God on our side

This is the time of year when I have to write evaluations on the people that report to me at work. I hate that. I did two evaluation meetings today, and have three more to do. Tonight I got juiced up on chocolate, plugged in my iPod, and wrote an evaluation. This one was easy, since the person is terrific. Someone who actually cares too much about her work. I’ll have to find a way to talk to her about that, but compared to some other people in the office who seem to excel in avoiding work-like situations, it’s a nice problem to have.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. Rather, the album I was playing was the one where Judy Collins sings Dylan. It got me thinking that I probably need to buy more Judy Collins albums. There is one acapella track called “With God On Our Side” that just smacked me right in the head. Sometimes Dylan’s lyrics are hard to catch, but with Judy Collins careful recitation, you can’t miss them. I heard these words:

For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.

And immediately thought of our current situation, as the odometer of death has just turned another thousand in Iraq. At two thousand, the right railed against those who saw this as a terrible milestone, saying we shouldn’t think of the war in those terms, even accusing their opponents of being the uncaring ones. Now at three thousand, it seems that Bush is about to announce a further commitment of troops to a lost cause. But what do I know? I’ve been a conscientious objector for forty years.