A Farewell Kiss!

"This is a farewell kiss, you dog!" exclaimed Muntadar al-Zaidi as he threw his first shoe at President Bush. This was quickly followed by another shoe that he dedicated to the widows and orphans of the Iraq war.

Throwing shoes is an age old custom. Traces of this custom are readily available in just about every town you might visit in the United States. Inexplicably, evidence is strewn about small towns and large cities alike. Dispersed about tree branches and hanging from telephone and power-lines, the errant shoes and the symbol expressed by them hang for all to see.

It has to be true that in the course of the past eight years, just about everyone, their brother and their dogs (not cats, they don't want anything to do with shoes or politics) have wanted to show displeasure with the Bush administration for one thing or another by tossing the closest thing at hand in the President's general direction. I'm not advocating physically harming the man but expressions of such frustration cannot always be suppressed.

I might be alone in the United States but I stand with others across this world who call for the release of Mr. al-Zaidi. He hadn't any intention of harming President Bush but wanted to express his displeasure. I cannot condemn this man's actions - shoes hanging from power-lines and tree branches, on the other hand; that's just plain rash.