Letter From Cleveland

Letter from a woman in Cleveland re election results

"It would be difficult to fully communicate my
disappointment in a simple email. On the other hand,
slipping out into the hall and drowning myself in the mop
bucket would mean that someone else would have to feed my
dog.

Kerry has not yet conceded defeat, but I have. Even if
someone finds that crate full of votes for Kerry bobbing
down the Cuyahoga River, the American people have spoken,
and they have sent the world a message: "We're barely
bright enough to chew our own food."

Incompetence, incoherence, inarticulateness, pettiness and
random savagery apparently do not deter the majority of
Americans. The thing that really, REALLY matters to
Americans? Homos. And foreigners. Both must be stopped at
any cost.

Americans voted overwhelmingly in favor of bigotry,
amending state constitutions around the country to prevent
same-sex couples from having any rights beyond the right to
live on the margins of society. We clearly have far more to
fear from The International Homosexual Conspiracy(tm) than
we do from North Korea and the collapse of the American
health care system.

Apparently, we are truly a nation of slackjawed yokels,
awed only by grotesque displays of wealth and violence,
reverent only of the bossman and beholden not even to our
children, since we seem content to mortgage their future in
favor of a $300 tax refund that we have traded for decent
jobs, healthcare, and a just society.

We make pious noises about worshipping a Just and Merciful
God, while doling out destruction and horror upon the
innocent, pausing only to pat ourselves on the back for
waging a "just" war to rid the world of tyrants that
audaciously aspire to exist after they lose their utility
to us in endless low-level conflicts to control the world's
oil supply.

We seem to have become cheap, venal, vulgar and petty while
we apparently don't have the ability to reason our way out
of the dilemma of taking care of the sick, watching out for
the elderly, and teaching our children not to be credulous,
callow dupes.

To my friends from the UK, France and anyone to whom they
choose to forward this, I feel that I owe you an apology.
It is as if I have brought an orangutan to high tea. While
he flings shit at you and tries to snatch pastries from
your plate, I am left wondering how I might make it up to
you.

The world's richest and most powerful nation seems to have
lost its moral compass. We have lost interest in leading by
example in favor of taking by force. I would like to say
that I believe that one day in the future America might
regain its senses. Unfortunately, I am not terribly
optimistic. The best I can offer you is to remind you that
Nixon also won a second term".