Obama Wins

     My idea has been that Obama was the only choice, more a lesser of two evils.  As the election went on and I got to know Obama better, at least his public persona, my attitude changed.    I also noticed some other things that I had never been aware of before.Personally, I’ve always prided myself on having friends and close acquaintances of various political attitudes (and differing ideas in general) even if I didn’t believe in them.  Many times I wasn’t even aware of some of my friend’s political persuasions, believe it or not.  Sometimes you just can tell when certain subjects are to be avoided or aren’t something you have in common.

But with this election I became much more aware of differences in some of my friend’s attitudes towards things.  It shouldn’t matter and never has before, but during this last election sometimes it gave me some pause – even among some of my oldest friends.

It was somewhat eye-opening.

Anyway, for many years I’ve felt that America has been taking steps backwards.  More and larger splits between and among political divisions, more biases between people of different attitudes, religion, even in some cases people resorting to racism and bias that previously we had made inroads into.  Frankly, this “redneck” attitude and embracing of it that a candidate like Palin has brought out, has been coming to a head for a long time.

There’s nothing wrong with being a “redneck” I guess; until it starts involving the ‘celebration’ of racism, lack of education, intolerance, and pushing religion.  That’s when you see the steps our country has made, and in fact what created and made this country great – go out the door.

This certainly came up often with Palin (again, why did McCain pick her?) and the embracing of a certain attitude.  Like I said, this kinda brought it to a head in my mind; this backslide our country has started on, and this embracing of this attitude.

I don’t necessarily think that having an all Democratic Party government is a good idea either.  As someone said over and over, it’s good to have checks and balances.

But look what happened when we had a majority on the Repub side…  Gah.

Well, anyway, when I saw Obama get elected, when so many people of all colors and ages and politics were hugging and congratulating each other – strangers most of them – I felt myself heartened.

Maybe, just maybe, we can get back on track.  Not only with the economy, but with human evolution and improving the human condition.

I kept thinking back to when many years ago.  There have been times in my life when I’ve made rude comments about certain peoples or ideas, unfairly, or laughed at other’s jokes.  I haven’t been the most tolerate person.

But when it comes right down to it I like to think that I’ve always tried to be fair when it came to people one-on-one.

I’ve had a few black and Hispanic friends, and stood up to certain of my friends who didn’t like that and befriended or helped some people in the minority in certain situations; sometimes against and among people who I considered friends.

I’m not the most liberal person, but fair is fair.  Some of my friends have had problems with me associating with people of various colors, or if a person was a GI, or was poor, or whatever.  Sometimes I’ve lost friends over it.

Last night I also kept thinking about a person who’s an acquaintance.  He’s of the generation who are in there 50’s now, and I remember one incident during one of the first times I met the guy.

He ranted against those with ear rings, long hair, and tattoos.  Basically, he said that every one of THEM were pot smokers or would be perceived in that way no matter what.   He considered them lowlifes and druggies and didn’t want anything to do with them, wouldn’t hire one if they came to him for a job or anyway associate with them.

It was basically one of the most backward, most biased things I’d personally witnessed.  He’s not the sort of person I would normally be acquainted with or be around in general because of these attitudes and others, but because of circumstances I was and still occasionally am.

And you can’t argue with people like this, the ones who are way out there.  After all – with people like that why argue with them; you can’t change their mind about anything when they have that much ignorance.  I whispered to my wife that I just wanted to stand up and pop him a good one, of course this accomplishes nothing.

Believe me – I gave up hitting people because of conflicts many years ago.  Bad temper on my part and a very bad incident involving my temper taught me that more damage is done then is solved this way.

Back to the subject, I kept thinking back to this particular person and this incident many times last night.  There’s other ways…

This wasn’t a matter of racism that was involved, but it was a certain biased attitude that goes hand-in-hand with racism.  Or even by itself.

After the election and what I saw, I kept thinking that maybe there’s hope for the US, for the world and humankind – that if someone part-black could be overwhelmingly elected president of this country of racists and biased people maybe some things can change.

That maybe the afore-mentioned person is a dinosaur and one day he and others like him will go the way of the dinosaur – dead and extinct, and that their offspring will shake their heads and not take the same attitude.

I woke up this morning actually feeling good about the US, for the first time in many years.  It’s not going to be a bed of roses, Obama and his staff and the Democrats are going to make a lot of mistakes.  Some things they may even make worse for a while.

But there’s hope when there’s someone trying to make some progress.

Marc M

I am a web developer and fitness geek, but I have a heck of a lot of differing interests.  Biking, the Internet, technology, movies, fitness, running and walking and hiking, science fiction, photography, graphics, WordPress, flying and aircrafts, pets and animals, history, and much more.  I like to stay very fit but I don’t mind sitting at my computer for work and play either.  I live in upstate New York (that’s far from New York City) in a rural area, yet close to a small city, with my beautiful awesome wife, a bunch of beloved cats and dogs and chickens in a very old multi-century house.

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