I did address this elsewhere, but not in a direct reply to you, I don't think. All this stuff is starting to bleed together.

I have worked for candidates I support since I was in elementary school. Granted, a seven-year-old doesn't have a good grasp of the issues, but I knew who I wanted for my seven-year-old reasons, and I think that's OK. So I've put in the effort.

I have voted for candidates I either support or can tolerate, and in the alternative, have voted against candidates whom I don't trust or can't tolerate as leaders (even though they may be swell folks in private life) since I turned 18, in every single election including the primaries.

I write letters, to papers and to elected officials, but not so often that they become background noise. There's a fine line between being involved and being a crank which I have tried not to cross.

So as far as the system is concerned, I've paid my dues. I'm not someone who complains bitterly but does nothing.

I believe we are in a dire situation. I believe that the consequences will follow all of the people my age to our graves, and that my children and everyone else's will be paying for it until they get to be my age now, and maybe longer.

This situation is not limited to one region, but to the entire country.

I have withdrawn my support. It doesn't matter. Any conditional support or approval from opposition people who expect a kind of bargaining, or at least the truth, from those in power, has been blown off, twice: once after the 2000 election and once more in the year after 911. My insult tolerance was exceeded long ago. I'm not credulous enough to believe that a leadership forged by the mean-spirited pursuit of gridlock in the Clinton years, and reinforced by the four dreadful years of Bush, will suddenly be transformed into a unifying coalition. I have accepted, with great bitterness, that my opinion counts for nothing in this country.

The only things left I have to withdraw are my talents, my energy, my intelligence, and my taxes. The only way I can do that is to leave the country. Voting with one's feet is a well-known way that customers express dissatisfaction with a product. I can't do it yet, because of personal concerns. But I can, am and will make plans. It makes me feel better to do something proactive rather than just sit with my head in my hands and moan.

Working within the system has become the equivalent of sitting with my head in my hands and moaning. When no one is listening except as a way of waiting for me to "work out my anger" and eventually collapse into acquiescence, like the last two of the four stages of death, it's time to stop talking and leave.