06:13:47 GMT (22:13:47 PST)
Text message from Shanny wakes me.
"It's election night and the Democrats are kicking ass all over the country! The pendulum now swings the other way! Everyone here is ecstatic."
16:11:00 GMT (10:11:00 EST)
Email from dad.
It looks like we are going to pull our asses out of the frying pan.
Tonight, after dark, look to the east to see if there is a momentary flash of light as we slip into the fire.
If Montana, and Virginia go Demo, it'll happen.
WooHoo, I can smell the asses burnin' now.
From Johnbai on my blog this afternoon.
Holy Crap. It's a resounding "fuck you" to GW and his White House Bully Squad. I just heard that Rumsfeld is gone!We're "oh-so-close" to being able to stop being ashamed of being American.
Tell me about it. I have been wishing there were people around who feel what I'm feeling. It's one of those moments when you want to unite with your pals and have a celebratory drink. Instead, I went for a walk and that was nice. But I want a teeshirt or something, like a donkey saying "I am gonna whip somebody's ass" or something. But something much more clever than that.
I was listening to the US Ambassador to Ireland this morning in a radio interview. People here would tend to be anti-Bush and the interviewer, Ryan Tubridy, was certainly putting the ambassador through his paces. The poor guy was only just appointed a couple of weeks ago. But when the subject turned to Rumsfeld, the ambassador was adamant that Rumsfeld wouldn't be finishing up all that quickly. So I had a really big "I told you so" moment when only a few hours later, Rumsfeld was reportedly resigning his position. Sweet, sweet justice.
For some reason, as my day is wrapping up here, I suddenly remembered life during the first Gulf War while I was in high school in Washington State. The school was called in for an assembly and most of my friends skipped it. Unfortunately I would have been caught and failed to make it out and had to stay there on my own, feeling like an alien amongst the deebs and cheerleaders. And it ended up being a rally in favour of the Gulf War, complete with rousing singalong to "Proud to be an American" by Kenny Rodgers paired with slideshow of stars, stripes, soldiers, and whatever other propaganda they were feeding us at the time.
How far off were we, that day, from other demonised and corrupted governments who target the youth of their country? I stood there, as we were asked to stand during the song, and looked around me as my peers sang at the top of their lungs, raising their hands, proving their patriotism and buying the cause wholesale. I felt like I had been dropped into a communist rally, or even a Nazi youth rally, right there in my highschool. In a democratic country. They made me go to this thing and stand there as if I was in support of their dirty oil war. I felt so incredibly betrayed by my country, my school and my elders. I lost all respect for my community in that hour.
The resignation of Rumsfeld and the Democratic takeover of the House (and hopefully the Senate) have, for some reason, made up for that moment in some way. The fact that people got out and voted made up for that. The fact that Americans are no longer blindly buying what the government is selling makes it up to me. It's in moments like these, in this state of our Union, that I feel proud to be one of the decision makers.
Do you hear me, Mr. Bush? WE are the decision makers. YOU are a pimple on the ass of history.
4 comments:
Molly, You Go Girl!
You just wrote, the best thing you have ever written.
"A pimple on the ass of history."
This should be carved on GB's tombstone, or at least on his Library.
You make me so proud!!!
Now, what would you call Romsfeld, Asscroft, and the
BIG DICK himself, Cheney?
And now Greg's own people in Montana have gone Democratic as well. We are proud of them to be sure! I htink my Dad may have even crossed the isle to vote in the new majority in Pennsylvania. Virginia will exceed our wildest dreams (of course unless Bush and Cheyney both decide to throw in the towel). I say though, let us not be smug but welcome the losers with open arms. Isn't that what the Democratic party is supposed to represent? This makes me feel like it's ok to be here and American after all. THIS is what Democracy is all about. Don't like what they're doing? Vote them out. Unfortunately a whole lot of damage can be done in a very short time before the next election, as we have seen with Bush and Company. You may notice the religious right reassessing their moral priorities in the months ahead.
Please let the people know that we will prevail. Not all of us are lovers of power, money, and privilege and this administration will now have to pay attention. I only hope the Democrats get it together well enough to have some real and positive effect on what's happining in the world at the hands of our government. And check out what the Fundamentalist right is doing for the environment...it's an amazing movement to save God's creation from annihilation by corporate business, particularly mining and drilling. In West Virginia they are trying to stop "mountain top removal" for coal extraction. In Idaho they're singing thepraises of God's grand landscape and trying to save pristine tracts from open pit mines as well. Working with environmentalists and scientists, they are sending a voice to the same big business that proclaim that God's will is in giving all of them jobs, ergo the corporations huge profits. Check out Bill Moyers' site at http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/green/index.html. The pendulum IS swinging after a long period of stasis in our country. My faith in the system is renewed. Makes me want to wake up in the morning.
It's almost like a complete revolution to the days of Teddy Roosevelt. And wouldn't that be swell for our natural world?
Bully! Good show!
I am with you all the way (also an embarrassed expat)- but now there's the extraction- how to get out of this quagmire. And I'm not just talking about Iraq. Will Americans be allowed to whisper the name Darwin again?
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