For My American Friends

I could easily look at the latest news about the freedom being stripped away from the citizens living across that fragile border and decide that it's a good day to be a Canadian.

I could. But, I won't.

I became aware of intensive blog life when I joined the huge "progressive" community of Daily Kos a couple of years ago and was quickly entrenched in the exciting run up to the 2004 elections. And, when Bush got the job of US president again, I witnessed the overwhelming emotional reactions that come with facing grief directly: the shock, the anger, the sadness, the depression. I don't know if that community will ever come to the acceptance stage or even if it should, considering the election improprieties.

I later moved on to Booman Tribune, a smaller community with just as much passion, that provided its members with a more intimate setting to deal with the world around them at a slower pace.

This year, I started my own little blog, but I didn't leave my American friends behind. Nor, could I. Week after week, month after month, as I engaged with people who were watching their rights erode around them and realizing that, as a Canadian I don't even know what my own government has really done in my name, I shared the horror of the effects of power grabs by a president who is so ultimately convinced that he is beyond any law that he is accountable to no one.

I saw his congress refuse to act on behalf of its citizens time and time again, stubbornly insistent that their leader was a man of integrity and honesty, believing that he should never be questioned - especially not during 'a time of war'. A war that is endless. A war that has given congressional men and women no cause to search their souls on any intimate level because they are so sure that they are being led by a man of principle even when all evidence to the contrary should have brought them to their knees, begging the forgiveness of the millions of patriotic Americans they had left behind - Americans who are now the majority and who have given up on trusting their own president because of his corrupt nature and actions. Men and women who try hard to hang on to their "party" - a party whose death should have been mourned long ago instead of being ignored.

If there had been a true concern for the fate of Republicanism or the Republic and what it is supposed to stand for, there should have been a revolt by now in congress. Instead, there's either been a guilty silence or a forceful attack at the opposition Democrats because they are the nearest target for this en masse projection of internal anger that Republicans feel about having their party ideals stripped away from them on a daily basis by their president. You can smell the desperation from miles away as these Republicans fight with everything they have to survive. It's pathetic, really.

And, so it is that there is a great amount of angst across the border because so many Americans feel absolutely powerless to change anything. Some have hope though and they are hanging onto it with every last fibre of their being, believing that the Democrats will actually regain power. But, at the same time, they also know that the Democratic machine is just as lost in the tangles of governmental institutions and traditions that attempts to reform things from within will actually take years, if not decades.

It seems, in the end, there is almost no one left to trust. In that environment, feeling safe and secure is a luxury. It shouldn't be.

That's why I can't sit back on this day and declare, arrogantly, that it's good to be a Canadian. I can't ignore how suffocating the once great country known as America has become. It's angered many, led others to the absolute depths of despair and for millions who just can't face the daily reality anymore, turning off what's happening to the country is as easy as switching off the television while they simply do what's put in front of them each day and hope that, someday, things will be different.

The only question left is when that "someday" will come - if at all. No one can know. So, we blog away each day until our fingers are sore or we're half asleep because we have far too much that needs to be said. And, we know that others will find some solace in sharing that sadness or anger with us because, really, that's all many of us can do in a practical sense. We know that the freedom that endures inside of us can never be taken away. That's what joins us together.