They Learn What They Live

On Wednesday in my hometown of Seattle, about 1,000 young people walked out of school to protest the war in Iraq. (You can read about it here and here.) The above photo of one of the protestors touched on something that I've been thinking about lately.

Say what you want about Clinton's judgment, but ultimately he was willing to admit to and own his mistakes, from his nonresponse to the genocide in Rwanda to his tryst with Monica Lewinsky. But what are young people learning about honesty and accountability from George W. Bush?

We can't reasonably expect Bush to suddenly accept his lack of perfection and start cleaning up his messes. But we're stuck with him for three more years, so perhaps we should hope he does. Bringing 20,000 troops home before the end of the year would be a great first step.