America is Shining Once More.

Byline: Randy Smith

On January 29, 2002, I sat in a pool of blood at the top of the stairs of my home. I had been listening to George W. Bush address the nation and declare that our country was facing an "axis of evil."

I was greatly upset because Bush was painting a complex world in simplistic terms. The speech was a call to war, which played out a year later in Iraq.

Angered at what was happening that night, I left the living room and trudged up the stairs in a rage to find a good book. I tripped on the final step and went head-first into a glass book case. Shards of glass stuck into my head and caused a deep gash in my middle finger.

At …