Good news and bad . . .

I know many people have been concerned about Riverbend's welfare. She is alive and well, but she and her family, or at least her brother, have decided to leave Iraq. They don't know where they will go or what will become of them, but staying has become impossible.

She writes:

We don't know if whatever we leave, including the house, will be available when and if we come back. There are moments when the injustice of having to leave your country, simply because an imbecile got it into his head to invade it, is overwhelming. It is unfair that in order to survive and live normally, we have to leave our home and what remains of family and friends… And to what?

It's difficult to decide which is more frightening- car bombs and militias, or having to leave everything you know and love, to some unspecified place for a future where nothing is certain.

Riverbend, E. -- you will always have a place with us.