I know what I want to write about today but yesterday I promised myself that I would stay away from That Topic for the duration. I won’t change your vote and you definitely won’t change mine, so what’s the point?

I am not moving to Cananananada any time soon. Not because I don’t like Canada. I love Canada. I have a whole set of ancestors who did move there back in the mid-1800s from Scotland. Eventually some of them crossed over into the USA, which is [partly] how I came to be born in this country. I grew up on the Canadian border and I can see Canada from the moominbeach. I loved going to Canada as a kid. I remember walking onto the ferry to go to Canada and walking up and down Queen Street to shop at Eaton’s or The Textile Shop and eating pastries at The Girl In Red. After the International Bridge opened, we would often drive over to Churchill Plaza to eat at the Chinese restaurant there. None of us had a whole lot of experience with anything resembling Asian food but we loved it and I remember that my grandma Margaret (of Scottish heritage) used chopsticks for the first time as if she were a pro. The rest of us asked for spoons… Gotta scoop up that sweet and sour pork and rice, roight? We tried to make that dish at home but somehow it wasn’t the same.

I was doing email and whatever this afternoon and NPR was running in the background. What caught my ears was “Kalamazoo College”. Both of my kids graduated from “K” and, by the way, it is pretty hard not to graduate within four years at K unless you are not with the program. Fortunately, both of mine were with the program. NPR was interviewing a young woman there (a first-year) who said that she would explore the idea of moving to Canada if Romney won the presidential election. She wasn’t a stupid young woman at all but…

There are many reasons to move to a different country. If you don’t have enough to eat and there is no way for you to get enough to eat, even though you have a marketable skill, moving might be a good choice. If people are raiding your house at 3 AM to drag you in to some kind of detention center (or maybe just “disappear” you), moving might be a good choice. If you are marrying a Canadian or think you will have a better career there, go for it.

Moving there because Romney might win? Hey, I don’t want Romney to win either. I have some very serious concerns about Romney and the many Christian conservative misogynists who seem to be intent on taking over the GOP. But I am not going to move to Canada if Romney (ugh) wins (even though I *love* Canada and some of my ancestors came from there). I am gonna hang out here and try to help figure out how to get rid of some of the odiously extreme participants in both parties. And I don’t view Romney as an extremist, more like an empty suit who panders to whatever audience he happens to be talking to (or over or through). If nothing else, I *will* vote. Will you?

I guess I didn’t really stay away from That Topic. Sorry.

Love y’all,
Kayak Woman

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2012 at 6:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.