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View from Afar

17 Oct View from Afar

I’ve been out of the US of A for about two weeks now, and the spell is beginning to lift. The atmosphere feels lighter. People laugh and talk animatedly in cafes. The attitudes are positive, and open-minded. People are smiling and courteous, voluntarily kind and eager to help. I don’t feel the constant pressure of everyone around me trying to make a buck. I see very few homeless.

And of course, there are the discussions. The incredulous questions, the uncomprehending amazement of “What is going on in America?” “How could you vote for someone like him?” “How can a country like the US put up with this?” “Have you all gone mad?”

Of course I explain that it’s not the majority that thinks this way. I tell them that Trump only received 25.7% of the votes, Hillary Clinton, 26.8%, and the rest—nearly half—didn’t vote at all.

The head shaking continues. Few understand the Electoral College and why it “trumps” the popular vote. Even fewer understand how people with such privilege don’t bother to vote.

“Don’t you realize what you are doing in America affects the whole world?”

“Of course I know that,” I reply. I feel shame that living in a country with so much privilege, a country whose policies influence the lives of future generations worldwide, so many don’t even care to vote. Many don’t even care to be informed.

I want to be proud of my country. I want to feel good about our government, our leaders, our global policies, and our citizen participation. I want to feel that we are still innovators of the future, leaders of the free world, but I cannot.

Becoming an X-Pat looks ever more attractive, and I see why so many of my friends are jumping ship, moving away to distant lands. It seems quite sane somehow, but it’s not my path to do so.

Because what happens then? What if we lose the reasonable voices? Who will be left to fight? How will we create an alternative?

Say what you want about the state of our democracy, but it’s what we’ve got at the moment. It may be corrupt, the voting machines may be hacked, but even that can’t overcome people showing up in droves to vote for a sustainable future, for kindness and compassion, and for checks and balances against the abuse of power.

Please vote in November. Become informed. Get to the polls. See it as a spiritual act. Participate in the greater whole, your willingness to care.

This is a pivotal moment in evolution. If you value your spiritual life, vote for a future in which you are still free to practice it.

4 Comments
  • Anita L Schill
    Posted at 13:44h, 17 October Reply

    Amen. Thank you for your clarity of thought, passion for our future, and leadership for action. Thanks for not giving up. We need you.

  • Daun Murphy
    Posted at 16:00h, 17 October Reply

    Excellent article. Exactly how I and I am sure many others, feel. I am personally helping a few people get out to vote, especially in our mid-terms. Such a very important time.
    Thank you for this wonderful article.

  • Allan Martin
    Posted at 16:08h, 17 October Reply

    Probably in every democracy there are citizens who feel; dismay when leadership is assumed by the party they didn’t vote for. But I feel that focussing attention on Mr Trump exclusively for the direction the USA has taken is an easy out which allows Americans to avoid facing the facts and taking responsibility for the actions of their country in the world. Long before Mr Trump became president, the US shot down an Iranian passenger airliner, bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, bombed the Red Cross facility in Kabul not once but twice . . . only a month before Mr Trump was elected, the US bombed the MSF trauma hospital in Kunduz. And there’s lots more . . . events which may even have gone unreported or underreported in the USA but are widely reported elsewhere and have an effect on the way the USA is perceived in the rest of the world. Of course, the US claims and gets away with claiming that these were all just very unfortunate accidents. But think about it: they were all accidents with demonstrable strategic value. The US has never inadvertently shot down a British passenger plane or bombed the Norwegian Embassy. And would anyone believe these were accidents if the Russians or the Chinese had been the perpetrators? I think that question answers itself. America has a tough role to fill in the world, and nobody’s saying it’s easy. For sure, sometimes things do go off the rails. Nobody’s saying that Americans have become undisputed “bad guys.” But to hark back to a time only a couple of years ago when Americans were undisputed “good guys” makes it possible for Americans to avoid asking themselves tough questions about their role and action in the world. So Americans like all citizens of democratic countries should definitely get out and vote, but if they think that one person is responsible for the negative way America is perceived in much of the world they’re not yet asking all the right questions.

  • Michelle Marcus
    Posted at 16:13h, 17 October Reply

    Anodea, thank you for this. Bob and I too have heard the same questions abroad and he feels like he is walking through Europe starting his work conversations with an apology on behalf of our country. I am hopeful because there are so many of us who see through the veils of Illusion our president is weaving. Thank you for your direction and guidance to ACT not just sit in dismay, confusion and fear. Keep holding the torch Chakra Mamma!

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