The Election

On Saturday night I found myself downtown here in Burlington at a so-called undergrad bar with some old friends who were up for a night or two. The place was packed, as usual, and the smell of rancid beer soaked into wood and carpet had not been even remotely noticeable the last time I was in there; that was before the city-wide smoking ban had taken hold.
De rigueur, every television in the joint was tuned to one sportscast or another. It was somewhere around midnight and more than a few SoCo and limes in the bag that it dawned on me that the Iraqis would be heading to the polls to make it happen for the first time in 50 years. I went to the nearest television that was out of the direct sight of the bartenders and flipped to CNN to see what violence was going down. How many bombs had been detonated to deter the people. How many more innocents had been ruthlessly cut down in the effort to derail the will of the coalition forces and, indeed, the citizens of Iraq.
I was then struck by two things: First was that no one else in the bar came to look at the television with me. This was a room full of the future generation, the seed of what is supposed to be the world's most powerful force for democracy. I should not have been disappointed, but most certainly was anyway.
Second, I was stunned at the amazing lack of widespread violence in that war torn land that was so far away from a Burlington bar in terms of distance as well as importance.
Bittersweet was the mood then and it remains so now. The people of Iraq inspired me with their bravery and belief in themselves to the equal measure that our own people sadden and even anger me with their ambivalence.
There are so many things wrong with how and why we have found ourselves in this conflict in Iraq. If this is the battle of a generation for peace and freedom, where is the call to serve here at home? Where is the demand that we PAY ATTENTION not just to our pocketbooks but to our neighbors own welfare, local or global. The message of the administration is that freedom is hard fought, but not for us. We can change the world without leaving the comfort of our living room. We can spread freedom without having to spread justice. We can pick and choose what it means to be compassionate. Progress and understanding are goods that we are going to export without actually making them or enjoying them at home.

Today is certainly a day to rejoice in the power of democracy. At least it is happening somewhere.