I am an American citizen. I am also a German citizen. Because I hold dual-citizenship I am able to live in either the United States or any member country of the EU. I consider this a privilage and a blessing and for the past two years I have lived in the United Kingdom and will probably do so again at some point. However, about a month ago, I decided to move back to America. I fly home on the 6th of December. I made this decision for many reasons one of which is that I've been homesick for a while now. Yes, I love America. In fact, I miss America and I'll be damned if I'm going to let some yahoo in the Oval Office take that away from me. I don't hate anyone for voting the way they did and I'm not, as I've heard many people say over the last few days, ashamed to be American. What good would that do? I have wonderful open minded and amazing friends some of whom are Republicans. Shit. My parents, whom I absolutely adore, are staunch Republicans. I sure don't understand them 99% of the time but it makes for some damn good arguments! No, I'm not happy about these election results but I'm not going to sit around and complain about it. I'm not going to start pointing a finger and blaming groups, states, etc. even though I understand why that is incredibly tempting. I called in sick yesterday and spent a good portion of time joining various organisations fighting for rights which I now feel are in jeopardy (ACLU, NOW, HRC, NARAL). Why do I care about these kinds of things? I care because I don't want to see Roe v. Wade overturned. I don't want anyone to have to go through what a very close relative of mine had to go through over 30 years ago when she had to fly to Europe for an abortion. I'd hate to think what might have happened had she been unable to afford the hefty expense. Why else? Because it breaks my fucking bleeding liberal heart that two of my best friends who have been dating for 6 years can't be legally married because they're both women. I could go on but will stop because I'm getting worked up and that wasn't my intention. Last night I read her entry and all I could think was, right on. That's exactly what I've been feeling for the past two days. I realise that it's sad that it took this to push me to it, but it's time to act. So, I'm moving back to America in four weeks. I'm moving back to America and I'm more excited then ever. Maybe the next four years will cause people to act instead of just whine. Maybe this is the beginning of some real change. Maybe there are others out there like myself who realise that sitting around and whining is no longer good enough. Maybe in a few years time I'll be able to watch with pride (no pun intended) as my two female friends tie the knot legally. Maybe just maybe, this will be the swift kick up the ass that America needs.
