My Italian Husband Is Losing His Faith In America

Body and Soul - Bush and Company are using the "no fly" lists to target anti-war protesters, I said.

No way, he said. They'd never get away with that. Not in America.

His cynicism about the Italian government knows no bounds, but he retains a touching, innocent faith in his adopted country. It takes effort these days. I hope it lasts, because I'd like to share it.

The only incident in American politics I've ever seen disturb him was the election of 2000. It bothered him even more than it did me, maybe because it was the first time since he moved here in 1968 that he couldn't claim that worse things happen in Italy. He couldn't come up with an example of worse corruption, even by the people who invented it.

My government wonders whether its better just to knock people off and not have to bother with messy trials, and I'm not even surprised. It uses the law to harass its enemies, and it doesn't even seem out of the ordinary to me. It's what I've come to expect. Ordinary cruelty.