Update and Event

Dear all,

I'm sorry that I'm behind in newsletters. I have a treasure chest of "Your Comments" and some excellent articles (including an article that features one of you!) but it's going to have to wait until the weekend.

Sadly, I have some other work and volunteer responsibilities that have taken away from my F1200 time.

I will also admit that I was gobsmacked by the President's speech on Tuesday evening, and since that time have been feeling honestly defeated.

I can't and won't speak at this time for anyone else in the group with regard to our adventures abroad.

But personally, as someone who could only be wedged out of New York by 9.11 (my old office at Deutsche Bank was 'collateral damage'), I couldn't justify President Bush's decision to send troops to Afghanistan, even as I and other New Yorkers were inhaling smoke and particulate from the towers weeks and months after the bombing.

So it is even more difficult for me to envision how an escalation - after we have arguably made things worse in Afghanistan over the past eight years - would actually help either the US or Afghanistan. And yes, I had friends who were stop-lossed or re-upped.

I understand that the President campaigned on expanding our military presence in Afghanistan, but I would have expected him to consider that the economic crisis that arrived after his campaign-era formulations for Afghanistan might have had some bearing.

I would have expected someone as intelligent as President Obama to consider more carefully the resignation letter of Matthew Hoh, and the warnings of British soldier and diplomat Rory Stewart.

So again, please accept my apologies for the delay on the newsletter. I'll have a catch-up newsletter for you this weekend. There is, in fact, a great deal of news and progress with regard to HCR, and you deserve to know about it, as well as to read comments from your fellow F1200'ers.

In the meantime, please consider attending the December 6 fundraiser for EQUAL Health. You can meet not only Ellen Shaffer but Deborah Leveen at this fundraiser. Also, thanks to those of you who attended the rally at City Hall yesterday, it was good to see you there.

Many thanks for your patience,

Eva Chrysanthe