I am not getting political.

Here's a powder keg: The war in Iraq has produced something good.

I was driving back to work from a jobsite, listening to BBC's The World on Colorado Public Radio. They were talking about the elections held in Iraq today: the good news, the hang-ups, etc. and they were interviewing Iraqis who voted or were in line to vote. There were, of course, the people saying "Get the Americans out today" and the like, but there was an Iraqi couple talking about how happy they were to be determining their own future. They haven't posted the transcript yet, but it went something like this:

She: We are very nice, very good to have a voice in the government of our nation. Very nice, Very good, very-
He: -Happy!
She: Yes, very happy to vote for our own government.
He: We are very happy!

I'm not capturing the feelings that came across in the radio piece. There's a realness in the voices of actual people.

It was really touching to imagine this husband and wife climbing over each other to tell the reporter how happy they were to be voting.

Amid all the bad news and confusing reports coming from that region, I was warmed by good news. The turnout is really high (better percentages than US elections), there's no violence that I've heard of (yet)... It makes me hopeful that we won't have to be there too much longer.

I'm not arguing for or against anything, just saying that it was good to hear two happy and hopeful Iraqis.