Here is what my good Aussie (but American Green Card Carrying) friend wrote to me today.
Hiya girly.
Yep. Sometimes democracy is very damn depressing. Recently the ‘I voted for Bush because he has sound morals’ argument started to sit badly with me. Your blog entry got me started… I’d blog about it but I don’t have a blog. So here’s my couldn’t vote but wished I coulda speil.
I don’t understand how farmers voted for him. Their businesses (and their heritage) are being trashed by big corporate agribusiness who care not a whit for the little guy and how many generations of their family have struggled to provide for not only their families but also the whole country. Boggles my mind.
I don’t understand how women can vote for him. This is a guy who, presently stymied by Roe v. Wade hasn’t figured out a way to take away women’s right to chose entirely. Call me a pessimist but I think this is something even he can manage if he works hard enough. What did the election result say?? In the meantime though he removed all U.S. funding for third world contraceptive and abortion programs. Thus denying thousands of the poorest women in the world access to not only birth control but also one of the very few tools they have to protect themselves from disease and death from HIV/AIDS. Not to mention the millions of children who are born into poverty we in the west can’t even comprehend. Poverty where you are LUCKY if your parents don’t die of AIDS and leave you to fend for yourself at 4 or 5.
I can’t understand how parents vote for him. No Child Left behind will leave behind those children who need help the most. Children with disabilities and immigrant kids who don’t speak english. How can a kid be expected to take a standardized test if they aren’t standard and you can’t access sufficient ESL programming to allow you to succeed. When your kids get older they can’t afford further education, and those jobs whch previously were available to people without higher tertiary education are now being outsourced and sent overseas. Hmmm. If you want there’s always the great military. The US Army/Navy/Marine and Air forces willl pay for your education and you can see the world. Well, Large patches of the middle east at any rate. We won’t tell you how long your going for, and how long the conflict will last. When you come home maimed and disabled for life we’ll forget you just as we have the last several rounds of returned servicemen and women. Sooner or later someone will notice that just throwing money (which incidentally, we don’t seem to have) at the issue isn’t going to make it all go away and some bright spark will re-instate a draft so that we can throw more lives at the mess in another country he created. **Then MY KID may potentially become food for the war machine. I cheerfully say OVER MY DEAD BODY (BTW). **
And so today I am v. depressed about the downside of democracy. My side lost. Well, actually I think the whole world lost. Ive come to the conclusion that the “Morals” argument is a cop out. A crap excuse for a bad argument. But here’s the upside. Lots of amazing people are still doing their little bit to change the country and the world. We can’t change who’s in the whitehouse for another 4 years – And then thanks to term limits we can get rid of him for good – But we can make lots of little changes. This coming year my house is going green. I’m shifting to cloth nappies over disposable. I will plant and harvest my own fruits and veggies. I’m going to start using local produce and be far more discerning about the products I buy. I’ll be composting . I want to start volunteering at the local women’s shelter trying to set up a playgroup for the kids and create safe and helpful circles of friends for the women who need it most. I couldn’t vote this year because I’m not yet a citizen. I believe in the process though and am respectful of the decisions that all those people made. I don’t like it but I’m going to live with it and hopefully make my little part of the republican heartland a better place. If all the people who voted for Kerry do all the little things that make small differences in their neighborhoods, then America can’t help but be a greater country in 4 years. And hey, there are Republicans out there who are good people too. I have to believe that.
What else can you do? Perhaps this is happening for a reason. Hell, If nothing else it got more than 60% of American’s to have a say. Mightn’t have been the answer some of us wanted but it’s still a good thing.
Keep fighting the good fight. Love the not-an-american (yet) Louisa XXX
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