of dialogues and polemic

i was asked in a message on my wall on facebook to remove the political postings i put on this blog and to post something warm and fuzzy. i'd like to write here about why i'm not going to do that. as i see it, a very big part of why i have grown up with strong political leanings is due to being a nachtigal. nachtigals are political and i know that some nachtigals are even republicans--why not be one if you can afford it, right? my dad always said that he was hoping and striving to be a republican himself one day...as soon as he had made enough money. we're still working on that in our branch of the family.

so, it seemed natural to me to write about politics and share political articles of interest on our family blog during this most important and historic election in at least a generation (certainly in my lifetime). the purpose of a blog is to be very immediate...so i shared my immediate reactions to videos and articles i saw as the campaign progressed. what i had HOPED would happen is that if other nachtigals reading this blog (all two of them) didn't agree, they would post something themselves and engage in an argument--presenting another side. because in this case, there was only one side that i could defend. i hoped that other articulate nachtigals, even if i disagreed with them, might at least post their reactions to my postings in the comments.

that did not happen. there could be a number of reasons:

1. no one is reading.
2. people don't care.
3. everyone agreed with me (unlikely).
4. the technology is beyond those nachtigals reading this blog.
5. people didn't have an opinion about this important election (i could scarcely make myself type that one).

i don't know what the reason was, but i will say that i am disappointed that no one engaged and even more disappointed to be asked to take down postings. this election is a part of all of our stories and to edit it out can only be an echo of what became acceptable to us during the past 8 years. 

i'd love to know what my fellow nachtigals are thinking and feeling about this election. so please, use the comments or send me a mail and i'll add you as an author on this blog.  what i'm thinking and feeling about it is a tremendous sense of relief and hope for the future. i can feel as well that my pride in being american (which had definitely been in hiding) is returning...i think that tomorrow when i'm standing in line at passport control in manila, i will not be hiding my passport away until the last minute as had become my custom. i don't feel ashamed to be an american anymore. and that's something special. 

i hope you'll share your reactions here. and i hope you'll also understand why i do not intend to remove any of the political postings i did here in the weeks up to the election.