Sadly, Georgia and Russia Now in Outright War

This is going to be a personal reaction-- not news tonight.

I have friends who have been living and working in Georgia. They and their two kids (3 and 5)were there with the peace corps. Luckily they are on a long planned trip to Bali, Indonesia right now, but though I have heard tonight that they are safe; they may never be able to go back to what has become their home-- and they have worked there for over a year and made many friends whose fates are certainly unknown at this time.

Not much to say at this point yet except to vent sadness and frustration at more loss of life, more civilians injured and killed, more conflict in a world that has seen so much of this again in recent years.

I join with others around the globe today hoping that calmer heads will prevail and that hostilities will ceased, but there doesn't seem to be much hope of that right now. And all this breaking out on the very weekend that the world gathers to celebrate a hope for peace at the Olympic games.

I was working in a summer camp in Norway during the Atlanta games and broke out weeping when I heard about the bomb that went off there. Certainly the reality is that the Olympic weeks are not some sacred time or so different than any other time; but the combination of hope and hope lost is all the more disappointing and painful. In the Atlanta tragedy I remember being relieved that it was NOT an international conflict.

I am going to bed here now in Tokyo, hoping to wake up to better news tomorrow.