pegkerr | Overwhelming grief

Rob, who had been watching the election returns all night, came and woke me about forty-five minutes ago and held me while I cried.

Injustice won. Now this man who has made an unprecedented power grab for the executive branch, who authorized the use of torture, who has trampled on civil rights, who has lied and lied and lied to the American people, is going to have the chance to reshape the Supreme Court for the next generation. Bigotry won. I cannot bear it that the bigot's side of the argument on a civil rights issue that I care so deeply about, gay civil rights, was what pushed conservative voters out to the polls to return this man to the White House. Stupidity won. He totally lost track of who attacked us on September 11, he has ignored the threat of North Korea and Iran, he has failed to guard the borders, he has taken us into an unjust, immoral and unnecessary war which has killed our people and a hundred thousand Iraquis, spent our resources, inflamed the world against us and multiplied our enemies a thousandfold.

And we have rewarded him by returning him to the White House.

I have never been so ashamed to be called a Christian, if people who call themselves Christian feel that they are honoring their religion by voting for him over John Kerry. I have never been so afraid and so grief-stricken for my country, no, not even after September 11, because this time we are administering the wound to ourselves.

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...just because someone's a Christian, that doesn't mean they're a good person. (I'm also Christian, but consider myself a bad one. If there's anything that asks for trouble -IMHO- it's calling yourself a good Christian.)

Haven't heard from my brother, who recently ran a piece in Stipple-apa explaining why he was voting for Bush. About a month after that I sent an e-mail to him & my sister (in Winnipeg) explaining pretty bluntly why I was voting for Kerry, and saying -among other things- that Bush should have had impeachment proceedings thrown at him as soon as the words "constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage" was out of his mouth. Haven't heard back from him, and I'm a bit concerned. On The Other Hand, he _is_ a dairy farmer, and is as bad a corespondent as I am.

Frankly I think I just plain live in a different -and I think saner- world than most Americans, and I think a lot of that has to do with growing up gay.

I asked my sister why she immigrated to Canada in 1969, and she said that Kent State was what pushed her over the boarder. Depending on the next few years the smartest thing for me may just be to follow.

At least you have a sibling over there. I have a BOATLOAD of family but none closer than a third cousin, except maybe if a great-great-aunt is considered closer. Oh, wait -- first cousins twice removed.

This comment was mostly to say that I do like your point on Christians: good vs. bad. Someone on the radio said about the same thing the other day (on PBS), about how once you assume you're in the right -- you're the 'moral majority' -- then you're probably in the wrong, when it comes to Christianity (humility and all that, and assuming you KNOW what God means. Because you don't. That's why He's God, and you're not.).

(Also, the Kent State event was in April 1970. Was she AT Kent State at the time, or was it just the event in general?)

Thanks.

Lemme see... My sister graduated from College -I think- before she got married (July 1969) and she and her husband (now ex) went to stay with a friend's parents up in Winnipeg. Turns out that the father was the #2 guy in the province (I want to say Lt. Gov., but I _know_ that's wrong). She taught a year or two in our old home town (Moorhead, MN), and then moved in Canada. Kent State may have been the spark, but I think she and Ron (the ex) were thinking of immigrating for a while. It seems to me that they both became teachers because that was a "needed" occupation.

What makes me laugh is that it's going to be easier for me to imigrate, since I have a family member who's a citizen. For Phyliss I believe the whole process took 5 years since she wasn't coming from a Commonwealth country.

I asked my sister why she immigrated to Canada in 1969, and she said that Kent State was what pushed her over the boarder. Depending on the next few years the smartest thing for me may just be to follow.

It's probably just because I'm a copyeditor that I have to mention this, but -- Kent State was in 1970. May 4, 1970, to be specific.

...telescoped events. Phyllis (my sister) & Ron (now her ex-husband) spent their honeymoon up in Winnipeg, and I had always believed that they had planned on moving to Canada much earlier than I think they really did. (It may have been on their communal back-burner...)

(I love the story about why they ended up in Winnipeg. Ron's parents had rented a room to this very nice guy from Canada who was going to North Dakota State University (musta been because of the bison...) He, Ron, & Phyllis got to be friends, and when the latter two announced their engagement "Nice Guy From Canada" offered his parent's home for the honeymoon. So Phyllis & Ron hit the road after their wedding, arrived in Winnipeg, and -after following the directions "NGFC" had given them- pulled up in front of this HUGE old house on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature. Turns out the guy's father was something like the "Vice-Premier" of Manitoba...)

Overwhelming grief

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