time playing here.Have been getting up early to watch the British Open on TV, though flicking through channels and viewing the devastation in Lebanon is a harsh wake up call. I will never condone the actions of any terrorist, but the actions of Israel are disgusting in my mind. Raids are one thing, levelling cities is another. A response to terror and violence surely needs restraint, balance and a responsibility to innocents. I can’t see how Israel is showing any of the aforementioned. I watch discussion and coverage across the networks here and everyone talks politics, but the humanity in it all seems to be asleep. I’m sick of the sight of children hurting, burnt, and dead. It ignites a rage in me and, I know, many others. What is it in the minds of men that cause them to behave like this? When will we learn to find other ways of dealing with conflicts and why does the outside world let it happen? How come we pick our fights so carefully? Why does Condalica Rice say that Hezbollah’s actions are disgusting (I’m not saying they are not) but that Israel has a right to do what it’s doing? I know the issues are complex but it actually makes me proud of the UK’s response to attacks on her soil. If we reacted like Israel then God knows where we would be. I know the history of the nation of Israel, and I know it’s a different situation. But there is a madness going on right now, a complete madness. How we need great leaders in these days and how few and far between they seem to rise. We leave to go back to Toronto tomorrow. Played a show at Hugh’s Room on Wed night which was great, especially as we put up the download of the last show there in October 05, the day I arrived here. I get to wave my new passport and working visa as we drop down to the USA on Thursday.