When the Leaving Is Good

I'm not a great fan of Barack Obama and for all his eloquent oratory, he has promised very little other than to have republicans involved in the process--the poor guy doesn't realize that a republican "involved" in the process is a republican attempting to hijack the process. But perhaps he will discover this over time. I was aware of it in the early 1980s, but he's young and has a lot to learn about the party that used to be republican. The fact that he's fairly smart gives me some some small hope, but my expectation is that he will be quickly coopted by his republican "friends" and four or eight years of Obama will look very much like four or eight years of McCain, right down to banning abortion and birth control, appointing federalist society (read "fascist") judges, a hundred years of glorious war in Iraq, and opening wide the effluent valves at the factory hog farms, the power plants, the refineries, and the chemical plants.

My very good friend is leaving for New Zealand next week. It's breaking my heart to see her go. She finally admitted to me that she isn't coming back--this isn't an adventure or a sojourn or an extended vacation. She is giving up. As Kurtz writes home to his wife in "Apocalypse Now," "Sell the house, sell the car, sell the kids. It's over. I'm not coming back."

I don't know what I would do in New Zealand or I might follow her. I actually have herded sheep, so I could do that. Maybe I'll head for Europe, where I might be able to translate for a living.

Who knows how long it will take the government to realize what's happening and begin to restrict people from leaving the country? The American way is to leave when the leaving is good. It's how we all got here in the first place.