This is my first diary post here Kos, so I've decided to keep it more open- ended rathar than focused on a particular topic. The impetus for this post has to do with the fact that tomorrow I am going to take the Advanced Placement European History test. As I study for the test, I've become increasingly fustrated with the fact that I live in the most disgraceful epoch of our nation's history. I read about great men like Churchill, Roosevelt, Wilson, Lincoln, Jefferson, Disraeli, and so many countless others that I get sick when I think about the leadership (or dearth thereof) of this country. Where have all the great leaders gone? Where has the endemic fortitude of character gone from our nation? How did the pessimism of Hobbes triumph over the optimism of Locke? I just know we are on the verge of something big, something awful (and I'm not talking about 9/11)-- all signs are pointing to it; prior to every catastrophe in history there seems to have been an egregious failure of leadership and some horrifying complacency among the public. Does it feel like the prewar years to WWII to anyoone else? Feel free to blast me on my naive diatribe, but if any of you Kosmopolitans can field my rhetorical questions I would be much obliged. Thanks- Aaron