Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Breathe history......

Americans are obsessed with History......mostly because we don't have much, on a global standard. In Carmel, our oldest church doesn't make it past the American Revolution.....there are junior executives in England living in re-constructed churches a thousand years older......

Ancestry.com is one of the hottest websites......find out who, when and where your ancestors were from.....

Tonight a man of mixed ancestry was nominated to run for the Presidency of the United States. Someone to potentially hang with Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelts, etc.

When I was in high school in 1967, Barack Obama's mere existence was still a state crime in Virginia.....miscegenation......and Obama was already in day care. And this year, Obama won Virginia in the primaries.....and is poised to win them in the national election.

My best friend in high school, Steve Kinnaman......had a granny from Virginia who had a farm that still employed "darkies". She was still bitter at times and harked back to an era when the darkies were not so uppity.

So....take a breath everyone. A black man is in shouting distance of the Presidency. You are part of History.

Your descendants could look it up. They will find your voter registration card, and all the voter logs you signed when you voted, and which party you voted for.....on line. I am still thrilled....and creeped out....by looking at my Irish grandfather's draft card (he lived in South Central, and worked in a restaurant)......and Will Chesebro's great grandfather's draft card (he lived four blocks from my grandfather in South Central). In 1917.

Now.....Will works for me, and Brendan works for Will's dad in the winery.

So, our history will be completely transparent......You better fucking vote.......your great-great grand children will know you were a hung-over, lazy sack of shit a hundred years from now.....

Breathe the history....

In Europe......This is all dumb. Despite some flare-ups here and there.....like Bridgit Bardot getting fined for hating Muslims for killing sheep.....Europeans are miles ahead of us.

They all knew that George Bush was a fucking idiot in 1999. The worst part of a memorable hangover in November of 2000 in Italy for me was waking up and having to explain George Bush to a passel of Italians.

Europeans have known for years that Ford and GM are fucking idiots. For twenty years in Europe, you could drive cars with better handling, more props.....and double or triple the mileage of American cars ......all while the Big Three American automakers were fighting tooth and nail in Congress to delay better mileage standards for American cars.

This fall it was a huge victory to pass a law requiring 25 miles to the gallon in 2020......

Wow!

In Europe it was a joke. The law passed while Amanda and I were driving an Alfa Romeo 147 diesel five-speed through crazy mountains at crazy speeds with my foot flat to the floor for days at a time......at 50 miles to the gallon.

A car that actually laughed at me...... in Italian, Spanish and Catalan. When the temperature dropped below -5 Celsius and I continued to drive above 100km per hour the digital readout said: "Buen Suerte"!

Good Luck!

The news that GM and Ford are closing plants and firing people.......and discontinuing the Hummer......Europeans knew this ten years ago. The picture of Arnold driving a Hummer elicited the same reaction you get when you see a National Geographic foto of a Nubian sucking drinking wildebeest blood.

Ancient culture. Possibly cute. Kinda boring.

George Bush turned America into a Third World country......if we are generous. I am thinking Fourth World. Our medical services rank below Costa Rica, after all......I have trouble attracting kids from Spain to work for me because their parents are worried about medical care.

Meanwhile.......A black man was nominated for President? Get over it. Women running countries in Europe are almost achieving parity with men. Spain has a woman Secretary of Defense.

In Kitzbuhel, Austria in 1971....the mayor of the town had a super-hot daughter. She married a black GI she met in Munich on leave. The wedding was a huge social event. No one commented on the race of the groom. Not one person....once. In Arnold's home country.......37 years ago. And my boss at the hotel had been a guard at a concentration camp. He was happy for the young couple.....

Last January, everywhere that Amanda and I went in Europe we were accosted by people who took time out to tell us how important it was that America elect Obama. Some folks took time to actually grab my arm and shout in my face: a mechanic in a garage south of Roses in Spain.....and a sheep farmer in rubber boots at a traffic stop in Urepel, France.......1 km from the Roncevalles Pass of Roland fame.

I can't figure out why Americans think we are superior.......or why Europeans still look to us for leadership and guidance.

This whole Obama/Hope thing is not bullshit. Not in the world's eyes. There are people all over the world rooting us on and trying to partake of the energy of the moment.....

Breathe the history......

Your descendants are watching.......

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