My America

The lefty blogs, as well as Jimmy Breslin, the venerable NY columnist, are calling it for Kerry. I hope so.

Some have talked about leaving if Bush wins. I understand the sentiment, especially for those with draft eligible sons. But my inner warrior springs to attention:

I've been thinking of Russians and other Eastern Europeans under the Communists. People of great conscience and character survived oppressive dictatorships for fifty years. They had underground literature (samizdat press) and other networks to survive as human beings.

If those folks could hang on through Stalin et al, then I can hang on through four more years of Bush (although I believe I won't have to). My husband and I once briefly considered leaving, but damn it, this is MY country. I belong here, even if I am a left-wing, feminist, gay-friendly, ARAB-AMERICAN. Nobody is going to run me out of my home.

I'll stay and fight for the American culture I love: polyglot, tolerant, artistic, free-thinking, brilliant, scientific, creative and peace-loving. I have spent the twenty-odd years of my adult life in this culture, first in New York City, then in the SF Bay Area.

Hooray for hippies, liberals, human rights activists, queer agitators, artists, musicians, poets, actors, weirdos and cranks. I wouldn't trade my life in liberal, blue state, San Francisco California, America, for anything. So I'm staying, Bush or no Bush.

Long live the Free Republic of Berkeley-Oaklandistan! Long live our sister cities around the country! Madison, Chapel Hill, Brooklyn, Portland, Seattle, Austin, Boston - I salute you! True American values live on in these bastions of freedom. And even in more conservative towns, free-thinking souls thrive.

Comments

[Jonathan Edelstein]

I like your America, Leila, and I think it will survive. This country made it through the Cold War and Nixon, and it will also outlast Bush. I just hope the damage in the next four years won't be too great, and that it won't take too long to repair.