I just updated the opening link to my last post, so that it leads to somewhere real, only to find that the somewhere real that it leads to has changed into something completely new. Um. Which just goes to show that life is ephemeral by nature, as are most of the things worth having in it.
Actually, it probably doesn't go to show that, at all. It probably doesn't go to show anything but that I need to learn to use blogger a little better. But I can pretend.
Since Wednesday, I've been seriously looking into viable ways for me to skip town...and country...and find myself a nice little job as an expatriate somewhere. Unfortunately nobody is hiring expatriates anymore, even slightly curmudgeony ones with keen senses of humor. So barring that, I've been looking into teaching English abroad. Which led me to, So You Wanna Teach English Abroad? which has some seemingly good advice for people looking into teaching English abroad.
Sadly, I think that I'm going to be here for a little while. I've been trying to convince the others in my theatre company that we should get up and move to Prague--if the price of beer is any indication, we could probably buy a whole theatre for a thousand dollars. Maybe ten. So far, they haven't bought it.
My friend Bonnie, having more or less (and more more than less) made up her mind to get out of this country, sent me this article. It contains lots of advice on how to expatriate, my favorite of which (and the sole reason Bonnie sent me the article) is this:
Imaginary nations
Perhaps the most elegant solution is to join a country that exists only in one's own-or someone else's-imagination. Many such virtual nations can be found on the Internet, and citizenships in them are easy to acquire. This, in fact, was the route most recently attempted by Kenneth Nichols O'Keefe, the unfortunate ex-Marine.
In 2002, my roommate and I, having realized that the U.S. government didn't really stand for anything we stood for, declared our apartment a new nation, called Xsnania (don't try to pronounce it...you will only fail). The basic idea with Xsnania was that all nations are imaginary--they only occupy the territory that groups of people have agreed upon, and their government only exists inasamuchas people agree their government exists. The only difference with Xsnania was that we readily accepted and embraced our imaginary existence.
Becoming a citizen is easy, by the way. It only requires drinking from a cup and repeating an oath after us. And it comes with the title of your choosing. Which is more than you can say for most citizenships of the world.
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I'm numb. I've been numb since Tuesday night. I was at work Wednesday when I got a text informing me that Kerry conceded. This led to my crying and being the messenger of the horrible news at work. The mood for the rest of the day was deflated. I got some interesting texts from friends that day, one of which said, "Ah, who cares about the environment when you can vote on 'moral issues.'"
Later that day, I was talking to my friend Chris, who said, "What upsets me the most about the election is that so many people in this country loathe me for being a lesbian and want to see harm come to me." I looked around at her and our friend Sam, and I replied quietly, "I think the same could be said for all three of us for different reasons."
I feel helpless. Completely. All the work I did for the environment when I lived in the south will be undone. It's already been eroded. Now it will be completely ravaged. Living in the south wasn't happy for me, but that was one thing I was proud of, something tangible, yet something way beyond that.
I, like you, wanted to move. Anywhere but here. I saw REM at MSG Thursday night. And, through my tears, Michael Stipe brought me some hope. Everyone at the Garden, while still depressed, suddenly rallied. Listen to "Cuyahoga:"
"Let's put our heads together and start a new country up
Our father's father's father tried, erased the parts he didn't like.
....Take a picture here, take a souvenir.
....Rewrite the book and rule the pages, saving face, secured in faith
Bury, burn the waste behind you.
This land is the land of ours, this river runs red over it."
Or, if my argument wasn't persuasive enough, listen to Bill Maher's. :-p "So Democrats and Liberals, stop saying you're going to move because Bush won. Real Liberals should be pledging to stay because Bush won. Trust me, you can't get away from Bush by moving to France because that's where we're invading next."
That last post was from me, btw. :-p
~Kim
Thanks for the comments, and the rallying cry, Kim. Truth is, I'm not going to flee the country, not so much because I feel my efforts are needed here--they're not; I can vote from another nation, and I can certainly protest effectively and write effectively from another nation--but because my life is here.
America's great, or could be, and I feel that the profound disappointment I feel in it almost constantly is the same as a parent feels for a child who consistently fails to live up to their potential. I find myself wanting to do everything in my power to make it see the light and get better. But right now, we have a government who genuinely doesn't think it needs to pay attention to what the populace wants it to do. And we have a populace that fears its government, rather than understanding that the government is there to work for them. And worse, they largely don't seem to care if the government works to make America a better place, so long as they can have their DVD players and Hollywood movies. That's what scares me about staying here. It would be one thing if I could say that I thought the American people were fighting against an oppressive government. There would at least be hope in the fight. But instead I see people descending into apathy, and that scares me. And this regime has gotten so far with the rhetoric of "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists," that I wonder how long I need to wait before the definition of the word terrorist includes open dissentors like me. I'd rather leave now and fight with words at a distance than find myself stuck in the borders on the day we openly turn fascist.
-matt
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