Oh, the POSSIBILITIES!

My name is Emily and I'm from a very Republican (against their own interests) region of the midwestern United States, in the southernmost county of Illinois. We share a border with Kentucky. Almost everyone in my family is Republican and most are racist, though of course they do not think themselves to be racist. I am a bleeding heart liberal and even do not blame them for the way they think and feel with regards to African Americans, native Americans, Latinos, or anyone else in the world that isn't full-blown confused about their ancestry; the way they were raised in rural mid-west with a super biased education, chock full of pro-America propoganda ("We give the most aid to poor nations, we have superior education/healthcare/infrastructure/culture, We succeed most at capitalism but we also reach down and help all those poor, lazy countries in poverty, etc") is the culprit in this situation and for the situation in most of the Red States: its machismo, its patriotism without question, its lack of objective information sources. They are/we are mostly farmers, mostly lower middle class, mostly busy just working to live with no time left to seek truth or information. No one travels or thinks very much about life outside of the USA.

I've always been a black sheep and thus have ended up working in sustainable agriculture (the farmers in my family think I'm stupid, talking about working in agriculture and never having lived in Kansas or Texas or on a "farm" in the conventional American sense). I'm currently working on a community based garden project at a school in rural Guatemala and watched the news from here, 7 months pregnant with a biracial child--the father is in Washington DC and coming down around the due date.

On the night of the election I wasn't feeling anything (probably out of self-protection...its SCARY to hope so much) though leading up to it, it was all I could talk about...somewhat depressingly since no one here in this rural village knows much about international politics, even that which effects them greatly--again, not the fault of the villagers. In fact, it seems the more they know of the Western world, the worse off they are. Two days before I told a woman selling tamales that the father of my child was Barack Obama and she replied in Spanish, That's nice...my husband's name is Jose.

The elections began here around 7PM and I have a friend who manages a hotel that is surely the only place that has a TV with a screen larger than 5 inches so we hang out in this hotel room for the night. I'm pregnant and thus get nearly everything I ask for from my friends these days. I settle in to watch with a German, a Spaniard and a Republican from Hawaii. Kentucky, 8, McCain. Vermont, 3, Obama. I remember the Kerry elections and how it began slow like this and as time went on, Bush's electoral points gained more and more of an edge. Ick. I can't do it for another 4 years. Palin doesn't know Nicaragua from Nigeria, just like Bush. McCains ugly old face is just a slap in the face to those of us so passionately crying for change: I simply can't look at it for 4 years. I won't return to the States if they win, I'm thinking.

Soon enough, the tides have turned. Obama is gaining more and more States, "FLORIDA Proyeccion--Gana Barack Obama." WHAT?! I cannot believe it...only 5% of the votes counted. Florida? Really? Michigan, Wisconsin, New Mexico--Obama! OHIO, Obama! They started to show the crowds of Chicago, where I had lived for nearly 8 years of my life. There, the people, soo many of my friends, were gathering in the same park I walked to and around in the summers and watched old movies on the big screen with the sun setting amidst the skyline behind it. So familiar, I WANTED to be home for a moment! I think, 'If he doesn't win, there will be a goddamn riot!' I'm laughing and have goosebumps. Oh My God. Obama is the President-elect! My son, the future, the oppurtunity to turn things right--all the things running through my head--it all seems so bright and shiny to be on the winning side for ONCE!!

My own half-black, half-white first son could be born on the first day of the first year of the first minority and progressive President of the USA (dare, I say, the world!) I've been smiling in the face of all the snobby Europeans who have had a plethora of material to laugh at us Americans during the Bush administration, proud to be an American (and a half!) for the first time in my life.

But...as a local paper said here, It's like Obama has stumbled on a huge mess of oil and honey and is equipped with a roll of toilet paper to clean it up (sounded more eloquent in Spanish). We are as responsible as he is for creating the change we want to see in this world...its just GREAT we won't be seen as fringe elements any longer. We can ask for equality and sustainability and peace out loud! We're confirmed that we ARE NOT silly hippies, we're real people who have demanded change from the most powerful and possibly most damaging countries of the entire globe! There must be a god because after all these years of asking, that god FINALLY blessed the USA.

Thanks, Israa, for creating this outlet of our friends and families to read and talk amongst themselves: Where Were You When the World Changed...

Anyone interested, please read my newest blog entry on Obama and Food/Agriculture issues, too. And then...continue reading about my project here in Guatemala!

www.emilykayzielke.blogspot.com