-^-for posterity-^-

i spend my days explaining what happened in america a little less than a week ago. people are very curious why things turned out the way they did.

people ask me questions about what the american population is like, what they want. i, at this point, do not necessarily know how to respond.

one of the first criticisms of americans that i heard upon coming here was that we were an aggressive race, that we needed a leader who would be strong and would make war. i confronted this stereotype and talked about the hundreds of americans i knew who did not want to make war, who also knew peace. this eventually seemed to pass. now, i don't know what to say. i'm at a loss and wander back and forth in front of a classroom that doesn't seem to understand what my constant pacing means.

i continue and plod on. i have been away from america four of the last seven years and i may have simply lost touch with what the people of my country feel and think. i may have lost touch with what people want in a leader, what people need. i may not be able to see that a leader who hubristically invades and speaks of no failure may be what people back home want. i may not realize that a leader that claims to have no moral failing, though some may be evident, is truly what is right for my homeland.

is it also right for the world? does that matter?

am i wrong in seeing this as parallel to what happened in the mid 60's?