RandomTope: Politics

A few quick thoughts about Thanksgiving 2008.

The past week is a case-study in contradictions. There was another huge terrorist attack, in what may have seemed like an unlikely place. Family members were forced to reassess their travel plans when protestors shut their final destination down. And I meanwhile, in a different world, I discovered, that of all things, there are wineries in Nebraska.

1) India:

That this happened this week should really come as no surprise. Islamist militancy has long looked for weaknesses when planning their attacks, and last week's attacks throughout Mumbai were proof that there will always be vunerable targets.

It serves us well to remember that India itself was carved out as a Hindu homeland, with the majority muslim areas spun off into Pakistan and, eventually, Bangladesh. While we may yet find that these horrible attacks were connected to the regional tinder box that is Pakistan, you cannot ignore that just as we learned in Oklahoma City, sometimes your own worst enemy can be your neighbor.

There was a time when I could very well have been in a lobby like the Taj Hotel's, with family worried sick the moment they heard gunmen were looking for people with American passports.

My thoughts are with the families around the world who lost nights of sleep worried about their loved ones this week, and, in particular, with those whose worst nightmares came to pass.

2) Thailand:

Usually when news of social unrest in a foreign land hits, you note it with a distant eye, hoping a country finds its way somehow.

I say that with the perspective of having once been barricaded inside a hotel watching the city around me go up in flames. The power of ordinary people to bring a nation to its knees is impressive.

With Bangkok now shut off from the world, it turned into a much more personal story this week as I realized that I had family in the region, expecting to land back in Thailand shortly after anti-government demonstrators shut down the nation's main airports.

Luckily they were still in Cambodia and able to rearrange their travel plans home. Their suicases weren't so lucky. They are still sitting hostage in a kept-baggage closet at their hotel in Bangkok.

I'm thankful that my family is home safely, now.

3) Nebraska

The Thanksgiving holiday, this year, was spent with family, as we're supposed to.

And while the incidents in Mumbai and Thailand were clearly in my head all weekend, I couldn't help but note that they seemed a world away from the old fraternal order club where we shot some pool, the lake on the side of a highway where we had turkey and homemade apple pie or the odd little winery on the hill overlooking some dams.

While our world is ever shrinking in this unsteady era of terrorism, upheaval and economic wariness, I was struck by the resiliency of family and community in the smaller world that is Nebraska.

I was jarred one night watching the local Grand Island news that they didn't even bother to mention the attacks in Mumbai, while the national news networks were on the story 24/7. It proves the point that sometimes what's local doesn't reflect what's going on around the world, and that's comforting, in it's own way.

My own personal world view definitely found contrast this past week with a world in which hunting season was a bigger topic of conversation. And in a week full of bad news, on top of the economic mess we're muddling through, it was nice to be easily distracted by the small things that really matter.

Thank you to everyone in Nebraska for welcoming me so warmly as always. I love you all very much.

As this Thanksgiving weekend draws to a close, I give thanks for all of my friends and family here in Colorado, across the United States and around the world. I am thankful for having you all in my life.

In the end, after months constanstly plugged in and glued to the TV it's fitting that on a historic night I finally got the news from the most old-school of sources. Driving downtown to catch up with some friends to toast apparent success, it was on the radio that I heard Barack Obama had been elected president of the United States.

As NPR was announcing that polls had closed on the west coast, and indeed the unlikeliest senator from Illinois had just made history, I suddenly got that same tingly feeling in my gut from August when I was fortunate enough to attend his dramatic acceptance of his party's nomination.

My gut then told me we were nominating a decent man for the job, and months later, I remain convinced of that today.

I can think of no better time to change directions in America. A nation battered down economically, stretched militarily and drained from decades of divisiveness needs someone to inspire them through tough times.

My hope for Barack Obama is that he uses the opportunity to become a great president for all of America, a difficult path when the temptation to veer the partisan way is enticing.

We must carefully remember the still-fresh example of his predecessor, who squandered the goodwill and opportunity of a nation by pandering to the extremes of partisanship.

The tingle in my gut gives me much hope. Time will tell.

As most big elections go, you can't necessarily win everything, and Tuesday night was no exception. While I applauded John McCain's graceful concession and cheered Obama's Grant Park celebration, there was a dark cloud in California brewing as the tallies started coming in for Proposition 8. As we celebrated the apex of racial equality, gay civil rights took a blow in the sunshine state.

It was an ironic twist that as Colorado finally rid itself of Marilyn Musgrave, one of the authors of the proposed Federal Marriage Ammendment, the thousands of same-sex couples that shared their vows in California this summer were told to get back in the closet.

As America celebrated a milestone in the march toward civil rights, some of those very same supporters shut the door on another minority that simply wants the same rights, responsibilities and opportunities that all Americans have.

Luckily as with presidents, the beauty of our political system is that ballot boxes are only markers in time. No setback will deny me the hope that one day I will legally be able to look my partner in the eye and say "until death do us part."

In the meantime I choose to be heartened that we came so very close in California. While there is still much hate in our nation today, there are more and more people everyday who are sick and tired of previous generations' false morality.

If an African-American can become president in the not so distant shadow of slavery and segregation, there is hope for the rest of us. It gives me more determination to live my life openly so that everyone knows my partner and I exist and we both ask and demand to be treated equally.

Barack Obama mentioned us in his speech in Denver, and he did so again in Chicago this week.

Marriage equality may have taken a shot or two on Tuesday, but it's a powerful dawn to have someone who simply even acknowledges you moving into the White House.

Yes we can.