So, I had plans to write another post on redemptive character arcs tonight.  I planned to write about Jenna Bush, who has a new book out about a young woman with AIDS.  It seemed to me that Jenna’s story told a classic redemptive tale.  It is always instructive for writers to study stories like this, and hers seems to have captured lots of attention.

She started out as a screw-up college student constantly getting busted for MIPs, moved on to become a teacher at an inner-city school, and finally, now she is the author of a best-selling book and newly engaged.

I read a good, if a bit name-droppy, profile of her in the latest issue of Texas Monthly, written by Skip Hollandsworth, who I met when I was at the Mayborn last summer.  And, yes, her redemptive character arc is impressive.

But she is the daughter of George W. Bush and tonight that taints any warm, glowy feelings I might have had about her.

Because last night we learned that a friend of my son’s died from injuries received in Iraq.  I don’t know the full story yet, and so I won’t yet talk about names or any other details.  His mother was an acquaintance of mine and I can’t even begin to grasp the pain she is going through tonight.

I’m stunned and I’m horrified and I’m grieving.

I’m sorry, but sweet little blond Jenna just isn’t very appealing anymore, seeing as how her father is a war criminal.

As he has often said, he has no trouble sleeping at night.  But yet another mother will be up all night long weeping and wailing.

I wish I lived in a country where mothers didn’t have to mourn their sons who were killed in a fruitless war.