I'm declaring my own personal boycott. I can't stand the way the Americans are acting. By the Americans I don't mean American people per se; I mean their government, their corporations, their military.

So I'm cutting three symbols of America out of my life. I won't drink Coca-Cola (or Pepsi for that matter) while this bullying is going on. I won't wear denim. And I won't eat in McDonalds or any of its copies.

I'm not asking anyone to join me; this is my own personal protest, the only way I can speak to my heart of how I feel.

I had an email today from a friend, a farmer in the wilds of rural Ireland's mountains. He wrote:

--
And then we can still feel lucky not to live in Iraq. Got an e-mail there just now telling how the war there had already started. Airfields and air defence are already being bombed on a daily basis. Commandos are dropped on Iraqi soil most nights by helicopter to do unspeakable things. Anybody with a computer and a net connection gets personal messages to make him aware that all his moves are being followed.
--

All I can hold to is the words of the stoic Epictetus when he was threatened with exile or beheading:

"So be it. Behead me, if it is better for you that way. When did I tell you that I was immortal? You will do your part, and I mine. It is yours to kill, mine to die without quailing; yours to banish, mine to go into exile without groaning."