In Mourning The Day After

Diane; We spent about an hour trying to figure out who had won the U.S. elections - Bush or Kerry. Our downstairs neighbors weren't home, so we couldn't ask them to turn on their TV and find out. TM, Calliope, and I ventured out to determine who the next President of the United States would be. As it was Cuencan Independence Day, there weren't many shops open. Those that were open and that had their televisions going, were not watching international news. Newspapers aren't sold in stores here, but rather on street corners. Small vendors pop up in the morning selling one newspaper and then another in the afternoon. Of course, the racey tabloid is sold all day. But there were no small street corner vendors to be seen.

Political-Diatribe-Aside: Finally, we happened upon an internet cafe. Within ten minutes we were all despondent. Kerry had only lost by a small margin, but it was mind-boggling that so many UnitedStatesians had voted for Bush. They had decided to turn a blind eye to an administration that is stifling free speech and dissent; that is indiscriminately killing thousands of Iraqis (collateral damage), while large oil companies turn a profit; that is putting economic policies in place to leave the poor at home more destitute and the CEOs of large corporations swimming in money; that is letting many of the jobs in booming, non-polluting industries flee to other countries; that is opening up our country's last great open areas to oil and natural gas development; that is gutting the various federal agencies that play watchdog over our environment and our civil rights; and that, overall, is sending the U.S. government spiraling into debt to fund dangerous initiatives that make the world a much more dangerous place for me, my family, my neighbors, and most Westerners in general.

Here we have an unrepentant administration engaged in out-of-control killing and destruction around the world, a scenario that somehow results in profits for large corporations. And yet these voters just ignored it all. And, why? The political scientists haven't sorted it all out yet, but it would seem that it's more important to these voters that gays don't get married and that women don't have reproductive control over their lives. Now that is what I call moral decay in the U.S. heartland.
End-of-Political-Diatribe

My Mom had major surgery today. I feel bad for not being there with her, but I keep reminding myself that she does have my Dad, Trey, Hilda, and a huge array of friends to call on, if she needs anything. TM had also wanted to be back in Sarasota to watch the elections with best friend Paul, who had campaigned hard for John Kerry and Jan Schneider, both of whom lost. After spending quality time with her grandparents in the Galapagos, even Calliope was fending off a bad case of home-sickness. Although I don't know whether thoughts of home were wreaking havoc with Tom, I will note that Tom did not leave the apartment for about 5 days after returning from our Baños/Quito/Galapagos/Salinas excursion.

We moped around the apartment for most of the rest of the day. Fortunately, we had acquired some excellent reading material while in the Galapagos, so we were able to keep our minds otherwise distracted.