Friday, November 14, 2008

The Pain and Glory of Post Election



















Chalmers Johnson created a gruesome trilogy finishing with "Nemesis." His books, documenting in part the tragedy of the Bush years, are a brutal reminder of what many now will begin to forget... how very much was destroyed in my native nation America, and most pointedly in Iraq, these last eight years. As a healing pilgrimage I will drive tomorrow through the autumn forests of Kyoto prefecture to the small village of Obama, and bask in the pop naivete of my Japan. Last Sunday I had thrown a Obama party and in tearful optimism celebrated with an international gathering of friends and bar patrons the great election of 2008. My drive tomorrow will be one more salute to our bubbling optimism that has laid dormant for far too long. We here and eleswhere in the expat community have not been this happy for a very long time, and for those of us, who faced race riots in our youth and years of animosity and fear, these are again hopeful times.