Quiet Saturday Evening Thoughts

It's quiet in my house tonight. Eduardo went to sleep really early and Johan has been sleeping for the 2 past hours. First I took a long hot bath. Now I am hanging around on YouTube for the first time ever. A few weeks ago I caught the last few seconds of a Pink video on VH1 for "Dear Mr. President." This song is actually from 2006 but apparently has received very little airplay and I have never bought a Pink CD so I hadn't heard it. It actually features the Indigo Girls in the studio version, so I'm sort of surprised I didn't even know about it until VH1. Now I am watching the video on YouTube and it's powerful. I'm no music genius and my auditory palate is not particularly sophisticated, but the part toward the end when she repeats "Let me tell you 'bout hard work" sends chills down my back.

I'm glad people are writing these songs. The impending election has got me thinking about the past 8 years. A lot of great things in my personal life, but a lot of terrible things in the world. A lot of them directly and indirectly caused by this president. What's next for this country? Change. Listening to this song makes me yearn for real change so badly. Not just a change in parties. Not just a new president. Change that, for all the hope in the world, isn't going to happen in the next 8 years. Change like no nuclear weapons. Change like no 2nd class citizens. Change like no death penalty. Change like no homelessness. Change like no child abuse.

A country can come a long way. My parents were born in 1951 and 1952. That was before Brown v. Board of Education. That was before the Voting Rights Act. That was before Roe v. Wade. That was only 30 years after the passage of the 18th Amendment. Only 6 years after the end of Nazi Germany. The changes that have happened, both good and bad, since my parents were born make me wonder what will happen in the next 50 years. What will the world look like when Johan is 50? Will any of the changes I yearn for have come to pass? Maybe, maybe not.

Real change, though, is going to happen starting this year. Health care, war, economy, cooperation with other countries...Not everything I want for this country will happen by 2012, but I see a lot of potential for good out on the horizon.

I'm voting for whoever Pink is voting for. Go to YouTube and check out the video.