I don’t usually comment or post about politics on this blog. In the last six years of writing this blog my political posts have only been a plea for people to get out and vote. Once again I encourage people do so. I will not be in the United States for most of the time leading up to the election. THANK GOD! Elections have always been contentious but this year has set a new low. We can blame it on the candidates but it is not really their fault.

Society is more polarized and angry that it has been since the Vietnam war and our political landscape is merely a reflection of how fractious and divided the United States has become. I have always felt guilty for the way we disrespected those who returned from the war in Vietnam but now the pendulum has swung the other way and if you don’t worship the flag and display your love of country many think you are not American. I yearn for simpler times when politicians were less controlled by lobbyists and Americans were less judgmental of each other’s actions but I recognize those times have passed. We are encouraged by social media to have an opinion about everything and correct and judge each other.

I realize like Roland Deschain that the world has moved on and I struggle to move with it. Once again i encourage you to vote and not to be discouraged. I know many people don’t even register to vote for silly reasons like they don’t want to serve on a jury or their religion prevents them from voting. So a nation that preaches democracy to the rest of the world and feels it has the right to take democracy to all has one of the lowest voter turnouts of any nation. This is shameful.

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Ted Kennedy and George McGovern in Pittsburgh 1972