It's up to you: Vote for Change

Will I need psychiatric help after this election or will my adrenal gland give out?



I'm not the only one who can't believe it yet.

Tikkon Olam

Jewish Americans for Obama :
Let's start repairing the world.

"It is time to come together and change this country..."

This really describes my condition: I finally understand the condition that Germans describe as "having stress". The inability to do any more than I have already done is forcing my body into a "fear or flight" over- adrenalined condition which is wreaking havoc on my equilibrium.

I sort of belief that it is possible that we will turn a new leaf and then I fear that by believing that I am setting myself up for a huge disappointment and it is driving me crazy.

Enough with American style impartiality: Vote for Obama.

Go. Vote now.

Sexism today

I recently had a (tiny) book club meeting at my apartment. We discussed The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon, which I found wonderfully written, intricately detailed and which I keep loaning to people to read. The talk, however, quickly turned to the election and as usual, the Germans found it easy to state their unequivocal beliefs that there is only one candidate. While discussing the 4 candidates and the "road to the White House" I mentioned my anger at the misogyny and blatant sexism directed at Senator Clinton and a friend of mine, an American woman my age, said that she hadn't noticed it and asked for direct examples.

I was taken aback. It has been a while and although I was angry I never felt that my anger would allow me to be bought by my former party simply by their choosing a religious right-wing fanatic who has a uterus and a perky body (although men go for that, as seen in studies). I told her I would follow up and that evening I sent her this.

That discussion made me realize all over again how sensitive I am to racism and sexism and how angry I feel when told that I am "too sensitive" or a "politically correct American" and that "real people" don't feel that way. I have been so disappointed in America. It's not that America is not a wonderful country with many wonderful parts, as it were. It's that I expect so much from her. America should be "a shining City on a Hill", and not in a right wing religious way.

I think Obama is the step that we need to take now. I think we need to take back our belief in ourselves as Americans,  a people dedicated to freedom and with a real belief that we should help each other. Not the Americans who broke the capitalist system through the destruction of the ownership society by allowing the greed of the managers to become normative.

Germans: we love the stereotypes

I saw this over at This Non-American Life and it was so funny I needed to share.

Election minus 2.

I know that nothing that I say or do at this point can make any difference, but I still feel the need to do something, so here, watch this and pass it on:



And now that it is November 2, let me tell you the truth: although I have been asking people to vote without regard to whom they were voting for, I really can't understand how any person could, in conscience, vote for McCain/Palin. Even if one could have voted for McCain, a person who loves our country should be unable to vote for a ticket including Palin. No one I have asked to explain their choice has been able to do so in any rational way. So if you vote the other way, please don't tell me.

This describes my condition

It is sort of pitiful.

It is sad. But it is also frightening.

On religious intolerance and misogyny...

The candidates and some of their views:

As for Palin, watch the video of Kenyan pastor Thomas Muthee asking God to protect Palin "from every form of witchcraft." Muthee actually claims he saved a Kenyan village by chasing away a witch. As ridiculous as this video seems. persecution of women as being witches has been around for thousands of years, causing thousands of women to be excecuted, burned at the stake. Nothing could be more anti-woman, more bigoted or biased than to accuse a woman of having a compact with evil spirits. Why didn't Palin walk out on Muthee?
Why didn't she renounce David Brickner, Executive Director of Jews for Jesus, when he spoke earlier this year at Palin's Wasilla Bible Church and described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.
Yes, religion matters in an election because belief matters. What does McCain really believe about "agents of intolerance" such as Robertson. Does Sarah Palin really believe -- as she seems to have said -- that God wants her to build an oil pipeline? Or that the Iraq war is a mission from God? She believes in Creationism and the End Times. These are not trivial matters. We are talking about religious beliefs that could have a huge impact on major domestic and foreign policy issues.