Very well said, Steve. I probably should have been a bit more clear
about my interest in the close vote.
After the 2004 election, and the gawd awful disappointment that I felt:
- That the dems would have such a horrid candidate
- That idiots would still vote for Bush
.. I started healing by looking for what was really happening.
I found this critter:
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2004/october6/
onenation-106.html
It pointed out that rather than being divided, we're not .. we're
simply centrist and that creates a close election by its very nature.
Look -- I understand our natural desire to consider "them" all
idiots. But we have family and friends who are "them".
I was just chatting with my friend Boni Armijo, who's dad/family own
Johny's Cash Store, across from our casita. We talked about the
election. Boni (who's also on the city's development council) was
clearly thoughtful about the election. Last time he voted for Bush.
This time, he's for Obama.
I *really* respect the Armijo family and the Rios family and others
who live in my neighborhood. They are considerate, thoughtful, warm
people. They have gently accepted my family into their town. They
have great good manners. Yet we here on this list consider them "them".
So rather than accepting fundamentalism as our great divide, I tend to
think we are very centrist, and indeed, this is likely the cause of
our close vote. Thus my quip on the Central Limit Theorem.
In an earlier post, it was assumed that I did not have particularly
wide experience of the "rest of us". I don't accept that. I was
raised in the south, with all the Bubbas. I worked as a kid on
construction gangs with "them". My last two years of high school were
in a Benedictine Abby because I was thrown out of all the high schools
I attended before that. I attended Georgia Tech. I met my first
yankees there. I spent two years in the Peace Corps in Ghana, West
Africa. I was humbled by their sophistication. I traveled widely in
Europe. I was amazed by their world. I went to grad school at
Syracuse, up state NY. I was busted for political activity. I've had
dogs set upon me for thinking differently. I tripped with Tim Leary.
I lived 6-8 years in a Buddhist community in Rochester NY. I rode
the .com boom/bust in Silly Vally. I attend St. Francis cathedral.
And on it goes. And I still find that "them" is "me".
-- Owen
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