Cold Day

Today is a very cold day in England - perhaps the coldest day since summer ended. That being said, it is absolutely glorious. The sun is shining in that crisp mellow way that only happens during really clear cold weather. That, however, doesn't make it any warmer. As I was waiting for my bus this morning, wearing my heavy leather jacket, gloves and scarf, and wishing like mad that I had a hat to cover my head, I looked across the street at the bus stop going into town (I go away from town for work). At that bus stop there stood two British teenage girls, probably around 14 years old. They both had light jackets on and were wearing mini-skirts and knee length socks. This must be the school uniform as most of the kids who get off at my bus stop or wait at their bus stop wear some variation of the same in warmer weather. However, I know for a fact that there are other pant-based options that these girls could be wearing. In danger of sounding too old and curmudgeonly, I'll not make any statement about the sensibility of these girls mini-skirts, rather, I will tell a short story from my own childhood.

I went to high school in Athens, Greece (or, at least, the last two years of my high school career), which, more often than not was temperate. Occasionally, there would be a really cold day, but more often than not, the weather was pretty nice. I say this to set up an anecdote that occurred on one of the rare cold days. I was waiting at my bus stop, which happened to be on the Navy base in Nea Makri (which no longer exists as the US Navy pulled up stakes the year I finished school), and was situated in front of the lecture hall. We were able to stand inside the entranceway to the lecture hall, if we so wished, but most of the older kids chose not to do so as it was invariably loud in there and overrun with elementary school children with running noses and squeaky shoes. This meant that we were standing outside on this cold winter day. A classmate of mine, a girl about my age, approached me wearing a tank top and a mini-skirt and asked if she could borrow my coat as she was really cold. She was pretty good looking, but seeing that much skin isn't really sexy when most of what you see is blue and covered in goose-bumps. I looked at her in disbelief (even then I was pretty even keeled), and asked her why in the hell she was wearing what she was wearing. Her response, and I swear I'm not kidding, was to tell me "well, it was warm in my house."

Um...OK

So, I see that it's been less than a week since the election (and my last post), but somehow it seems much longer. I could say that I believe everything will be okay, and that the leadership of my own country doesn't really make a big difference, however, that would be untruthful. I believe that we've collectively just made a monumental mistake in judgement, and I'm not sure how to come to grips with that.

My first impression is to think of all of the stupid people out there, but I don't think that's fair. I don't think people are evil or stupid generally, so this election shouldn't change that. That leaves me with very few options...either the other side was wrong (and knew it), was wrong (and didn't know it) or was right. Of all of these, I think that the second option is most likely, but I have to at least reflect on the thought that the last option might be true.

1. To believe that the other side was wrong and knew it, I would have to assume that people are generally uncaring. There was too much at stake for that to be a palatable thought...

2. To believe that the other side was wrong and didn't know it, I have to assume that people are easily mislead. This, to me, is not a very difficult step to make. I've often had conversations about politics where people will complain about the "lack of good leadership." I usually laugh at this, because I honestly believe that we lack for good followers much more than we lack for good leaders. That Bush supporters tend to believe that WMD were discovered in Iraq and that Saddam helped plan 9/11 kinda supports this posulate.

3. To believe that the other side is right, I have to assume that I am wrong. Don't get me wrong, I don't really have trouble admitting when I'm wrong (just ask my students, they'll tell you how often I'm clueless - or better yet, ask my wife), but I have difficulty accepting this stance. Having a pretty clear sense that my views are well thought out, I'm not prepared to accept the idea that gay marriage is evil or that tax cuts for the wealthy is a great way to help out the middle class. The biggest problem with this is that I also believe strongly in personal responsibility, and so it is a bit enathema to pass that responsibility on to un-named masses of uninformed Bush supporters.

So, what does this all bring me back to? I'm not sure...it might take a while to figure that out. I'm starting to think that the Democrats haven't done a good enough job of standing up for what they believe. Americans, by and large, are looking for optimism, and the Democrats haven't really offered them that...at least not in the recent past. If we can start to talk about progressive ideals in a defensible manner. For example, the whole gay marriage thing could be defused really quickly if Democrats stopped trying to be like Republicans while splitting hairs about being against gay marriage while being for civil unions...if the majority of Americans don't believe in gay marriage, then the Democrats should start talking about how government shouldn't have any role in relationships...government can provide everyone - gay or straight - partnership and other civil union-type benefits while churches have control over the marriage ceremony - effectively, government would make partnership a legal arrangment between two individuals, and churches make it a match between a man and a women. With this, any denomination that wantd to provide marriage ceremonies for gay couple could do so with no government interference and at their own inclination.

What I do know, however, is that if we can start talking about what we are rather than what we aren't, then we can go a long way towards talking about responsibility again. As long as we frame ourselves as "not republicans" then we'll always be second choice. Anyway, I have no intention of turning this into a political blog, but I will continue to work out what my personal message is...that's the only way that I can make certain that I am comfortable in my own skin and take responsibility for my own actions.

So here I sit...

It's nearly midnight in England, and I'm trying to figure out whether to go to bed or stay up. CNN International is showing analysis. I'm cautiously optimistic that Kerry will win by a fairly substantial margin, however, I often think that I may be a victim of echo chamber mentality. I've read lots of very good indicators for Kerry lately, but, obviously, these are all on sites that are left leaning - this makes me cautious in making any certain statements, but if I had to guess, I'd say that Kerry will be the president elect later this evening, and that it won't get to the so called "margin of litigation."

Anyway, the point of this post is to thank everyone who voted. I hope you voted for Kerry, but if you didn't, you've got my respect for doing your civic duty. When it comes right down to it, the one thing that can bring Americans of every stripe together is the knowledge that we have the ability to make a difference - one vote at a time. This is a very powerful thing, and everyone who voted should hold their head high, regardless of the result.