Time Out for Patriotism

Once again K is abroad on Election Day – but this time, the local authorities didn’t ask her how she voted before they allowed her to cross their border. And with the poll results, we may actually be allowed back in now!

We began to regret our decision to leave the states directly before the election. (Of course we cast our votes before leaving.) However, we did find a good location to watch the election returns. The local Irish pub in Chiang Mai seemed to be hosting most of the American expats starting in the early hours of Wednesday morning (it’s a 12 hour time difference from Eastern Time.) We got there around 9am with an all-white, under-thirty crowd, who had probably only known the Bush era, already hooting and hollering upstairs. Rozie could barely keep from crying to see so many young people be happily inducted into the democratic process as she was 20+ years ago, when she fought for college student voting rights in New York.

But we staid 40+ folks sat downstairs. If there were any McCain supporters, they were very quiet, but we suspect most people who travel abroad are ready for regime change, if only because everywhere we travel is waiting with baited breath.

We’ve been reading Gone With The Wind (I know, we’re traveling with a 10 lb book!) Margaret Mitchell wrote so much about the politics and sociology of the south that was cut out of the movie, and it’s been fascinating to review the Civil War during this election cycle, albeit through one-sided fiction. It’s sad to realize how many of the mistakes of Reconstruction, made in the name of liberty by patriotic partisans, were made all over again in Iraq. And then to watch CNN in an Irish bar in Thailand, and see the parties’ campaigns, 140 years later, still being affected by the legacy of those misguided days (only this time with many things in their platforms kind of reversed.) Too weird! May we never elect and appoint leaders who don't know our own and international history.

We were moved and proud by the outcome. It was a shame that McCain waited until the finish of his campaign to show real leadership -- His concession speech was outstanding, (which only highlighted the hooliganism of his front row supporters, and one can only guess if he might wish he hadn’t pandered to them earlier.) And Obama’s speech, was, well, presidential. Not gloating or even too celebratory but appropriately sober and reminiscent of the struggles that brought us here. We have a long road ahead of us. May his administration fulfill all hopes for a more peaceful, more just entrée to the future.