I have just gotten through reading a book about Khmer Rouge and am just astounded that there are people willing to follow someone (Pol Pot) and do his requests and in this case killing about a million of his own people. That is true power when you can convince others to do such heinous things to other human beings. Has there ever been a time in history where wars were not being fought? The Spanish committed atrocities during the 1700’s in South America all in the pursuit of gold and riches. The church told the soldiers that anything they did would be forgiven by God and the church. I just do not understand the concept of someone thinking they are “superior” then others and justifies killing and enslaving them. Would the world be a different place if women were in power or would they become corrupted like the men? Many of the injustices have been in the name of religion. Holy war? Female genital mutilation? Kill the infidels!? The Spanish Inquisitions? Holocaust? These are fairly contemporary things that have happened-but there has seemed to be conflict since the beginning of time. It is really a harsh world and the fact that there is any one left intact astounds me. I am reading a GREAT book. The Mapmaker’s Wife. I didn’t think I would like it and then started reading and loved it from about the first page. It talks about conditions for people in South America during the 1700’s. Just getting from place to place was an incredible feat. We can just jump in our cars and be somewhere in a matter of hours, days. These trips took months and years. Mule, on foot, boat. You didn’t have much choice then. Through uncharted territories. It talks about a girl that got married at 12 to a Frenchman in his twenties. It was not unusual for girls to get married so young. As soon as first menstruation, they were considered old enough. They wanted to go to France but to get there was pretty hard. He traveled from Peru across South America down the Amazon to French Guiana. He was trying to secure passage for him and his wife and daughter who was born while he was traveling. They figured it would take over a year to go down, get the affairs in order and travel back up the Amazon for his wife. Because of circumstances, it was 20 before they saw each other again. The wife decided to pack up and go to him. She was from a wealthy family so it was she, two of her brothers and a nine-year-old nephew. A couple of tag-alongs and various Natives and slaves. The wife had two girls around nine and ten that were her maids. She was carried in a coach and was not allowed to walk. They had to walk about a couple of weeks to make it to the Amazon. Anyway the story is absolutely fascinating and the best part? ALL TRUE! One of the men in the story got a letter that was eight years old telling him his father had died. Waiting for mail to travel from Europe to South America not to mention from South America to Europe. Talk about patience!I know that I have just jumped around from subject to subject…..Just my thoughts that I need to try to write down more often. These are some of the things that I think about. Just wondering why sometimes. Wish I could travel back in time for a very short while. Makes me glad to be living in this day and age.