Mab of Dream

I know I really should be poking my head into Kindly Ones and answering some e-mails there, but I'm enjoying... if that's the right word, given the subject matter... being educated there instead. I spent a large chunk of last night reading some of the long articles that had been posted there.

I'm finally more scared than I am angry. Usually, on the subject of politics, my anger is a controlled, cold thing, which manifests in trying to do my bit to make it better, rather than erupting in unproductive rage, sounding off at folk, but doing little to change things. Both have their place on Kindly Ones, but I'm generally of the former persuasion. The world of politics moves so quickly, with so many ducks and dives, that just keeping up with as much as you can staves off having to think too deeply on issues. There simply isn't the time for that. Kindly Ones works best when there are opposing views, as that does force you to think through your position, even if it means you have to only concentrate on one or two issues.

Reading through last night, I got scared. I'm scared that Bush will get in again; I'm really scared that it will be because 70% of the voting American public can't be arsed to vote. That angers me. I got into a conversation at the weekend with three other British people about Americans and voting. One person suggested that the answer would be to pay Americans to vote. The worst of it is, he's probably right; but the very principle of the thing sent shudders down my spine.

It would be so easy to become xenophobic and say that Americans are evil, but they're not! When I say 'I've got a lot of American friends' I don't mean that in the same sense that folk say, 'Well, I've got a lot of black friends...' I really do mean that. I have American friends, some very close, who are the most loving, generous, beautiful people on earth. I daren't ask if they all voted in the last election for fear that they will say that they didn't. That's cowardice on my part.

I get angry and right now I'm scared. I read about the Bush administration looking into how they can delay an election in the advent of a terrorist attack, and I just know that there will be a 'terrorist' attack there sometime at the end of summer, beginning of autumn. Their main rivals, the Democrats, are already calling for legal definitions of in what circumstances an election can be stopped. If all of this runs into its natural conclusion, you have totalitarianism stark in a country which surrendered democracy years ago, no need any longer to hide it under placitudes. A country a lot stronger, and with more probability of being able to annex the rest of the world, than any of the regimes of Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Napolean etc.

I'm scared for my American friends and then I'm scared for the rest of the world, myself included.

I wish I could make them all vote, however they vote.

yours
Mab
xxxxx