world on fire

I keep meaning to write about last week's public policy camp, about the amazing kids and their questions and comments and stories, about the speakers who brought us all to tears and the ones who made some of us really angry. But I've been pretty much exhausted for the last 48 hours, I have to write two columns and move to a different house this week, and was thinking when I sat down to write this that the thought-provoking reflections will have to wait.

But then I looked at today's papers. Saw this story on illegal immigrants' access to healthcare in Texas. And this one on the very likely prospect of a presidential veto on a bill that would allow more federal funding to go to stem cell research. And this oh-my-gosh-did-he-actually-say-that op-ed on the Middle East. And I remember that these discussions we get into about public policy and faith and statistics and Bible verses aren't just abstract issues for the people who have to live them. Our personal and political decisions - to vote, to call our Congressman, to pursue a policy - our day-to-day, run-of-the-mill decisions are sometimes literally the difference between life and death.

It's worth thinking about.