election night

first, i have friends and family who voted on both sides of the election and feel pretty strongly about it. therefore this post has nothing to do with who was right or wrong. it’s just about two things.

1) i am proud to be an american. i would have been proud to be an american if mccain had won also so it has nothing to do with obama winning … well sort of nothing. the pride comes from the fact that history was made last night with a black man being elected president and it happening without total chaos. the same would have been true if mccain and palin had been elected except it would have been a woman elected to high office. it is just amazing to think that this could happen as fast as it did. while official segregation was over before i was very cognizant of it i do still remember as a wee young thing driving through certain parts of montgomery, al and seeing obvious signs of that past struggling to survive. i also saw much of it still working in detroit, michigan when i lived there for a summer in ‘87.  i’m not sure that i honestly thought that an african-american would ever be elected to the office of president during my lifetime, nor for that matter a woman. it says a lot for american that we heal that fast. i’m not sure we are completely healed from the issue of racism (or that we ever will be) but we’ve obviously come along way.

2) the electoral map below is probably the funniest thing i have seen on explaining politics. i have not followed crikey before but i probably will start doing so now just because of that map. you have to love those auzzies.

3 Replies to “election night”

  1. i am not proud to be an american.

    i agree that the aussi’s make great video clips to brighten our days, and in this case, a rather silly map of the election results!
    i’m glad to see the american results in favor of change, change from racism, change from conservatism – which would other wise deter from ever solving the planet’s core issues, change from corruption. i know that’s always the goal. or is it? perhaps only capitalism is favored, profit over morals. i guess we do waht we can.
    i got off topic.
    waht i wanted to say is taht i am not proud to be american. i am very glad and blessed to live in america and have the freedoms that we do. also i am more appreciative of these freedoms, as i saw oppression and even more corruption in other countries (i traveled in Europe 2005-2006)…yet something that i’m proud of? that would be soemthign that i acheived, something that i created, somethign like art or a song i practiced on guitar so long that it actually sounded decent. that’s something i’m proud of.
    someone who says they are proud to be american (since what effort did you give to become american?) is either missing the point of pride, or misusing the slogan, in my opinion.
    that’s just my opinion.
    catch you later,
    matthew

  2. i understand your point matthew but i’m going to have to disagree with you a little bit. mainly over whether or not we worked for this. as our government is a representative republic it is a matter of work for all who vote. if someone doesn’t vote then they fit into your category of of just being born into it. if you vote then you are a part of the “work” of shaping america and her future (whether your “side” wins or not). that’s why our system changes so much from conservatism to liberalism and back and then back again. i’m proud that those changes, which are sometimes huge, are done in a relatively peaceful manner.

  3. I agree with most…except the part about the same thing happening if M/P had won. History has shown quite the opposite reaction, so I have no reason to doubt that their would have been some crazy stuff going on around the US if the other party had slipped by with a marginal win.

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