If It Were Your Father...?

Imagine your father had heart disease and had to stay warm. Imagine, too, that circumstances demanded that he had to sit outside, in winter for a time.



Would you want him to wear his parka?

Vice President Dick Cheney raised eyebrows on Friday for wearing an olive-drab parka, hiking boots and knit ski cap to represent the United States at a solemn ceremony remembering the liberation of Auschwitz.

I would. BTW, I grew up on the Canadian Prairies, in Winnipeg, the coldest city outside of Siberia (Oh yeah, you bet I've looked that up, like everyone else where I lived).

You think you know cold? You don't. Do your feet hurt more right when you take your skates off, or afterwards? When your eyelashes (top & bottom) freeze together, what do you do? Is a river ever too frozen to walk across? Do you know how to "plug in" your car, or why you should take the bus in spring?

Cheney, with heart disease, wore his parka in the cold. It was almost ten degrees colder at Auschwitz than it had been at the inaugural (I looked that up too). And windier, which means everything in that kinda weather. He made the right decision.