The Dictator And The Playwright

One door opens as another one closes. The last troops leave Iraq, and Kim Jong Il dies, prompting North Korea to start its traditional period of mourning with short range missile tests. The Axis of Evil is alive and well, in spite of the demise of "Little Elvis." Iran has our super-secret stealth drone and a group of clerics every bit as nutty as the cabal in North Korea. And, it should be noted, the situation in Iraq is about as clear as the mud in the murkiest oasis.
Meanwhile, across the globe, Vaclav Havel passed away as well. The leader of the Velvet Revolution, not the rock band but the leader of a movement that changed the world in just a few weeks without a bullet being fired. Way back in 1989, when the Cold War was being decided, this playwright and dissident eventually became president of the Czech Republic, mostly because his was the voice of the people. He brought his country to NATO and to the European Union. When the Berlin Wall fell, it started a wave of reform that changed the face of what was once the Soviet bloc.
Kim Jong Il once said, "“In other words, one is responsible for one's own destiny and one has also the capacity for hewing out one's own destiny.” Vaclav Havel wrote, "Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not." Aloha to the both of you.