November 8 2008
Well gang, we’ve had a rather mind- boggling week in politics.
In 1790 there were 66 slaves for every 100 Europeans in the state of Virginia in the United States of America.
In 1860 Richmond, Virginia was the capital of the Confederate States of America, and slavery, as one might expect, was still very much in vogue.
This last week, Richmond and the state of Virginia voted to the presidency of the United States of America, a man whose father was from Kenya, Africa.
From the ashes of the Bush administration, that more or less alienated the rest of the world, the United States of America has risen to inspire celebrations of joy and goodwill that went beyond being the first of the western nations to elect a black man to that nations highest office.
These celebrations also told Americans that the rest of the world needs us.
Needs us to behave in a manner that is consistent with being Americans from the United States of America.
All men are created equal, democracy, freedom and all that jazz.
Well, not that the rest of the world doesn’t mean much, but more to the point, we need US to behave in a manner that is consistent with OUR birthright.
We shouldn’t do it to please the world. To make people like us. We should do it because that’s what we do.
We’re Americans, from the United States of America. Sometimes we lose our way. But given enough time, we still have the ability to pull our fat from out of the fire.
We still have the vote. And so far, it has worked for us. And we have to continue to make it work for us.
Hell, we don’t want to disappoint all those Europeans and all like that, now do we?

Till next week
Helga Biermeister
Secretary