The Day After

I realized today that I have only ever lived in "blue" states: Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, New York, and New Jersey. Maybe that's colored my entire approach to life.

It was by no means certain that an Irish Catholic girl growing up in a household dominated by a conservative, Regean-loving father, was going to grow up liberal (in fact, I don't think I disagreed with my father about politics until I was about 17--very late in the game). It's hard to say how I moved from "red" to "blue," so I've been thinking about what it means to be "liberal" and what it means to live in the geographic area of the country I live in. I have a suspicion that the northeast is not like other parts of the country--a suspicion that seems to be borne out by looking at the election map. But what does this divisiveness mean for American? And what America do I belong to?

The whole idea that there are multiple Americas is disturbing to me. Or perhaps I mean that the idea that there are multiple Americas, but only one gets to determine national policy, is disturbing to me. We have no balance in this country, and I am afraid. Afraid of women's rights being eroded, or more soldiers dying in Iraq, or more hatred being aimed out the US because of our foreign policy, of people coming to harm because they do not have access to appropriate medical care, or even jobs. Maybe I've been insulated where I live--in a safe, relatively liberal pocket of the country and am out of touch with the country at large. But I bet, too, that if I talked with people in the rest of the country, got to know them, that they would seem like people and not "conservatives." People are complicated--no one can be labeled "red" or "blue."

But I'm still afraid and I don't know what to do. I guess I have four years to figure it out.