Howling Winds

I woke up to howling winds this morning and with that the thought came that we are going to have another hideous winter of hurricane force winds.  Whoever doesn’t believe in changing weather patterns is simply in denial. 

       Which brings us to American politics.  We are on the eve of a very exciting and interesting election.  I was very much engaged in the previous election, particularly the Democratic convention which was of historic proportions.  Since American politics does affect Canada I’ve always watched with interest their elections. This time around the level of hypocrisy and outright lying is beyond anything I’ve heard in the past.  I wonder if Americans are so desensitized by their own process that they don’t recognize the lies, or do they just scratch the ballot like a lottery, come what may?

       Since I’ve been to the States but rarely I am not in tune with the American people, I don’t understand the way they think in a truly personal way.  I can only make assumptions based on what I see and read and what I gather from those I know who have lived and travelled in the States.  One of the problems of assessing Americans is that their population is ten times the size of Canada so the proportion is completely different.  America is also divided in sections to a much greater extent than Canada.  While Canada is a true melting pot of nationalities they are distinct in a way that America is not.  It seems as though whatever nation immigrates to America, they become Americans very quickly.  America must have a stronger sense of programming, though that isn’t quite the word I need to describe the assimilation process.  America has a stronger sense of identity and immigrants seem to want to embrace that identity in a way that our Canadian immigrants do not.

       When I watch 20/20, 60 Minutes or a Diane Sawyer special I find myself appalled at the conditions that Americans live in.  We don’t see anything like that in Canada though I have been on some aboriginal reserves that are pretty sad.  Not to say that we don’t have some run down conditions in some big cities but not the kind of squalor they show us in the Appalachian mountains for instance.  I know there are ignorant Canadians, but as I said, not anywhere like the numbers that there appears to be in America.

       What I’m trying to say is that while every fibre of my being says Obama should win, it’s anyone’s guess since America hasn’t figured out that Mitt Romney is not the friend of 99% of the America population.  America, you should really read some more statistics.