Thursday, January 3

Caucuses - Wow!

Boy, I've never been happier to be wrong. It turns out, not only are the kids alright, but they also know how to get to the caucus. Nice! I'm really happily surprised to see a black man win Iowa by such a wide margin. I didn't really think it could happen until now. Regardless of where we go from here, it's nice to be here now, at least.

All day I kept thinking how beautiful it is that the way we choose our leader is by having folks stop by a school after work to be counted. In the week after Benazir Bhutto was killed while running for office, and while horrific election-related violence runs through Kenya, it's particularly profound to me that neither Mitt Romney's money nor Hillary Clinton's connections were sufficient to get them a victory. It's not money or a network that gets you elected, but the good judgment of the people (and by people, I mean, of course, Iowans). Obviously, the system isn't perfect. Not everyone votes, and not everyone can vote. Particularly egregious is the rule that merely growing up in Iowa isn't enough to let you caucus there. But our system is still beautiful because even when we disagree, even when we disagree strongly, there's no blood in the streets. God bless America.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a surprise the headlines were, to me, this morning! I concur with everything you have said here.

God Bless America, indeed.

Candice

Jess said...

well said! and i am so sorry about your break in - i just got a canon digital camera that i like - it is here:

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot-SD1000-Digital-Optical/dp/B000NK8EWI/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1199659628&sr=8-1