President Obama’s Full Acceptance Speech Video

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Obamanos: Politics and the Family Condition with a Presidential Election from Overseas

Now I must admit I have been a Democrat as long as I have been voting. I have always been extremely vocal in the matter (as in most things). This, my 4th voting election, has been no different. But, alas, as being from Texas I do come from a Republican family. Republican, even when Texas was a Bluebonnet of a state. So for the sake of family togetherness I have learned to keep my mouth shut. It seems to be the standard of all my family members. They don’t try to convert me to Republicanism and the joys of baking and I don’t try to convert them to Democratism and listening to the songs of Beirut. My one Democratic sister and I glowingly talk politics on the side, but try never to connect it to our siblings. We’ve had our Mom along for the ride the past couple of election cycles as well. That’s some kind of victory.

But then I moved to a land far far away and these red-blooded members of my family discovered Facebook. I refused to censor myself in how many Pro-Dem and Anti-GOP posts I made. But I did cut down on the questioning the IQ of anyone who doesn’t wince every time Palin changes a digraph “ng” to a plain old “n”.

So while my sister and I revealed in our big Victory the updates starting flowing from the members of the family. Mostly status updates as to how much money they would be losing. Which in general to me seems to be the difference between leather seats in the crossover vs. heated leather seats in the crossover. But I do understand the concept of it’s my money, I earned it and no lazy son-of-a-bitch is gonna take it from me. So the concept is greed, I get it. I’ve had it several times an hour probably. But this lazy son-of-a-bitch works 50 – 60 hour weeks and makes 24,000$ a year teaching people stuff whether they like it or not. So I generally don’t consider me a leech on American society. (Yes, so I’m not living there now, but still I didn’t think I was one 4 months ago either.) I hear yeah. I could have chosen a different profession. I could have forgone traveling, going to movies, and eating things that aren’t from a tin can in order to have health care. I could have spent less than a minimum of 30$ on each of my 14 members of my immediate family. Which of course being the only single one means I get about 6 gifts in return.But I digress.

Basically the upper-class paying a little more in taxes, giving up a luxury or two, provides them with some serious benefits. People like me can continue to give their children every drop we have in order to educate them (and not have to move to a different country to be able to pay off their student loans). It provides job training and resources to those who wouldn’t have to resort to the only ways they’ve seen to get out of their rapidly decaying neighborhoods. They would contribute to a society who prides itself in how it takes care of those who have least. Those who have debilitating mental illnesses, work injuries endured while creating the luxuries and coonviences we all benefit from, the parent struggling to make a way for their child to be one who pays the higher taxes instead of creating the higher profits for those who cry “get your hands off my money”!

Here in Colombia it is decidedly McCain turf. Until the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Colombia procured the highest amount of American aid. Most of this involved in the so-called “War on Drugs”. Colombia would also like to benefit from a nifty free-trade agreement. One which McCain supported and Obama voted against. Obama cited lack of human rights and labor protections. On the ground here it’s difficult to ignore that this exists everyday. But it’s not that different from back home. The wealthy take advantage of the poor, the end. Here I have the radical change of being considered wealthy, which in one way feels quite nice and in another quite terrible. i have a maid. This is weird. But I’m a terribly messy person and now I have a roommate who could suffer. Plus it gives added income to her. Her name is Betty and I dig her tremendously. She also happens to work in our cafeteria doling out food to the over-privileged. She is always worried I’m sick and makes a mean napoliatana sauce. She’s probably only a couple of years older than me and already has a child at university. She wants the best for her children, which is why after a long week of work on Saturday she comes to my house to pick up after my slovenly ass. She takes home, including tip, what boils down to about 50$ a month. So my roommate and I are paying 25$ a month so that I don’t bury him under all my useless crap. Apparently this is generous. And we’ll leave for break and give her a winter bonus and I’ll bring back some American gifts. This is how Americans treat their maids here. Colombians not quite so. A co-worker of mine offered her maid some food while she was there working. So she waited for her maid to join her, after quite some time she went into the kitchen to find her maid sitting on the floor eating. Apparently having anything to do with your maid as a person is “not done” in Colombian society. It is a definite class system. I’m starting to wonder why I miss the USA after all it’s starting to not seem so different.

now the school I work at is the elite school. These people run the town, quite literally. So to put it mildly let’s say that my student’s were not the most pleased people in the world. As each and every one told me they said that if they were American they would definitely vote for Obama, but as Colombians it benefits them to vote for McCain. This is always hard for me to wrap my head around. In my mind when the mass benefits, everyone benefits. When we secure the safety of civilians by not randomly going at war with their country that benefits everyone. When there are no desperate people to take desperate actions we all benefit. We’ve been shown this lesson over and over again. That when we see ourselves as one united, not only as American citizens, but as Global citizens. This is why I spent a day’s pay flying paperwork back and forth to Texas to get an absentee ballot, even though it is unlikely to be counted. This is why that ballot was marked for Obama…and this is why my face goes red and is streaked with tears each time I watch this…..